Page 34 of Together We Burn
“Unless the news was that you've got an incurable disease and the likelihood of me having to see you again is unlikely, I don’t really want to know.” She paused, sighing heavily. “I’m sorry. That was a bit uncalled for.”
I was speechless for a moment. Stefany never apologised for her actions or her abrasive tongue. Shaking myself out of my stupor, I cleared my throat.
“I finally made my drug.”
Silence fell on the other end of the line as I waited for a reply.Anythingthat showed she heard me.
“Wow,” she breathed, letting out a small laugh. “I can’t believe you did it.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I replied, but my tone didn’t hold any weight behind it. I was just as shocked as she evidently was.
“No, I mean…Shit.” She sighed again, and I could imagine her running her hands through her hair. “I just know this was a big deal for you. Thanks for telling me.”
I smiled. “You were the first one I wanted to know.”
We were quiet again for several moments until she questioned. “Jake?”
“Hmm?”
“Don’t let Will fuck you over.”
“That sounds like you care, Stefany.”
I heard her scoff before saying, “Don’t flatter yourself, asshole.”
Another pause.
“Jake?” she hesitantly asked, and I could hear her breath in deep. “I’m proud of you.”
“Thanks, baby.”
Then the three disconnected beeps sounded in my ear.
I lowered my phone and pressed it to my lips, completely zoning out, when a hard thud pounded on my office door and dragged me away from her last words.Stefany was proud of me. I knew I was wearing her down.
Focusing back on work, I placed my phone on my desk and searched for a USB to save the data to. I opened my top drawer, pausing as a letter addressed to Stefany looked back at me. I lingered on it, forgetting her dad had given it to me.
The man had been relentless, begging and begging for a meeting with his daughter. He never disclosed how he knew we were together, but when he developed some sort of weird stalker qualities; turning up to my office, the coffee shop, a block from my apartment, I wasn’t exactly on board with him seeing Stefany after that.
Knowledge is power, and I knew the damage one minute in his company could do to her. So when it became clear I would not facilitate a “family reunion,” he accosted me with the letter.
It had been the day of the work picnic and I had been so close to tasting my girl for the first time. Her legs had been spread, her arms held behind her back like such a good girl, and her pretty pink pussy glistening with her arousal when the asshole pulled up alongside me and demanded an audience.
I had been furious, mydickhad been furious, and as a result, I’d left Stefany to make her way home by taxi rather than ensure she was safely dropped off at her door.
The flicker of hope that had formed following my brief conversation with Stefany was snuffed out as the black ink laughed up at me. I didn’t know what the letter said, but knowing that Stefany’s father was a bastard, it couldn’t contain anything good.
I slammed the drawer shut as Victor and Alton shoved the door open and pushed their way inside, acting like frat boys instead of professional scientists.
I really needed to get a lock for my office.
“Jacob. The man of the hour. C’mon, we’re finishing early. Time to celebrate,” Alton boomed with a million-megawatt smile plastered across his face. Glancing down at the phone I had strangled in my hand, and the deep frown embedded across my brows, he asked, “Oh, sorry. Are we interrupting?”
“No,” I said more forcefully than I’d intended.
“What crawled up your ass?” he asked as he went and helped himself to a drink while Victor sat on one of the two chairs opposite my desk.
“Nothing.”
