My Enemy Next Door

She and Emily could listen to my entire conversation for all I cared.

It rang once.

It rang twice.

"Oh my god, I was worried that you weren't going to call back!” Ashley answered.,

“I almost didn’t,” I said. “What do you want, Ashley?”

“I want you to know that I recently left my new therapist's office,” she said. “We had a nice, long chat about taking responsibility and owning my past. It lasted four hours.”

“Good to hear that you’re putting the settlement money to work on something other than expensive handbags and posts for Instagram.”

“I feel like we deserve a second chance together,” she said. “Our type of love was something most people will never experience. We lasted too long to walk away from it.”

“We were married for a month, Ashley. One month.”

“It’s a month that I'll always cherish.”

“You slept with two of my interns a week after the honeymoon.”

My audience of two blushed and whispered, finally rushing out of the room.

“For the umpteenth time, I didn't mean to do that,” she said. “It was a spur of the moment thing, and that has to count for something.”

“Part of our dissolution agreement is that you won't contact me unless it’s for something life-threatening, Ashley,” I said. “If you reach out to me again, I'm calling the judge and you'll lose the money I gave you. Are we clear?”

The sound of her ending the call gave me the only answer I wanted to hear.

“Are you ready to meet your potential new team, Mr. Hudson?” Mr. Walsh peered his head through the door.

Not at all. “Absolutely."

Chassie

Present Day

Manhattan, New York

Later that morning

“His cock slides between my lips, long and thick,” I whispered into the personal microphone that I kept in my office. “Inch by inch, I take him all the way down my throat. He grips my hair and guides me back and forth against his length. Then he—”

“Really?” Sebastian walked into my office, cutting my narration short. “I tell you that I need to see you once you get settled in, and you decide to go for an audible quickie?”

“Sorry.” I tucked the mic into a drawer. “What’s the long, depressing story you want to tell me?”

“I think that karma is making me invisible and replacing me with someone else.”

“What?”

“Hear me out.” He shut the door, looking dead-ass serious. “When I walked into this building today, none of the secretaries looked up at me like they usually do. They were blushing, but not for me.”

“Did I already give you that A Study in How to Be Less Conceited DVD?”

“Twice.” He didn’t crack a smile. “After that, I went to the coffee bar downstairs and the barista charged me full price for my coffee instead of giving me a discount and an invite to her apartment later.”

“You never take her up on that anyway.”

“She didn’t even offer to give me one of her home-cooked muffins.” He looked somewhat distraught. “She can’t bake worth a damn and her concoctions always look like burnt vaginas, but I look forward to her offering me one every morning.”

I gave him a blank stare.

“There is another man here,” he said. “Another man who is taking my spot as the main attraction.”

“Okay.” I clasped my hands atop the desk. “I’m getting you a third copy of that DVD for your birthday this year.”

“Mr. Walsh is currently preoccupied with him right now,” he said. “The guy has fallen straight from heaven and according to all of the whispers I’m hearing, he’s ‘Mr. Fucking Wonderful.”

“Right.” I sipped my coffee. “So, you’re upset because every woman here isn’t fawning over you like usual?”

“Yes.” He nodded. “It honestly hurts.”

“Who is he?”

“Some hotshot from Seattle, apparently.” He leaned against my desk. “Walsh brought him in for help on the Wyatt & Bing case.”

What? “You mean, my case?”

“Yeah. The case you’ve halfway worked on since you’ve been too busy recording all those naughty tapes at night.” He crossed his arms. “Don’t worry. I told him that you’re having personal issues, and that’s why you’ve been slacking lately.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but it was no use.

“Slacking” was the generous way of saying it. I’d worked three hours to one when it came to the audiobooks versus my legal work for the past few weeks.

Okay, months …

“It’s not my fault that the top authors keep requesting me,” I said. “They love my voice, and I love that they pay really well.”

“Why don’t you just take a hiatus and work on the audiobooks full-time?”

“I’m too scared,” I said.

“I’ve seen the checks you’re getting.” He shook his head. “I wouldn’t be scared about shit if I were you.”

“The entire book industry could all go under in a heartbeat,” I said. “If I quit and that happens, I could end up depressed and living in the past like my dad.”

“Your dad is a simp who takes way too long to get over any women he falls for,” he said. “No offense.”