Don’t Let Me Break by Linda Verji

 

 

CHAPTER 10

 

Marley lingered in Sebastian’s thoughts the whole weekend. So many things were off about the woman that it was no surprise that she was all he could think about. However, her odd personality changes were what had him most confused.

By Sunday evening, he’d come up with a theory and was about sixty percent sure that he was right about what was going on with Marley. However, he planned to watch her for a little while longer before firming his conclusion.

On Monday morning, he headed to work.

He was driving into the parking lot when he noticed Marley and two men, a bespectacled curly-haired Latino and a blasian with platinum hair, were gathered around her car. Sebastian parked his SUV about two cars away from them.

He got out of his car and headed their way. As he came up behind them, he could tell that this was the subdued version of Marley. It was in the way she was dressed; black t-shirt, black pants, and black sneakers. It was in the way she held herself; shoulders slumped and arms protectively crossed over her chest. It was in the way she watched quietly as the two men spoke among themselves.

The trio didn’t notice Sebastian as he closed in on them. They were too busy studying the driver-side window of her car. Courtesy of the Thursday night attack, there was no glass there. Someone kind had secured the window with a black polythene bag. However, the glass would definitely need replacing.

“At least it’s just the window,” the platinum-haired gentleman said. “You can get that fixed easily.”

“My brother runs a shop,” the curly-haired Latino offered. “He can check it out for you.”

Looking worried, Marley asked, “It won’t cost a lot, will it?”

“I can get him to give you a good deal,” the Latino said. “Maybe you can even work out a payment plan.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Sebastian cut into the conversation.

Immediately, all three turned to face him. Surprise flashed in all their faces. However, Marley’s surprise was immediately replaced by fear. Sebastian could’ve sworn that he heard her heartbeat speed up and her breath emerge in a gasp as her eyes met his.

Her fear was no surprise. Anyone in her shoes would be worried that he was going to confront her about her behavior over the weekend in front of her coworkers.

“Hi, Mr. Levy,” the Latino was the first to greet him.

“Please, call me Sebastian.” He smiled. “And you are?”

“Eugene Martinez,” the Latino introduced himself. “I work camera for About Home.”

“Zion Phasuk,” the platinum-haired young man introduced himself. “About Home too. I’m an intern.”

The three men turned to Marley, waiting for her to introduce herself. But she was clearly still in shock. All she did was stare at Sebastian with those large eyes that reminded him of a frightened deer caught in headlights.

Eugene immediately came to her aid. “She’s-”

“Marley Carter,” Sebastian cut him off with a smile. “We’ve met before.”

Zion frowned. “You have?”

Sebastian nodded. “On my first day here.”

“Ah!” Eugene returned before Sebastian could answer. “I heard that you were the one who took her to hospital that night.”

“Yeah.” Turning away from the trio to take a look at the car, Sebastian asked, “How’s the damage?”

“Not too serious,” Eugene returned. “It’s just the window. Nothing else was damaged.”

“Good.” Sebastian turned to Marley. “Don’t worry about fixing it. I’ll talk to Finance and see if they can help you out since it happened on company time and grounds.”

Actually, he had no idea what policy the company had on personal property that got destroyed while on the job. However, even if About It didn’t pay for Marley’s car, he was willing to pay out of his own pocket for her. She’d been through enough. She didn’t need to worry about bills that she hadn’t asked for.

“That’s great,” Zion said as he and Eugene beamed.

Still watching Sebastian with frightened eyes, Marley gave a soft, “Th- thank you.”

“That’s one problem down,” Eugene said. “But they still haven’t caught the guy who went after her.”

“You don’t need to worry about that,” Sebastian reassured. “The police are on it now. They’ll have him soon.”

“Will they?” Zion’s eyebrows came up. “I thought CCTV didn’t catch his face.”

“There are other ways to catch him,” Sebastian hedged.

Actually, the evasive answers the cops had given on Friday when they’d come to check out the crime scene had left Sebastian with the impression that there was nothing much they could do. No one had seen the attacker’s face, and he hadn’t left DNA evidence. Unless, an unknown witness came forward or he got caught in the middle of another attack, the chances of an arrest were pretty low.

Still, Sebastian didn’t want to cause a panic by letting his subordinates know of the true situation. Also, if the attacker was a member of the company, thinking that the police had leads and were about to catch him would keep him on his toes and reduce the likelihood of a repeat crime.

“It’s getting late.” Sebastian glanced at his watch. “We should get in.”

“Okay!” The trio followed him towards the building that housed their offices.

Though Sebastian only managed to sneak a few glances at Marley as they walked, he could tell that she was relieved that he hadn’t confronted her in front of her coworkers. But still, some of her fear remained.

He wanted to reassure her that she didn’t have to worry about him coming for her. However, there was no way to do that without making Eugene and Zion suspicious. So he held silence. He’d talk to her later in private.

 

* * * * *

 

MARLEY WAITED FOR the explosion.

