"What's all this about?" Sam asked with a hesitant laugh when he approached Rose at her desk. "Why are we sad?"
"Oh, no.. I'm good. Ready for your tour?" Rose winked. She desperately tried to remove any hint of sadness and pain from her face.
"But of course!" He winked back. Rose's heart skipped a beat as she carefully looked him up and down.
"Alright, so my group!" Rose started. "This is the A-Team! A-Team means anywhere.. literally," she managed a laughed as Sam smiled back at her. "We handle clients anywhere.. well actually, just New York, Pennsylvania, Jersey, and parts of Connecticut. This is my team, Isabelle and Mark!" She gestured toward her friends.
"Hello! I look forward to working with you both! My door will always be open!" Sam smiled as he shook their hands. The group sat in a sort of triangle, Isabelle was next to Rose and Mark was behind them— allowed for them all to talk and brainstorm easily.
Rose led Sam to the next group of cubicles, down the hall from her group. They passed an empty space, filled only with filing cabinets— that was hardly used. They got to the next 3-group of cubicles, "Sam, B-Team! They handle, Bronx, Brooklyn, and Boston clients! Jarred, Max, and Jamie!" They went to college together, though Max graduated a year before the others.
Sam shook their hands and followed Rose to the next group.
"You seem to know a lot about everyone," Sam smiled at her.
"Ha, I have been here the longest actually! Well aside from the management!" She beamed proudly as she led Sam down a short hallway, to another group of cubes that were sandwiched in between a line of conference rooms and a wall.
"We only have two people in this pod, but they are strong and mighty!" Rose said. "Sam, this is Gwen and Steve. C-Team.."
"Let me guess.. Connecticut?" Sam chuckled.
"Exactly!" They laughed back.
"Okay next, but not at all least.. D-Team!" Rose said as she began her walk across an empty area on the floor, with a vastness to it, one that could be filled with anything one wanted. Rose noticed Sam studying this space. "This used to be our lounge space kind of, but our old manager found out and made me take the stuff out," Rose sighed.
"Well I'm gonna have you put it back! It's good for the creative juices!" He smiled as he flicked his suit jacket back and stuck his hands in his front pockets, causing his biceps to flex under his fitted grey jacket, and Rose's breath to escape her for a moment.
"Oh.. that would be great! No one took naps or anything, just came for a change of scenery from their desks," Rose chuckled.
"Sounds excellent, I like it!" Sam smirked back.
"Right, D-Team." Rose cleared her throat and continued her walk. As soon as they walked past the open space, they were hit with two oddly-positioned cubicles. The two men who sat at them had them set up as if it were a giant cube— they were sitting back to back, with the longer the walls of the cubicles connected together, to the men's left and right side, respectively. "Sam, this is Jason and Grayson. D-Team."
"Hmm.. D-Team? DC?" Sam questioned as he shook the men's hands.
"Daaa Rest," Jason, a grey-haired man with a slight beer belly said, causing Sam to laugh.
"Amazing! I love it!" He bellowed with a clap.
"They handle any other clients that don't fit into any other groups," Rose said of her coworkers.
"Well it's great to meet you, gentlemen! I look forward to working with you two! My door is always open!" He smiled.
"And that's the tour!" Rose laughed. "I trust you were shown the bathrooms and kitchen?"
"Not the kitchen actually," he responded, puzzled.
"Oh no! So sorry, right this way!" Rose led Sam back towards the C-Team cubicles but took a left instead. Towards the end of hallway, was a large kitchen. It was wrapped with light blue cabinets, and included a full-size refrigerator and microwave. There were two tables inside as well, each with four chairs.
"So this is the kitchen! Feel free to use whatever you need! But make sure you label your food carefully, because people around here can get a little bit... peckish sometimes," Rose laughed lightly. She always found her laugh to be the contagious type— genuine and loud, carefree. She only ever laughed at work, or outside. She can't remember the last time she laughed at home, because her husband hates her laugh, finds it annoying. Rose is self-conscious of her laugh because of this, despite knowing other people like it.
"Good to know!" Sam reacted. "It looks good to me. Anything weird or special I should know about the kitchen or anywhere for that matter?"
"Hmm.. not that I know of, honestly! We're pretty open and honest here— nothing shady within the company and the kitchen is always cleaned!"
"Also good to know," Sam smiled as he ran is fingers through his perfectly done hair, before sticking his hands in his back pockets. "Well thank you for the tour Rose," his beautiful sky-like eyes met her mud-brown ones, and she noticed his pupils dilate ever so slightly as he stepped closer to her.
"You are welcome," she cleared her throat and avoided eye contact. "Do you need help find your way back to your office?"
"Hm.. a little bit I think," Sam responded with a slight chuckle.
