Aisleland Paradise

Chapter 6

They both got dressed, him in a borderline frenzy and her in unimaginable frustration.

"Anna, I swear on my mother's grave that I will make this up to you."

"Ok."

"I mean it. I'm going to make this right."

"Okay."

They were still standing in the same room, but now in a different universe. The spell was broken, but while the sexual tension and unbridled passion had fled there was still a fog of raw emotion thickly engulfing the room. The night was over, but they weren't. Now dressed, he took her hands in his.

"Anna. Look at me." She did. They were still both dressed in their best outfits, silhouetted by only the light of a flickering fire, their fragrances engaged in an elaborate dance in between them.

"I need you to understand this situation. That call was from Judge Emeritus downtown. There's some legal issues at work and I just got summoned to court. I have to appear right now and meet with him, my lawyer is already on the way there. I've only gotten a couple of these calls in my life, once it was concerning an employee that died and it was our fault and his wife was going to wipe us out, another time was when a national chain launched a surprise buyout. I came within an hour or two of losing the company. THATS the level of what I'm dealing with here, and failure to appear could mean an automatic ruling against me. I swear to you, I cannot think of anything, literally anything else in the whole universe that could pull me away from you right now and I promise that I'm going to make it up to you."

This sucked. She believed him, his voice was tense with pure honesty, and she understood, you don't get to where he is in life without having to deal with this kind of stuff. But she had been so patient, dealt with so much, worked so hard, and it was all supposed to culminate in this moment. It had been perfect. Was it selfish of her to want him to stay anyway?

He apologized again and walked to the door to the center building. Anna turned on the lights, officially ending the moment. He was at the end of the hall when she realized that he hadn't kissed her goodbye. He always kissed her goodbye. She tried to sprint after him but her heels made that an impossibility. She called out for him, but the door was already closing behind him. She reached the end of the hall a few seconds after him and heard nothing on the other side, she'd been told not to open it but this was a special circumstance. She tried the handle but it was locked. What the hell? She got her purse out of the kitchen and tried every key but she didn't have the right one. She was defeated. She went to her room to change.

She was in a t-shirt and shorts, lying on the bed and looking at her cell phone when she heard the locked door open. He was back! She bounded to the hall only to see KJ walking towards.

"Hey, sorry, I thought you were in bed. I gotta clean up before I can go to sleep."

"No worries." lied Anna.

KJ was quick and efficient, making the kitchen immaculate and pristine in just a couple minutes, then said a friendly goodnight to Anna and she walked past the bedroom. Anna said goodbye back, she wasn't in love with that girl being around but she didn't seem to mean any harm. Wait. Wait a second...

Anna leapt out of bed. She flew to the doorway and sneakily peeked around the corner. KJ was in front of the door at the end of the hall. Anna watched KJ take a key out of her pocket, unlock the door, and walk right through. Anna watched it close and even heard KJ lock it behind her. What the fuck was going on around here?

Anna woke up Sunday and got dressed for work. She was tired, she was sore, and she was more pent up then she even knew was possible. She hoped she didn't pass a cute gardener or something on the way out or she might pounce on him like a hungry panther and unload some tension. But that was just one problem, she could find a way to deal with her physical needs one way or another. It was her emotional cyclone that was going to eff all this up.