Gage and Sadie

Chapter 2: Gage

I didn't know what to make of her. Never had she shown fire and spirit like she'd shown me just now. When we'd been dating, she'd been nothing but sweet and mild. The first hint I had of her fire was the good-bye note she left me, but even that didn't come close to what she'd just displayed. No woman, not even my Olivia, had ever stood up to me like that, interrupting me before I could complete my sentences, slamming a door in my face, or refusing me something I'd pushed for.

After that, at 5 pm every day, a report on Sadie's activities for the past 24 hours hit my inbox. I'd discovered she was going to be an RA, so I'd maneuvered it so all the residents on her floor, under her charge, were women. Any male seen in her presence was vetted, and if he wasn't gay, he was encouraged to leave her severely alone. Whenever her lights went out in her dorm room, I received a text saying she was in for the night.

After that first confrontation, I'd tried to give her a car, but she'd refused, walking past my PA with her little nose in the air, all five feet two inches of her spitting and hissing like a riled-up kitten. I had to rotate fifteen men and women on her at all times to keep her from spotting her guards. Her penchant for public transportation or Ubers kept the team on their toes.

Strangely, I began to look forward to these reports every day, enjoying the details. Through those reports, she began to take shape and form as a human being, a real entity with thoughts and feelings, and not just some duty I felt responsible for simply because she bore my name. (Although, she never changed her name legally following our wedding, so she was still using her maiden name.) Sadie did something nice, every single day without fail, for other people. Despite her very limited funds, she paid for people's drinks, always stopped to give the homeless money or whatever food and drinks she had with her. She walked with the girls on her floor when they had problems and talked them over. She tutored the undergrad students she was responsible for and worked with them until they understood.

The campus security officer who watched her dorm all night was paid for by me, and I wouldn't admit to the relief I felt every night when she came home by herself. The dorm room across from hers also had a hidden camera in the wreath on the door that showed me if anyone went into her room who shouldn't and I had someone watch the camera feed 24/7.

Essentially, I spent the ten months after she left me stalking the hell out of my tiny little responsibility.