"Oh sure!" Rose walked him to the door of the kitchen, and pointed down the hall. "When you hit the second wall of cubicles, turn right, walk past the large window and your office is the first one on the corner, catty-corner from my cube," Rose smiled.
"Thanks Rose. See ya back there," his voice echoed throughout the spacious kitchen. Rose had to brace herself on the nearest table as the butterflies filled her entire body, and her legs weakened for a moment.
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Rose walked into the lobby of her building and looked down at her watch, "fuck..." it was 6:40, Mike expected her home between 6:20 and 6:30. She started to panic as she hit the elevator up button faster and harder, desperately trying to get it to arrive back down from the forth floor.
Her destination was floor six, and she had two more floors to go when her heart raced faster. She ran out of the elevator and toward her condo down the hall, 6-C. She grabbed her keys from her bag and frantically put them into the keyhole of their large black door.
She emerged and quickly dropped her bag and coat off at the coatrack standing right inside the door, against the pantry. "Honey.." her voice was unbelievably shaky. "I'm home." She breathed, trying not to appear as though she'd been running. She didn't hear anything at first, so she thought 'maybe he's taking a nap on their second floor and wouldn't know anything'... Rose was wrong.
"Where in the god damn FUCK have you been?!" He screamed as he grabbed her right arm, seemingly coming from nowhere.
"The train was late Michael.." she sniffed, trying to keep him calm.
"TWENTY MINUTES?!"
"No. But, it made everything else late.." there was a twinge of attitude that Mike picked up on.
*SMACK*
Mike's hand made contact with Rose's face, and she winched in pain for a moment before reaching it up to rub the spot with her free hand.
"DO NOT SPEAK TO ME THAT WAY...." he screamed and his smacks turned to punches, as he unleashed his bad day on her face. She winched at the pain, as tears rolled down her face. No matter how many times he beat her, it still hurt just the same. One final blow came in the form as a kick to her stomach, and Michael left her on the floor to suffer in silence. As he always did. He was either going back to his office or the corner bar.
The floor she lay on was bamboo hardwood, and not exceptionally comfortable for a bed, so Rose got herself up and brushed her clothes off before walking back to grab her bag from the coatrack. She texted Isabelle back before walking toward their large fridge, to grab and ice pack and make herself some dinner.
As she cried over her bowl of soup, she couldn't help her mind's racing thoughts. Thoughts that were of her new boss, and only her new boss. She pictured his blueish green eyes, looking down at her, she pictured his perfect jaw line, and they way he laughed at her quirkiness. She smiled to herself, as the tears stopped flowing and she could taste the soup, not her own blood.
She felt not one drop of guilt for this fantasy. She was never in-love with Michael, and hasn't loved him since before they got married. It was a lonely, loveless marriage. Filled with pain and emptiness.
———————————————————————
Rose was laying awake, the clock on her right side nightstand read 1:30am, and Mike still wasn't home. She was thinking of her boss again, as she starred out the bedroom window toward the streetlight below her.
Just as she rolled on her left side to try to get some sleep, Mike came home.
"Oh, hello. Everything okay?" Rose asked as she propped herself up on her right elbow after she rolled back over.
"Fine," Mike growled as he ran towards the bed. Rose expected him to just jump in next to her, as he always did. He didn't this night.
He jumped and landed on Rose, "baby.. I'm sorry for earlier. Being at the bar got me in the mood," he said as he kissed her neck. His words were slightly slurred.
"No.. I'm tired." Rose said as she fought him off slightly.
"I DON'T CARE!" He yelled as he grabbed her chin and aggressively kissed her and worked to pull her shorts down.
"Get off!" Rose screamed as she scratched at his face.
He yanked her shirt over her head to fend off her blows. "BITCH!" Mike slapped her hard, as he bit down hard on one of her breasts.
"AH! NO!" Rose squirmed and begged as Mike was able to fully pull her shorts down and started to stick his erection into her. "STOP!" She yelled as she tried to kick him, but she was met with a punch.
She felt her husbands penis thrusting in and out of her, against her will as she was held down by him. He hasn't raped her in a long time— so it was awful.
She just focused her gaze out the window, and prayed for it to end soon. When it did, Mike passed out on the floor, and Rose walked to finish her slumber on their couch.
When she awoke in the morning, there was a card on the counter:
'I'm so sorry for hitting you baby. Thanks for helping me out last night, it was good.'
Rose gagged in disgust as she threw it in the trash— she stopped believing that bullshit a long time ago.
She knew that she was in an abusive marriage, but she literally couldn't leave. She would have nothing. He controlled everything. She didn't have a plan because any plan she thought of required money, money that she had no way of getting.