Collateral

ELAINE’S POV

The morning after, I made eggs.

I don't know why I thought eggs would help.

Maybe the idea that a warm plate and a set table could help the silence that had settled between Richard and me like a third person in the room.

I stood at the stove and cracked four eggs and told myself that last night was just tiredness.

People did things they didn't mean when they were wrung out. People were careless with the people they loved most. It didn't mean anything.

I plated everything nicely then folded the napkins.

Richard came downstairs in a grey shirt and dark trousers, phone already in hand, and sat at the table without looking at me.

I sat across from him and watched him scroll. He still didn’t look at me.

"How was the drive back?" I asked.

"Fine." He didn't look up.

I smiled tightly. "Was the hotel good at least?"

"It was fine, Elaine."

I cut a piece of egg and moved it around. "I collected the award," I said, and immediately felt strange for saying it, like I was a child reporting a grade. "Third year running."

He looked up then, briefly, and smiled. "I saw the pictures online. Congratulations."

My heart warmed at the look in his eyes. "Thank you."

He went back to his phone.

I kept looking at him. The line of his jaw and the way he held his coffee cup.

I was waiting for moment where his eyes would find mine and he would remember what happened last night. What he did and said to me.

But he scrolled and he sipped and he was entirely, completely fine.

Which meant either he didn't remember. Or he didn't think it was worth remembering.

I was trying to decide which one was worse when the front door opened and Cassandra walked in behind our housemaid, Maria, already talking before she fully crossed the threshold.

"I know I'm early, I know, I know… Maria, you look incredible, did you get a haircut?"

She swept into the kitchen dropping her bag on the counter, and leaning to kiss my cheek. "Good morning, people."

And Richard, who had given me exactly four words across twenty minutes of breakfast looked up from his phone and smiled.

"Cass." He leaned back in his chair. "Always making an entrance."

I didn’t like the way his eyes raked over her but I pushed it away. He had always treated Cassandra as a younger sister, just the same way I did.

"Always necessary." She helped herself to the coffee pot. "Congratulations on your wife's award, by the way. Third year. You should be making her a cake."

"She doesn't need cake," he said, and then he added, "she should be watching what she eats, actually."

My entire body went rigid and Cassandra shot him a look which he returned with an easy grin.

"Cass, on the other hand," he said, tilting his head as he watched her, "has clearly figured it out.

What are you doing? Pilates? You look incredible."

Cassandra swatted at him. “I think you’re over exaggerating.”

"Elaine should take lessons from you, honestly." He glanced at me then and I forced a smile on my face.

"Laney is beautiful," Cassandra said, firmly, the way she always did, the way I loved her for.

"Oh, absolutely," I said quickly. "I've actually been thinking about renewing my gym membership, there's one near the office that does early morning-"

Neither of them responded. Richard had said something to Cassandra about a mutual friend, and she laughed, and the conversation had simply moved on without me.

I ate my eggs in silence, my stomach twisting and turning. What was wrong with me?

They were just acting normal. This was the routine most mornings, Cassandra joined us for breakfast and Richard mostly conversed with her about everything.

But why did something feel different this time?

By the time Richard mentioned the family dinner, Cassandra was perched on the counter eating fruit from our bowl and I looked up.

"You should come," Richard said to her.

I looked up. "It's a family dinner."

"Cass is family." He snapped.

I bristled. "Richard, Betty specifically said-"

"My mother would love to see her." He said firmly.

Then he looked at Cassandra. "You free tonight?"

She glanced at me then responded. "My night's free.”

What could I say? No, don't come, my mother-in-law already makes me feel like a stranger in my own marriage and I can't do it with you there too?

"It'll be nice," I said, and smiled, and meant about forty percent of it.

She hugged me before she left for work and I hugged her back and smiled against her shoulder and told myself the strange tight feeling in my stomach was just leftover anxiety from yesterday.

Richard left for work soon after and while I arranged the kitchen, I found his lunchbox on the counter, still packed.

I decided I was going to bring his lunch to him on my way to work.

The security at his building knew my face. I signed in with a smile and took the elevator up, stepping in and pressing the button for the fourteenth floor.

I adjusted my blouse in the mirrored panel of the elevator wall, caught my reflection, and looked away faster than I meant to.

The elevator stopped on fourteen and the doors opened. A man stepped in.

And then, instead of pressing a floor, he reached past me and hit the door-close button, then the emergency hold.

"Excuse me," I said sharply. "I'm coming down now.”

He said nothing. He was facing the door, one hand braced against the wall, and his head slightly bowed.

I couldn’t see his face but from the expanse of his back and shoulder, I could tell he was very muscular.

"Hello?" My voice came out firmer than I felt. "I don't know what you're doing but I need to leave."

He hit the wall once and I took a step back and my heart lurching sideways in my chest.

"Hey."

He turned and I froze in recognition. My mouth said it before my brain approved the decision.

"Mr. Steele."

The corner of his mouth pulled and his amber eyes twinkled with mirth.

"Elaine," he said. The way he said my name made shivers run down my spine.

Oliver Steele was Richard's uncle and the name nobody said at family dinners.

He was the black sheep, the family’s outcast and he had responded by becoming exactly as untouchable as they feared.

But what was he doing here? I hadn’t seen him since my wedding seven years ago and even then, he didn’t stay longer than a minute.

I pushed the thoughts away from my head and squared my shoulders. "Release the elevator, please."

He didn't move immediately but eyes dropped to my mouth, stayed there, then came back up.

"Are you listening to me?” I asked impatiently.

But he didn’t even respond. "Has anyone ever told you," he whispered, "that you have a very kissable mouth?"

The air left my lungs as my eyes widened.

He held my gaze for exactly one moment longer, then reached over and released the hold switch.

He stepped to the side and extended one hand toward the open doors at fourteen.

"After you," he said.

I moved past him fast, focusing entirely on getting as far from that elevator as possible.

But I looked back once, I couldn't help it.

He was still watching me through the closing doors and the way he was looking at me sent something I didn't have a name for skittering all the way down my spine.

The doors closed.

I stood in the hallway and remembered how to breathe.