LOGIN~ SIENNA ~I was four hours away from home and except Margo was home, I didn’t have a way to get in. I checked the time. 8:10pm.By the time I arrived, Margo would definitely be back from wherever she might have gone today. She didn’t keep late nights. Later, we can figure out how to get me a new key. I leaned back in my seat and shut my eyes, feeling tears quietly stream down my face and wondering which of my hundred problems was causing this outburst. The woman sitting beside me noticed my occasional sniffles and subtly angled her body away, as if grief were contagious.That was my cue to stop crying and do something with my time on the train. Sleep wasn’t an option even if that was all I really wanted to do. Not when I was solo-traveling at night — my body would just never relax enough for that. So I did something I should have done five years ago when I graduated college instead of marrying my enemy. I applied for jobs. My CV was ready as I had been working on it since I mo
~ SIENNA ~I kept going. “You see, in life, we all have various interests. My mother, as you would know, is a social butterfly.” I let my gaze sweep the room before landing on her. “Imagine putting her in a lab, buried under equations with a lab coat hiding her outfit. She’d lose her smile.”She already had. And she wasn’t the only one. A ripple of discomfort moved through the guests — tight smiles, shifting shoulders, exchanged glances. I was ruining the beautiful evening we had shared. A part of me hated that. The rest of me knew I wouldn’t get another chance.“Some of you might not know this,” I continued, steadier now, “but my father — Mr. Kenneth Monroe — loves music.”I couldn’t bring myself to look at Dad. “He sings. He loves to play the piano. Now imagine telling him he could never touch a piano again.”The silence deepened.“For me, physics is what excites me — making things work and working things made. That’s why I earned my engineering degree from Harvard. Magna cum l
~ SIENNA ~There were camera flashes as I walked in, flanked on both sides by my parents. Mom was ecstatic, smiling up to her molars, while Dad wore a calmer expression, waving at the press like this was just another day.The venue — a grand hall in their hotel, Opulent Suites — was filled with about a hundred people, all dressed to the teeth in luxe tuxes and glittering dresses. Applause rose as we made our entrance, the perfect picture of hosts who belonged exactly where they were.This was part of why I didn’t want this business — the attention. It demanded a level of social energy I wasn’t sure I had in me.Back when Harry and I were dating and he was still trying to break into music, I remembered secretly feeling relieved whenever a label rejected him. I didn’t want him to get popular and have me living in the spotlight too. A well-dressed usher led us to our seats — a table on a raised podium labeled MANAGEMENT, bathed in light.I leaned towards Dad. “Do I have to sit here with
~ SIENNA ~It was gala night. Yay — or whatever. From the moment Mom excused the makeup artist saying she wanted a word alone with me, a dull nausea settled in my stomach.Actually, it had started earlier — when she announced a ‘professional’ would be coming over to do my makeup for the gala. “It’s not even finished and you already look so good,” she cheered, inspecting my face. I was forced to look at her, away from the harsh glow of the artist’s studio light and the mirror I'd been deliberately avoiding. It was my own form of quiet protest — disinterest in whatever was being done on my face. “Thanks,” I mumbled.She picked up a lipstick from the artist’s palette, dabbing it on the back of her palm. “Nice shade. I’d have to find it next time I go shopping. What do you think?”“It’s nice,” I agreed dryly, tired of the small talk. “About the pictures you showed us yesterday, I’ve been thinking...”Now, she had my attention. Last night, we’d agreed to drop the case. Dad and Mom in
~ SIENNA ~The tears fell violently — no quiet slipping, no gentle crying. My chest seized like it had forgotten how to breathe, each inhale jagged and painful. Dova wrapped her arms around me and I folded into her embrace, taking her own frame with mine on a body racking ride. This was a reality I hadn’t prepared for — a nanny knowing me better than my parents, better than my own mother. Mom hadn’t even let me get my first sentence out before she launched an attack on me and my character. “I watched you turn down advances from all the boys that flocked around you like hawks, saving yourself for the one. You believed in the family dream. A husband, a wife…” she hesitated. “…kids. A happily ever after. I refuse to believe you got that and threw it all away for nothing. You’re too grounded for that.”“I didn’t do it, Dova,” I mumbled into her dress, a confession that had been boiling inside me for the last three days. “I could never.”“I know, I know,” she whispered, rubbing my back.
~ SIENNA ~It’s been three days of asking myself if this was what depression felt like — and wondering why it waited for me to be away from my best friend and support system before it pulled me into its depths. The only words my parents had spoken to me since the disastrous breakfast were to invite me to the exclusive gala their company was hosting to celebrate thirty years of hospitality. No, it wasn’t an invitation. It wasn’t even a request. It was a directive. There would be a gala and I would be attending with them. I wondered why my presence was so important that they broke out of their silent treatment to share the information with me. But I knew — my parents never missed an opportunity to display their achievements. And I was one of them. Not in their ideal form but I guessed this would do for now. The gala was happening tomorrow and I had no idea how I was supposed to attend with them when they still walked past me like I was air. The part of me that is used to pining
~ SIENNA ~A frown crossed my face. “What part of the gym makes it better? The sore muscles? Hand calluses? Machine accidents?”Gavin gave me a look that could best be described as pitiful; a face that clearly said I didn’t know what I was missing. “The discipline it builds. Results. Confidence in
~ GAVIN ~“I could,” I started, losing whatever was left of my patience, my glare keeping her still as a statue. “I could fuck you — up. And I will, if you keep disrespecting my boundaries. I believe you want to keep your job.”She pulled back startled, a puzzled look on her face. I offered a grima
~ SIENNA ~“Sorry, we haven’t received a dog like that,” the woman at the table said sympathetically. Dog hair clung to her cardigan. She didn’t bother brushing it off. It sat there like a badge, proof for anyone who needed convincing that she truly worked at a dog shelter.“White. Immaculate whit
~ GAVIN ~From the moment I found out what Max ‘knew’ I needed, I vehemently turned it down. But he insisted. In his words, “We have work, Gav. Go let out this steam so you can function with a clear head tomorrow.”So here I was, in a private booth of a shadowed sex club with a dancer he whispered







