“Can you imagine that bastard!” walking on the road, she balled her fists in rage. People stared at her from left and right. She hopped into a taxi and headed home. Her head was out of the window for the entire ride home. She didn’t want the other passengers to see her. She considered herself an ugly crier. “This city is so weird. Why’s it raining?” the cab driver asked no one in particular. His question hauled Catherine back into the present as she realized that rain had been hitting her face this whole time. “Are you okay?” the driver said, but she stared blankly. “What a weird kid,” he said, pulling up the window glass. He struggled to get a look at her through his rare mirror. The man seemed like he was a little over forty, about the same age as her father. Thinking about him only made her more upset. “Shit,” she said as she walked in, drenched. Catherine stared at her empty apartment. It was void of any form of humanity. She kicked her shoes off, leaving only her socks. Walkin

Was it real? Or was it all a dream? Catherine didn’t know. “Umm,” she moaned slightly. This was the first time that she slept soundly since Ruby left. She stretched her arm across the bed. When she didn’t feel anyone next to her, she concluded, “It was all a dream”. Even if she was to assume it was real, why was she clothed and the rain from last night definitely got the floor and some of her items wet, but why were they dry? She got up from the bed. The usual headaches that plagued her had completely disappeared. Something moved in her kitchen, “eee,” she squealed when the thought of the apartment rat came to her. “Is that you, Larry?” she asked, jumping onto the bed. Ruby was the exterminator. More like she usually paid the exterminator so she never got to deal with rodents. “Who’s Larry? You’ve got a secret boyfriend I don’t know about?” he asked, his face a little too serious for a rhetorical question. She noticed her knees trembled a little. It was real. His hoarse voice was

Donovan drove home with the worst look on his face. “I insisted on driving,” Kenny said. “Yeah, then your bestie called me out for being lazy. Why’d you come, anyway?” “I don’t know why you’re getting so upset. It’s not like I kissed the girl” “Who knows whether you have, you snake” “Wait, wait, wait. Where is all this coming from?” “You know that she compared my cooking to yours” “Wait, you cooked?” Kenny chuckled. “Yes, I did, and it was delicious. I don’t know what’s so funny about that” “Donovan Smith, the proper misogynist, cooked for a woman” “Yeah, I can be a lover boy too” “Watch the road lover boy,” Kenny pointed towards the truck in front of them” “Weren’t you the bastard that said women should never have been given the right to vote?” “That was a long time ago” “Barely three months ago, at Davis park when we were playing pool” “Three months, Kenny. A lot has happened since then. I’m a changed man now” “Dony, you can never change. Leave the girl before you hurt

“Dony, what’s this about Catherine moving away?” Kenny said walking behind Donovan. “She moved away, that’s it. Where have you been anyway?”“I needed to clear my head, why’d you fire her?” Kenny asked. Donovan’s eyes bulged out, “I didn’t,” he lied. “Donovan, stop lying,” he said. Donovan gave him an apprehensive look. “Look Kenny I really don’t the to talk about it,” he cupped his face in his palms.“It can not be that bad”“ She found out about Nigel,” his expression had suddenly changed. Kenny was stunned, “How?”.Donovan shifted his laptop, scrolling through the endless receipts, screenshots of texts, security footages and even pictures Nigel had taken of his victims. “I didn’t think it was this extreme”“Neither did I”“Have you heard from Catherine?”“Not even a peep. Immediately I fired her, she sent me a screenshot of her conversation with Dubel”“What?”“I’m surprised she hasn’t sold us out yet”“You think so?”“Look,” Donovan turned on the TV in his office. “I’ve bee

“Cathy, we haven’t seen you in a minute. Where have you been?” Teresa asked, as Catherine pushed the door of café nexco in and the bell chimed. She had to be careful about her answer. Whether or not she liked it, she was still tied to the Smiths, and her NDA was very much valid. Donovan never gave her a dissolution of an agreement document. “Tessa!” she walked in with a smile on her face. Teresa moved from behind the counter, giving Catherine an enormous hug. Her curly hair shun in the dim light of the coffee shop. Tessa was a real beauty. “You look pretty, baby,” she spun Catherine around like a doll. “Thank you,” she blushed. “When’d you buy a pencil skirt?” she said, as they both laughed. Her faced turned serious suddenly. “No, boo, where have you been?” Catherine was surprised. She tried her best to evade the question. “I’ve been…at work,” she stuttered. “What? You made me lose mine, and you scored one for yourself?” Tessa taped her shoulder. Catherine laughed, to think a