The rest of the day went by in a state of unbearable tension. Karen thought she would be above it, able to tune it out, but Fergus eventually sauntered back in to sit… somewhere close, following every instruction with only mild and occasional ineptitude, like he had before yesterday.

And yet she couldn’t get a read on him.

The young man who had made her breakfast and provoked such… sensations that had her chest fluttering begrudgingly all morning was… gone. Perhaps she had reacted too strongly.

He fed her coffee, water, or her liquid lunch when asked, and around midday he picked her up when she wanted to give her butt a break. This was requested without ulterior motives, but it was something she wouldn’t have dared to ask even yesterday, so Karen knew it could be misconstrued — a part of her wanted it to be misconstrued — but there was nothing extra, no wandering, teasing hands like at breakfast, no desperate fumbling grip like yesterday. He held her more firmly than Eva, but no less gently, respectfully.

Again, Karen reconsidered her earlier sharpness.

The torso squirmed in his hands and asked to get back to work.

Her once-hapless assistant usually offered these pitiful little smalltalk attempts, non-sequiturs she couldn’t even give the time of day, since she knew how slow his thumbs were. Today he offered nothing until it was almost five, almost time to leave.

So am I going to have to spill coffee on you again to ask you out to dinner?

“What do you mean?”

I would like to take you to Dorsia tonight.

Finally, after a whole day of unease, silence, cool professionalism unlike ever before, this is what Fergus had in mind? To parade her in public?! This man— this boy, was fucking dense, selfish, indecipherable. He didn’t even understand what he was asking of her.

The torso squirmed in her seat, wondering if her distaste was visible.

“That’s a terrible idea. Literally every reason to go would be lost on me.”

Karen waited for his response for a heartbeat and a half before deciding she wasn’t interested regardless. He didn’t have a chance to type two words before she added:

“Will you make sure Eva has no problem getting in?”

That was that. Fergus would know Eva had a keycard. He would know she was dismissing him. He likely stormed out the door, petulant boy. The feeling of his cock last night filling her was a reminder he was hardly a boy, but Karen was pissed, and whatever had made him dream up such a stomach-turning idea, that’s not what this was.

‘A date out at Dorsia,’ what a joke! She wouldn’t subject herself to that many eyes, ever. And not with a junior-fucking-associate one-night stand.

Eva arrived at 5:30 precisely, as always, to pick Karen up — literally. It was always good for morale when a manager left last, but the true purpose was to reduce the number of eyes on her young assistant holding the middle-aged torso and walking her to her car. That’s why she was horrified to feel the subtle vibrations and palpitations of Eva talking and laughing while in her arms.

“Eva, who is it?”

The laughing stopped, followed by a jostling of the compact human luggage the carer was holding to get her phone out. Karen felt a bout of vertigo flare up, along with fully-justified fear of heights.

“Don’t you dare drop me!”

One delicate hand gripped her buttcheek a little too firmly, slipped, then suddenly she was passed into another pair of hands!! What the—

Fergus is here. Making sure you weren’t left alone. I think we should go back to using the wheelchair, maam.

A woman texts, while a man holds a headless torso in the background.

Eva, Karen, and Fergus 'heading' down, illustrated by Gammatelier

Held firmly in his arms as he walked… then waited… then felt the sudden rush of the elevator descending… Karen realized she was leaning into him tightly as her stomach turned, hopelessly disoriented. It was only once they had finally ceased falling that Karen felt a tight, confused ball of emotions in her gut. He had waited… but it was his job… but he waited.

Was it for her, or to talk with Eva again? Maybe the two had hit it off that morning, she couldn’t know. Karen couldn’t believe she was jealous of her carer, but she felt so irrational lately, her pinhole lens to the world so clouded and uncertain!

One thing was certain, Fergus wasn’t going to allow her to scare him off.

Karen held strong that entire walk, but as soon as she was firmly secured in her car-seat in Eva’s backseat, and the young man’s hands left her, and the slight compressive pulse of the door closing shut vibrated through her, it felt like a full stop at the end of a long, disjointed sentence.

It couldn’t have been more than two blocks before she was talking, thinking in Fergus’ general direction.

“Isn’t Dorsia from that movie about the serial killer?”

Dont text driving.

I’m not driving, in case it wasn’t obvious, so I’ll talk all I like. Just pull over.

I am off the clock, Ms Clyne.

Oh, so she was Ms Clyne now? Karen tried a few more times but knew it was no use, relegated to enjoy her quiet, dark, rumbling ride home in incessant peace. Whatever outlet her thoughts had was left buzzing on his dashboard.

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