Break Away By Ellie Grace
For everyone who’s helped me along the way.
***
For the first time since I’d arrived at the office, I glanced up from the piles of reports and spreadsheets that littered my desk and checked the time. It was already almost noon, and despite the fact that my morning coffee and muffin were practically untouched, it was also time for my lunch break.
It never ceased to amaze me how quickly time went by while performing the menial office tasks that went along with working at an investment firm in New York City. My official job title was “Assistant Analyst,” which was really just a fancy term for someone who pushes paper all day and takes care of all the tedious duties that all the higher-ups were too busy and important to do themselves. I’m not sure what I had originally planned to do with my business degree, but being a glorified secretary wasn’t exactly what I’d had in mind.
I’d been working at Chambers International for almost a year, since graduating from New York University. Investment banking wasn’t something I was particularly interested in, but my fiancé, Steven, was a senior analyst at the company, and his father also happened to be the CEO. Oh, and his grandfather was the company’s founder. Needless to say, Steven had planned his whole life around working there and eventually taking it over, so when he suggested how great it would be for us to work together, I eventually agreed. He ended up proposing to me a few days later, leaving me to wonder if he was motivated by love or by the fact that I had finally added myself to the grand equation of his life.
Of course, Steven’s office was upstairs with the other big-wigs and executives, so we didn’t actually work together or see each other aside from the occasional lunch when his schedule permitted. Not that I minded. I wasn’t working at his family’s company because I wanted any handouts or special treatment. The truth was, I had taken the job because it was convenient, and I hadn’t known what else to do.
I normally ate lunch by myself in the employee cafeteria, but today I decided to call up to Steven’s office and find out if he wanted to join me. The phone rang only once before his secretary answered in her usual cheerful tone.
“Good afternoon, Steven Chambers’ office. How may I help you?”
“Hi, Lynn, it’s Olivia,” I said. “Is Steven available by any chance?”
“No, hon, I’m afraid he’s not. He went home for the day… said he wasn’t feeling very well and thought he might be coming down with the flu.”
“Oh, no problem. Thank you, Lynn.” I hung up. That was strange; he hadn’t mentioned that he was sick, and normally nothing could keep him out of the office. I hoped it wasn’t anything too serious.
I made my way down to the first floor, but instead of going to the cafeteria, I decided to go to our apartment to check on Steven, stopping at a bistro along the way to pick up a bowl of his favorite chicken noodle soup. He was always making comments about how “cold” and “distant” I was, and even though he claimed to be joking around, I had the urge to do something nice and prove him wrong.
After greeting the doorman of our building, I stepped into the elevator and made my way up to our apartment on the fifth floor. Steven moved into this exclusive apartment complex when he was first hired full-time at the company. At the time, I was still a junior at NYU and hadn’t wanted to move from the cozy, on-campus apartment that I shared with my roommate, Nora. However, after graduation when Nora moved back home to South Carolina and Steven and I got engaged, moving in with him made the most sense.
I still hadn’t adjusted to living in such an elegant place and being a part of the glitzy lifestyle that Steven had always known. It was an entirely new world for me, and I would probably never get used to it. The only way of life I’d ever known was penny-pinching to make ends meet, shoebox apartments, and always earning my own keep. I didn’t like Steven to pay my way, but he insisted on it. I did my best to reciprocate by always taking care of him—cooking his meals, cleaning the apartment, doing his laundry, ironing his shirts and basically catering to his every need. He seemed to like it that way.
I would have preferred paying rent.
Still, I was grateful to Steven. He’d come into my life and taken care of me when I had no one else. So no matter how much I hated cooking and cleaning, I would always do it for him.
The summer after I graduated high school, and only a month before I was to begin my first year at NYU, my mother died in a car accident. I’d never known my so-called father; he left when I was three, and we never heard from him again. My mom was an only child and lost both of her parents when she was young, so she was all the family I had. We moved around a lot while I was growing up. My mom would relocate to wherever there was work available, and since we were never in one place for an extended period of time, I’d never had any true, lifelong friends who stayed in touch. When I lost my mom, I was all alone.
As devastated as I was when my mom died, I began college in the fall as planned, mainly due to the simple fact that I hadn’t had anywhere else to go. I went through the motions of school and classes, but it was all a haze. I’d become completely numb to everything around me. My roommate, Nora, was a big help, but she had her own problems. Within the first couple weeks of school I’d met Steven at the college library. He was a junior at the time and, unlike me, seemed to have his whole life together. He was determined, and always seemed to know the right thing to say. All of a sudden, I wasn’t so alone anymore. He took care of me and was there for me when no one else was.
So, I became the person that he needed me to be.
