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123: From Friday to Monday
With all the windows in the entire apartment thrown open wide to let in the cool night air, Evelyn slumped on the edge of a windowsill. Nearby, an exhausted Mary occupied the dressing table’s stool.
Through the kitchen, they heard the return of Andrew, Will and Tank.
“We did this wrong,” an exhausted Will said around his hard panting breaths as they entered the former living room in search of the two women.
Andrew chuckled mirthlessly, crossing the mostly empty room to perch on the windowsill beside his wife. “Oh, now you tell me.”
“Yeah,” Will continued, easing himself to the recently swept and mopped floor, then laying out, spread-eagle, with a low groan. “The stuff that had to go the furthest, we should have taken first. While we were fresh.”
“I don’t know. I still think taking the stuff that was heaviest first was a wise move.” Lifting Mary, Tank took the dressing table stool then pulled her onto his lap in an intimate, possessive way. “Th
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World of Tomorrow 125: Unexpected
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World of Tomorrow 126: Antagonized
“What did you say?” With a frightened squeak, Evelyn startled violently, dropping the empty matchbook and stumbling backwards. She crashed into her rolling chair, falling awkwardly into a sit as Andrew darted forward to catch her. Once she was stable again, they both looked up to find Will standing in the outer office doorway, his molten caramel eyes boring a hole into them. “Oh, Will!” she clutched her throat with one hand. “I’m so out of practice, I didn’t hear the lift chime. You startled me.” Accepting Andrew’s proffered hand, she stood. “Obviously and I’m sorry.” The former police officer spared a quick glance around the outer office as he entered slowly. His gaze flicked to the view from window to window, over the fine carpets, furnishings and drapes before he craned his neck to get a look into Andrew’s office. With an appreciative brow arched, he met his employer’s unusual blue eyes, darker than his wife’s and as oddly variable in shades from b
World of Tomorrow 127: Ambiguities
The silence hung like a thick soupy fog in the library after Octavia James made her undignified exit. Outside, the rain had begun again in earnest and the patters of fat drops against the window glass, the regular ticking of the mantle clock, and the crackle of the fire seemed to come from a distance through it. Almost as if they’d been tamped down and muffled by the tension that still coiled, wraith-like and terrible, into every corner of the large room. It vied for the most uncomfortable aspect of this whole confrontation with the echoes of Andrew and Octavia’s cruel words. Above the rush of blood past her ears, Evelyn could scarcely hear anything else, but her eyes were fixed to Andrew’s profile, slowly relaxing into its usual handsomeness after being contorted with fury. She ached for him, truly, because no matter how much he hid behind that stoic façade, she knew him as a man who felt profoundly—his love was no less fierce than his anger, his joy no less intense than his sadness.
World of Tomorrow 128: Contentious
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World of Tomorrow 129: National Limited
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World of Tomorrow 130: Rhythms
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World of Tomorrow 131: Arrival
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