Famished by Meghan O'Flynn (most popular novels txt) 📖

to the parking lot. Security will assist you.”

The color drained from Turner’s face. “But… I haven’t had any complaints since I’ve been here. I have a wife, two kids. There must be a mistake.”

I averted my eyes, hoping he’d think I was giving him time to process, but my motivations were selfish: I needed to focus on something else before my heart blew up. In the middle of the desk was a corner of paper I must have torn from the folder earlier in a subconscious attempt to curb my anxiety. Across the top of the desk, the three ceramic owls that usually stared at me quizzically were glaring like I had shit on their waffles. My favorite was a horned owl missing an ear. I had stowed the ear in a desk drawer, intending to glue it back on, but had since decided I rather preferred his one-eared imperfection. Plus, it made him look less smug.

“Is there anything I can do?” Turner’s voice cut into my owl assessment. “If I understood the problem…”

I blinked. His frustration was palpable, his fists clenched, and I resisted the urge to duck. A bruise on my arm throbbed.

You’ve got this, Hannah. You’re okay.

Turner’s eyes flicked to the security guard.

I followed his stare, relieved to see we had Jerome’s full attention. Jerome always made me feel safer, like he could somehow shield me from anything that might come through the doors. If only he could protect me from the psychos in my past. My heart lurched drunkenly against my breastbone.

Jerome approached the cubicle. “Mr. Turner, you will have to come with me.” His voice was the texture of wet silk.

Turner stood slowly.

I pushed the papers toward him. “I need your signature at the bottom of this form.”

Turner signed it, barely glancing at the few lines of text, and walked from the cubicle toward the main doors. In seconds, he was eclipsed by Jerome, the guard’s gleaming bald head the sun to Turner’s gray misshapen moon.

I took a few deep breaths. Human resources wasn’t the perfect job for me, but the guards and the locked entrance made it safe enough. And it was far, far away from…him.

Lovers ain’t nothin’ once they go south. I couldn’t remember where I had heard that, but it was more poignant than most of the nonsensical songs about true love and happiness and beauty and bullshit.

I looked at the clock in the lower corner of my computer screen. Half an hour. Would my chest palpitations ever relent? Maybe I should pound on my breastbone, gorilla style, to subdue my heart. But I’d just end up looking like an idiot.

“Hannah?” Noelle leaned over the partition. Her blond hair floated in silk strands over blue eyes and full lips, made even more supple by pinkish gloss. Men followed her with their eyes, if not their actual penises.

Even I couldn’t help staring at her sometimes.

I forced a smile and moved my hand from my chest to the desktop before Noelle thought I was playing with my boobs.

“I’m going to grab a coffee, then take some dismissal forms back to the filing room,” she said. “Do you have any more?”

“Sure do. I’m the most popular person here today. As long as popular means everyone wants to punch you in the throat.”

Turner’s dismissal papers required my signature as the bearer of bad news. It was like signing a death certificate as if before that moment, nothing had happened that couldn’t be taken back. Adding the final signature always made me feel like the biggest douchebag. Maybe coroners felt like that too, with their endless parade of dead-on-arrival cadavers.

I scrawled my name on the form.

Rest in peace, Turner.

Stop thinking crazy shit and say something.

I looked at Noelle. “I like the pink gloss, by the way. It looks like you blew a dude made out of cotton candy.” Crisis averted.

“Cotton candy doesn’t talk back. Hey, you going to the company picnic tomorrow?”

“Oh…yeah, I think so.”

Noelle squinted at me. “What’s up with you? You look like someone just killed your dog.”

“I don’t have a dog.”

“Something happen with Jake?”

I pulled my sleeve over my wrist, folded the cuff into my palm, and tucked my fists into my lap. My sweaty handprint remained on the desktop.

“Did he find a job yet?”

Is littering the house with fast food wrappers a job?

Noelle stared at me.

“No. It’s not Jake. It’s just…this.” I nudged Turner’s termination papers on the desk.

Noelle nodded, her silver earrings swinging. “You want to go out somewhere tonight? It’ll take your mind off of it.”

“Nah, I told Jake I’d be home early.”

Noelle’s eyes darkened, and my breakfast skittered around in my stomach.

“Soon, okay?” I said.

“Sure. Here, I’ll take those papers.” She smiled, and I watched her go, swaying her hips to unseen music.

I turned back to my computer and glanced again at the clock. Twenty more minutes and I’d be on my way home to the man I loved, or at least, was pretty sure I loved. And he loved me back, as long as I didn’t make him mad, which happened more than I wanted to admit. But he was the lesser of two evils. No matter how much of an asshole Jake was, he wouldn’t kill me. That had to be enough since I couldn’t take Jerome home. Maybe I did need a dog. Not a Chihuahua, though. Those things are yappy jerks.

I set my jaw, pulled the keyboard closer, and went back to work.