She expected it to happen when Sebastian approached them at the parking lot. When all he did was offer to get her car repaired, she was relieved. Clearly, he didn’t plan to give her a public dress-down. Even better, she’d discovered that no one had actually seen Hazel. Her coworkers only knew that she’d been attacked on Thursday night then taken Friday and the entire weekend off.

No one knew that Marley had been replaced by Hazel.

No one knew what shenanigans Hazel had been up to.

No one knew that something had happened between her and Sebastian.

And best of all, nobody gave her odd looks like the ones she’d gotten in college when they’d discovered that she had a mental disorder. Her colleagues were only worried about her physical wellbeing and whether there was enough security in and out of the building to keep an attack from happening to them too.

Thank God!

Still, some terror remained because there was a witness to her break. Sebastian. Worse, he still hadn’t shown his hand so she had no idea how he’d handle their encounter. Was he just bidding his time until he told everyone that she was a mess? Would he go straight to HR or Omar? Would she get an email giving her notice that she’d been fired? Or would they call her to HR and get rid of her in person?

She sat at her desk, trembling, stealing glances at the executives’ floor, and waiting for her sentence. But it never came. There was no email. There was no phone call to come up to HR. In fact, they all had a mid-morning meeting with Sebastian but he didn’t even glance her way.

As noon came and went, Marley started to think that maybe… just maybe… Sebastian had decided to let it go. The tight knot of fear in the pit of her belly loosened. By lunchtime, she was breathing a little easier. But since she didn’t know whether this was just a temporary reprieve, she couldn’t work up an appetite. When her coworkers went to the cafeteria for lunch, she grabbed a bottle of water and headed up to the rooftop for some fresh air.

No one else was up there. Great, because it meant that she wouldn’t have to engage in any small talk. She settled at one of the canopied tables with her tablet in her hands and headphones in her ears.

Ten minutes later, she was so engrossed in the video she was watching that she didn’t even notice the new entrant to the rooftop. Not until, he was at her table and right across from her. She lifted her gaze from her tablet only to come eye-to-eye with the one person she didn’t want to see.

“Mr. Levy?” she squeaked his name even as a fist closed over her lungs and tightly squeezed.

He mouthed something, but she didn’t hear. A second later, she realized it was because she still had the headphone in her ears. Quickly, she lowered them to her neck.

Breathlessly, she asked, “Huh?”

“I was saying, you don’t need to call me Mr. Levy.” He offered her a smile. “Just call me Sebastian.”

He was smiling. Was that good or bad? A weird fluttering started in the pit of her stomach.

“Aren’t you going for lunch?” he asked as he took the seat directly opposite her.

“I’m-” She swallowed to get rid of the sudden dryness in her throat. “I’m not- not hungry.”

“You should eat something though.” He set one of the plastic-wrapped sandwiches she hadn’t even noticed he was carrying in front of her. “Here. Have this.”

“Th- thank you.” She didn’t touch the sandwich. She just watched him nervously, wondering if the friendliness was a precursor to her doom.

“You don’t have to look at me like that,” he said while unwrapping his sandwich. “I won’t eat you.”

But he was certainly capable of eating her alive.

He took a bite of his sandwich, chewed then said, “I won’t tell anybody about what happened over the weekend, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Her breath caught in her throat. “You- you won’t?”

“No, I won’t.” He met her eyes. “Let’s just keep it between us.”

Relief like she’d never felt pulsed through her. “O- okay.”

They – or rather he – ate in silence for a minute or so before he quietly asked, “Do you even remember what happened between us?”

Her heart immediately jumped back to her throat because of course she didn’t remember anything about that night. Hazel was the one in control. But Marley couldn’t let him know that so she picked the most logical excuse for her lack of memories.

“N- no, I don’t remember.” She stuttered, “I was- was drunk. I must’ve blacked out.’

Immediately his eyebrows flew up. “You were drunk?”

She nodded.

His gaze unreadable, he watched her for a long uncomfortable moment then nodded slowly. “Okay, let’s go with that. You were drunk.”

Let’s go with that? Did that mean that he didn’t believe her?

Unfortunately, she was too much of a coward to confront him so all she did was rocket to her feet. Gathering her tablet, water and the sandwich, she said, “Uh… I have to go. I have some urgent work.”

There was no urgent work, but it was the only excuse she could think of to escape from this hell.

Before he could say anything, she started to walk away.

“Marley,” he called out before she could even take three steps.

She turned to face him.

He was still watching her with eyes that seemed to know more than he was saying. “Nothing.”

“Huh?”

“Nothing happened between us,” he clarified. “All I did was give you a place to sleep for the night. Nothing happened between us.”

That was all? For a second, Marley didn’t believe him. Hazel was a promiscuous bundle of trouble. There was no way in the world that she would have spent a night at Sebastian’s house without trying something. However, Sebastian had no reason to lie. If he said that nothing had happened, then it was likely that nothing had happened. For the first time in forever, Hazel had left without making a mess.

Marley smiled in relief as she headed back to her desk.

Maybe life wasn’t quite as unfair as she thought.