Banging Reaper (Pounding Hearts 1)

Four minutes to five.

I spin in the chair some more. Anything to keep busy. Anything to keep from fidgeting.

I can’t walk out the door until five o’clock exactly. It’s too risky. If I run into Andrew, he’s bound to give me more work. He seems to always have something ready to dump on me.

I still don’t know what I ever did to Andrew to make him not like me. I want to get along with him, I always have, but he just doesn’t like me. The moment our parents first introduced us, he shook my hand as if I had cooties. I suspect he may believe he’s too good for me.

My heart is racing with excitement, but all the spinning is making me dizzy.

AJ and I are going to meet at his favorite restaurant tonight. A little Italian place I’ve never heard of but he thinks it’s amazing. I’m so anxious I can’t even stomach the idea of eating.

Will he still like me when we meet face to face? What if he thinks the pictures I sent him were misleading? I did choose the best angles.

Three minutes to five.

If I was working for anyone else, I would so ditch out early. Jack and Andrew, though, have been keeping close tabs on me. I have to prove myself to them. Prove that I’m worth the loan I need to pursue my dream.

They don’t believe in me. It’s been clear from the beginning. My stepfather wants to keep my mother happy, it’s the only reason he even struck a deal with me.

One year of work. One year of my life, being the office lackey, and he won’t be able to refuse me. I arrive on time every day and I never clock out early. I do everything that is asked of me. I stay late. I have to prove myself by taking all the shit they shovel at me and I try to do it with a smile on my face. I won’t give them any excuse to deny me. It’s only one year of my life.

Sometimes it even feels too easy. But today. Today I want to break the rules just this once. Just this once I want to clock out two minutes early. I want to run as fast as my feet will carry me to AJ.

The door to my office squeaks open.

No, universe, no! You so cannot do this to me.

“Hey,” Andrew says, his voice fairly cackling with the glee of what he’s about to do. He gets off on my misery. “I’ve got this last stack that needs to be filed, ASAP.”

Seriously? The way he and his father ride me, you’d think the world would stop spinning if all the hard copies aren’t filed immediately.

They do it to ride me, they have to. I don’t want to believe there are people so anal that a stack of papers can’t sit around for one evening.

I don’t turn to him. I don’t want to look at his face.

“I’m just about to leave…” I say, my eyes glued to the clock.

It’s five o’clock exactly.

“You can leave once you’re done with these.”

I still don’t want to look at him. I don’t want to see what he has for me. But I have to. I clench my teeth and spin slowly to see what he’s brought me.

He has his coat slung over his shoulder as if he’s about to leave. He’s already loosened his blue tie at his neck. Five o’clock shadow stains his face. The irony.

Must be nice, I think bitterly, dumping work on someone else and clocking out on time.

He has a stack of files balanced on his hand that will take me at least another twenty minutes to file. My date is at five thirty, I need at least fifteen minutes to get to the restaurant. I’ll be late if I stay.

He waves the stack at me, his eyes glittering with mirth because he knows my pride makes me hesitate, but I’ll eventually suck it up and take it.

“Set them on the desk, I’ll get to them first thing in the morning.”

Normally I would just grab the stack and deal with it. But not this time. I’ve got to make this date. My happily ever after is on the line.

Andrew takes two steps towards me and dumps the stack onto my lap. I’m so shocked by his audacity I can’t even speak. My jaw hits the floor.