I stepped off the elevator and into the hall that we shared with one other apartment. Letting myself in quietly, I slipped my heels off and set them down next to the door before making my way across the apartment. It was quiet, and I assumed that Steven was either resting in the bedroom or working in his home office. Before I had a chance to check, the bedroom door opened, and he walked out with a towel wrapped around his waist, his normally perfect hair all mussed up.
“Olivia, what are you doing here?” he said, closing the door tightly behind him. “Aren’t you supposed to be at work?” A look of panic flashed across his features as he positioned himself between the door and me. His surprise was odd considering that our apartment was only a fifteen-minute walk from the office. It wasn’t like I worked across the state and a quick trip home was out of the question.
“I’m on my lunch break,” I explained. “Lynn told me that you went home sick and I wanted to check on you. I brought you some soup from that place downtown that you—”
I stopped mid-sentence when I heard the sound of the shower turning on. Before I had a chance to comprehend what was happening, a woman’s voice called out from behind the closed bedroom door.
“Stevie! What’s taking so long? Get your sexy ass in here so I can lather you up, you dirty, dirty boy…”
The door flung open and out waltzed an attractive brunette holding a towel that did little to hide her nakedness. She stopped in her tracks when she saw me, her cheerful expression morphing into fear. Steven was still standing there like a statue, all the color draining from his face as his eyeballs moved back and forth between me and the whore as though he was desperately searching his brain for some kind of explanation that didn’t involve him being an a*shole.
“Well, Stevie… apparently you have been a dirty boy,” I spat out, anger boiling inside me. Was this seriously happening? He could have at least found a more original way to reveal himself as a cheating scumbag. I mean, come on. The whole situation was just so… cliché. I honestly wasn’t sure whether I wanted to yell, cry, or laugh out loud. Maybe I really was a frigid bitch after all.
“F*ck, it’s not what it looks like,” Steven said, fumbling for words. He inched slowly toward me as though I were waving a loaded gun around and threatening to blow them both away.
I scoffed, rolling my eyes in disgust. “Don’t be an idiot, Steven. It’s exactly what it looks like.” Finally moving from the spot where I was standing, I stormed into the bedroom and grabbed a small duffel bag from my closet, haphazardly packing the few things I had that meant enough to take with me. My closet was full of fancy clothes and expensive shoes, but I had no intention of taking any of that stuff with me. Steven had bought it all for me for the various parties and events that we’d attended over the years, and I didn’t want anything from him anymore.
“Olivia, I’m so sorry,” Steven said, slowly coming up behind me. “I was stupid and I let her seduce me, but I swear to you, it was a one-time mistake, and it meant nothing. You’ve been so distant lately, and after more than four years together, you still won’t let me in. I was frustrated and upset. But it will never, ever happen again. I promise to make it up to you. Please, don’t go. I made a mistake. We’ll fix it and move on.”
“You’re seriously going to try and blame me for the fact that you couldn’t keep it in your pants?” I asked, clenching my fists at my side. “That’s the worst excuse I’ve ever heard! You are a pitiful excuse for a man, and I can’t believe I wasted four years of my life with you. Go to hell!”
There was a flash of anger in his eyes, and I knew I’d struck a nerve. I’d never raised my voice to him like this, and Steven was someone who was used to always getting what he wanted. From everyone.
“Where are you going to go, Olivia?” he sneered. “In case you’ve forgotten, I’m all you’ve got!”
I zipped up the duffel bag and stood inches away from his face, glaring at him with narrowed eyes. “As far away from you as possible. I’d rather have no one than be with you.”
Throwing my pitiful little bag over my shoulder, I turned and walked out of the room, muttering a sarcastic “good luck” to the woman still cowering in the hallway on my way out. I grabbed my purse, left my engagement ring and cell phone (that Steven paid for) on the counter and walked out the door without looking back.
Maybe I had always been a little bit closed off, but it was for good reason. Men were scum! Just look at my so-called father. He had claimed to love my mom and me, but at the first chance he got, he abandoned us. I never wanted to suffer through that kind of pain and heartbreak, which was why I’d chosen someone exactly the opposite of my dad. Steven was supposed to be the safe choice. After growing up in a state of constant change and instability, I had vowed to live my life differently. The reason I’d been so attracted to Steven in the first place was because he was predictable, uncomplicated and risk-free. I thought I would always know what was coming with him. Turned out I didn’t know him at all.
I kept waiting for the crushing pain to hit me, but it never came. I felt angry, hurt, confused and slightly terrified about what I would do next, but somehow I also felt strangely relieved, like a weight had been lifted.
Unfortunately, I had no idea where the hell I was going or what I was going to do. Steven was right about one thing; I really didn’t have anyone else.
***