Programmed Not To Live

Four: Almost Ended

I guess I fell asleep on the couch, because when I woke up, I was lying back with my feet up and a blanket on my feet. Everything was just the same. I was glad nothing had been moved, and contentedly sat up,with my arm on the back of the couch.

I suddenly grew afraid. There was a deadly silence petrifying me, and I turned around violently. The door was still latched, just as Juke had left it.

I stood up, walked cautiously to the door, and stared at it. It was misgivings, and the need to see a familiar face, that made me open it and walk out. My breath came in a gush of deep relief. Juke stood against the wall on the other side, staring down at his phone. I walked to him, trailing my blanket on the carpet.

Juke looked up and instantly saw me. "What's going on?" he said,shoving his phone in his pants pocket.

"I was -" I started to tell him, then I decided not to. Instead, I summoned the most casual indifference I could. "- Wandering where you were."

"Did you sleep well?" Juke asked.

"How did you know I slept?" I demanded worriedly. He held up a key hanging on his middle finger. There was a ring on his wedding finger,which caught my notice. Still angry, I took the key from him.

"I don't get any privacy?" I said archly.

Juke chose not to answer, and started walking down the hallway in thedirection of the elevators.

"Hey, wait!" I said, tugging the blanket off the floor. He waited for me,but only a minute, the went inside the nearest elevator. He helped me untangle the blanket from around my waist and under my feet, then took it from me. He put it on the elevator floor, out of the way.

"Are we going somewhere?" I said with interest.

Juke's eyes were averted to something else, and I saw him unnaturally watching the numbers go down as we shot to the ground floor. I stared at him wonderingly, then dared to reach out and touch his hand. That was a big mistake.

Juke grabbed my wrist before it touched him, and twisted it backwards enough to make me cry out. For a second I thought he was going to kill me, and wished we weren't alone in the elevator space. Then his eyes seemed to lock on mine, and he let go.

"Sorry,"was all Juke said. He carefully took my hand in his and looked at the wrist, testing it for bruises. Then he looked away again.

I was terrified. "You're really – freaky," I said with wide eyes.

Juke pretended not to hear me. "You're going to meet someone I know,"he instructed me. "Let him think you're my girlfriend. His company isn't supposed to know you're a client."

I scuffed openly. "A client?! Is that what you think I am?" I was shocked that he was so forward to think for one moment that I would have actually hired him!

Then Juke said, "Yes, that's what you are. I was hired by your brother to protect you."

I stared at the wall in front of us. I had a brother. I must have looked like a dummy when the elevator doors slid open to admit us because I was so dumbfounded,and Juke took my hand to lead me. I didn't want to be holding hands with him for a couple reasons: mostly because he had hurt one of them by accident, and because people were staring at us. Juke was very noticeable in a good way, but I was like a rag-doll who had happened to "appear" as his companion. By companion, I mean girlfriend.

Juke always appeared completely at ease in public places, but he power-walked the whole way across the lobby into the Dining Room. A waiter saw us standing in the arched entrance, and directed us to a vacant table for four. Juke sat down.