The Affair

Chapter 25.1 - Unravel

Thursday, August 4, 2022, 1:40pm

William walks through the week like a convict on death row.

It's hard to sleep. Ever since he watched the video saved in that damn USB drive. Every client meeting, every chat with a colleague, every minute alone in his office that video plays in his mind.

He makes it to Thursday, nearly a week into June's ultimatum.

Work is typical, his one saving grace, but that'll soon change. He checks the time, then calls Fallon.

Her voice fills his ear, all sunshine and her usual eagerness to please. He hates that he can't smoke in his office. Still, he gives her a task—pick up his clothes from the cleaners in the downtown tunnels. The girl blissfully agrees and hangs up.

He takes a slow breath, but it does nothing to ease the sickness he feels.

There's no time to waste.

He hits send on an email he had already composed. Off it goes to its two recipients.

His eye twitches as he glances at his phone.

His fist pounds his desk. "Goddamnit!" he blurts out.

He rubs his eye like he's punishing it. It's that same twitch that comes and goes as it pleases. He cannot for the life of him understand why it's happening.

The pressure seems to settle it for now, so he returns himself to the task at hand. Fallon should be in the elevator by now, heading down to the lobby. It's about a fifteen-minute walk through the tunnels to reach the cleaners for a normal person. But the girl walks fast.

He approximates twenty-five minutes before she returns.

That'll work.

There's a knock at his door, so he calls them in. Colin enters first, Amy following behind. Their urgency pleases him, but the meeting itself makes him sick.

"Hey you two. Go ahead and have a seat," he says with a warm smile, motioning to the chairs in front of his desk.

Colin and Amy share a glance, then shrug. They each take a chair and wait to be addressed. William types a quick email response to a client, eyes rising from his screen to view Amy a little closer.

Her scowl is there. That's not unusual. But the way her eyes seem to refuse a look his way catches his interest.

He finishes his email and sends it off, giving the two assistants his attention.

"Thanks for coming. I'll do my best to keep this brief," he says, relaxing in his chair. "I have something important I need to ask you two. And I need your word that you will keep it to yourselves and from the other support staff."

He looks to Colin. Alert. Attentive. Agreeable.

Then to Amy. Lacking one of those qualities.

"Can we agree on this?" he then asks.

The two assistants meet eyes like they're guarding different secrets. But they do nod.