Cabin Fever - An Erotic Novel

Chapter 5 - Abbie writes (FINAL EDIT)

Abbie turned on the office computer. If she had been at home, she would have poured herself a glass of red – it didn't count as drinking alone if she only had the one glass. But drinking at the office in the middle of the day wasn't such a swell idea. Bad enough she was wasting company hours on private matters.

Felix.

There was so much to like about him. In many ways, he was the perfect man. Handsome. Fit. Charming. Easygoing. Clever. Wealthy. A great lover – or so she'd heard from several sources. Perfect. Or at least as close as you could get. You had to be realistic about these things. There was no such thing as perfection in real life. The flawless types only existed in books and in the movies. Real people had flaws.

Felix.

So very close to perfection on the surface, but so profoundly flawed when you took a deeper look. Not many were allowed to get to know Felix well enough to notice. But Abbie knew him better than most. Maybe she was the only one that really did.

Seven years of friendship – but never more. Seven years since Felix came sweeping into the lobby, bold as brass, all carefree smiles, and easy laughs. She had fallen for him then and there. If only she hadn't been married at the time. A lousy marriage – in the process of ending badly.

He had been very attentive and supportive, and she had found herself confiding a great deal in him. In just a few months, they had gone from complete strangers to close friends. If she had a soul-mate... she found the notion ridiculous, but if she had one, it was him.

She had been desperate and vulnerable, but he hadn't tried to take advantage of her. Not once. She remembered being occasionally disappointed and annoyed. Didn't he find her attractive? Didn't he like girls? But in the end, it only made her respect – and want – him even more.

It was a cruel twist of fate that when she was finally done with her divorce – and ready to entice Felix to swim into the deep end with her – she found that the Devil's Whore had already seduced him. The office was full of gossip – Bella was fucking New Guy's brains out. The last in a long line of men to fall to her charms and legendary bed-skills.

The affair had eventually ended, but Felix was damaged goods, Abbie could tell. Every time the two of them grew close again, he would grow cold and distant, and go drown himself in other women.

Gods how infuriating it had been: your best friend, who you wanted so badly, running away, and going to bed with anyone but you.

He'd calmed down a bit over the years, but it took time for his wounds to heal. And then, just when Abbie was beginning to think they might have a chance, after all, it went to hell again. Felix was back at Bella's side – doing all kinds of kinky shit if the company rumor-mill was to be believed. Bella really was a demon, to be able to control a man so completely.

Felix.

What an impossible man. Seven years. She had no idea what to make of him. She had feelings for him still. Strong feelings. That much was true. But she knew only too well that he would be no good for her. She could get him to bed, easy as that, but it would be pointless. The sex might be good – for a time – but he wouldn't stay at her side. Never. As far as she knew, he hadn't been in bed with the boss for years, but they had lapsed before, and Abbie knew that if Bella Domina snapped her fingers, Felix would be back on his knees, happily doing as ordered. She couldn't live with that.

No more of this shit. No more of this slaving for Bella. No more waiting for Felix to grow up. She was twenty-eight, soon-to-be twenty-nine, not far from being thirty-something. It was time to take control of her life and move on. She was ready to take it to the next level. Or maybe she should call it what it was: a leap of faith. One that would most likely end in a plunge into the abyss.

She was going to make it as a writer. She had a major publisher genuinely interested in her work. A real book deal. She'd do whatever it took to get published. It would mean economic independence. A chance to spend her days writing, rather than wage-slaving. An opportunity to get away. A fresh start, far from Bella and Felix.

Abbie had an imaginary sip of wine. Tried to focus on the wall of text staring back from the computer screen. The complexity of the plot was threatening to spin out of control, and the number of supporting and recurring characters had grown too big. She had to rein things in now, or she'd have to redo the entire draft.

But what to cut? What to cut...