“Yes, ma’am.”
Lara hoped that was the last of seeing any help that night. As soon as she had her dinner waiting for her on a small table in the primary suite, she switched on one of her favorite TV shows and enjoyed it until she was full and happy enough to go about her business.
She slipped into something more comfortable, which amounted to a thin white T-shirt and cotton shorts, topped with a red silk robe that was more style than function. It mattered little to her. Her body ached from the trials of the day, and if her damned spouse would respond to her texts, she could find out if she should take a bath without her or wait.
Damnit, forgot my seal.She was in the midst of gluing invitations together for a soiree she was throwing at the beginning of February, shortly after returning from her second honeymoon. She paused the TV and shuffled into the hallway. Her office was a few doors down, and she was sure that’s where she had last left her seal.
Unfortunately, Kennedy’s office was another stone’s throw away from her office. This meant she had a fantastic view of her open door and the light spilling out.
She’s home?That was annoying, if only because she never texted Lara, and nobody came up to inform her after she explicitly asked them to do so.I need to hire new help. And a new spouse. Huffing, Lara marched down the hall, bypassing her office to head straight to Kennedy’s.
She caught Chloe going through the locked drawer. A key dangled from her fingers.
“What the!” Lara suddenly became three times as large, overtaking the office doorway the moment Chloe freaked the hell out. She slammed the desk drawer shut, locking it with no more finality than Kennedy ever did. “What the hell is going on here?”
They came to an instant impasse. Lara, finding the help going through her wife’s belongings; Chloe, caught with a key hanging from her hand. Her face was so pale that she looked almost spectral.
“Mrs. Anderssen…”
“That’s right.” Lara found her bearings and approached, not giving a shit if her robe slipped open and Chloe saw the boss’s bouncing tits beneath a thin white T-shirt. “Mrs. Fucking Anderssen. Care to tell me what the fuck you are doing here, little girl?”
Chloe really did look little and girlish. She looked like a teenager caught sneaking out, or a small child caught peeking a look at the gifts beneath the Christmas Tree. But she wasn’t a child. She was a grown-ass woman. A grown, sexualized woman caught going through the mistress’s belongings.
Or had that key been given to her? Not even Lara had a key to her wife’s desk. She knew where to find it, but had never been given one…
“I’m so sorry… Ms. Anderssen told me to…”
“Told you to what? Oh, I bet this is rich.” Here it was. Here came the confession. Chloe couldn’t deny it any longer. Either she was up to something too nefarious for words, or she was cheating with Lara’s shit of a spouse.
“She told me to pick up and drop things off here. I’ve been helping her with a project.”
“What project?”
“I’m so sorry!”
Lara was no match for how tiny this girl was. Chloe was able to slip easily past her, bolting into the hallway with the key stillclasped in her hand. No matter how loudly Lara called after her, she could not convince the girl to stop, confess her sins, and meet her fate.
You’re kidding me!
Lara went into her wife’s office, slamming the door behind her.I will expose this asshole.She went to the coat closet full of tax files and receipts. There, on the top shelf, was an inconspicuous box where Kennedy kept some valuables. Sure enough, Lara quickly found a tiny ring of keys, one of which was sure to go to her desk.
I may regret this, but I don’t care. Lara tried one key after the other, crouched low between desk and office chair. No matter which key she tried, however, nothing budged the lock.
Not until she reached the second-to-last key, which snapped everything open.
Lara gasped, mentally preparing herself for whatever she might find. Love letters? Dirty books? Presents exchanged between adulterer and mistress? Whatever was in here, it was not meant for Lara’s eyes… but for some reason, Chloe was more than invited to partake.
That alone was enough to give Lara the strength to pry it open.
She looked upon a mess of books and papers. Neatly organized, yes, but a mess, nonetheless. Piles of Kennedy’s stationery, neatly covered in her handwriting, stared back at her. Spiral-bound books and what looked like a manuscript were crammed into the corner. Everything was covered in colorful sticky notes, some of them with Kennedy’s handwriting, and others with what looked like… Chloe’s.
What the fuck?Lara pulled out the top stack of papers. They were neatly creased in the middle, the perfect size of Chloe’s bag that she packed around the house when she went about her job. They even smelled like her, if that was possible. Sureenough, Lara found a pink sticky note on top, written in girly handwriting.“This is really beautiful!!!”
“I’ll show her a beautiful bruise…” Lara ripped off the note, crumpled it in her hand, and began reading the sordid love letter her spouse wrote the maid.
“The first time I met my wife, I thought I was crushed by the weight of the universe and sent to the afterlife. That’s because she looked like a glamorous angel come to deliver either very good or very bad news about my soul’s fate. Instead, she came up to me and asked if I knew where the women’s restroom was. She was one of the only women there, which should have tipped me off regarding how deliriously intelligent and bullheaded she is.”
What the hell?