The Thorns Which It Bears

Love Me (Part 2)

Notes:

*Edited/Rewritten 9/23/2021

The fluorescent light flickered in the office, crackling with the current of electricity flowing within. The light bounced off the upholstered cubicle walls surrounding her. Had her workspace always been so small? Were the walls closing in on her?

"Sarah." Lisa waved a hand in front of Sarah's vacant eyes waiting for any sign that she was lucid. It usually didn't take this long for her to acknowledge her.

"Hmmm?" Sarah lost in her thoughts, snapped back to reality. She looked up with red-rimmed eyes at her friend as she realized she once again had zoned out. It was happening more and more. The waking world had long since lost its ability to hold her attention. She was lucky it was Lisa and not her boss.

"What is going on with you lately? Falling asleep at work. Not paying attention. What gives?" Lisa's lips pursed into a frown as she eyed Sarah. She'd always recognized Sarah's various moods and had no desire to pussyfoot around them. The direct approach was always best when trying to help someone especially someone who was prone to flightiness.

Sarah sighed, picking up a butterfly paperclip, and replied lamely, "I just haven't been--"

"Sleeping," Lisa finished for her. "You've used that before. Now let's hear the truth." She leaned in conspiratorially. A slow grin stretched her rum-raisin-colored lips. "It's a guy, isn't it? You can tell me."

Sarah recoiled, taken aback by the suggestion. Guy trouble? How could she explain? The truth–hmmm– Lisa wanted the truth.

Although she liked Lisa and considered her one of her few friends, Sarah had learned not to tell Lisa anything she didn't want the whole office to know about it. Lisa was always one to hear the latest gossip and spread it around like a verbal contagion. The water cooler might as well be a scuttlebutt pox party. Although Sarah never gave Lisa much to work with she often provided her a captive audience to spew her latest investigative nonsense.

If only it were something as mundane as guy trouble. But her troubles were something she could never truly share. She had to lock them in tight, keeping her burdens all to herself. What good would sharing them do? No one would believe her and if they did there was nothing they could do to help. It was laughable to think of explaining wishes that turned to quests and dreams to nightmares. That magic was real and the bogeyman, a tall handsome king. Sarah gave up and gave in.

"The worst kind of guy," she managed to say with a shrug.

"Oh no. Bad boy trouble?" Lisa rested against the side of the cubicle. "They are the worst. Gotta kick them to the curb."

Checking her manicured fingers, she divulged a diatribe against all the men she had been let down by. The ones who acted tough but were really looking for a mother. The ones that promised the world but skipped out before making good. And the ones who gave pleasure and excitement in the sheets but pain everywhere else. "They never change..."

Sarah nodded in agreement. No, he hadn't changed. He was still the same as when they first met. And oh, how her teenage libido had swooned even as he tormented her. Invading her space. Mocking and challenging her in the same breath. Maybe she did have a thing for bad boys. For villains.

Lisa grasped her hands together with a little gasp. "Sarah, let me set you up with my friend. He's good-looking. Smart. Steady job. You two would be great together. Oh! We could double date!" She smiled at Sarah, the same manic gleam glittering in her eyes that Karen got every time she mentioned a friend's son.