34. Some days I want to shake him!
MICHELA
34
The moment Corrado steps into the elevator, the staff hurries over to Evans’s office, swarming him with questions about his well-being. I sit behind my desk and drop my face into my hands, waiting for them all to leave before I appear in front of Evans and apologize for whatever Corrado said to him.
I think he might’ve punched him in the face.
If Evans and Corrado only got into a shouting match, then Helen, a senior designer who I think is into Evans, wouldn’t be hurrying over to him with a bag of ice from the break room while also giving me the stink-eye. Granted, she often looks at me with distaste. I don’t know why since I barely know her.
Maybe because she thinks I’ll steal her man. I most certainly won’t. I have my hands full with my husband, who managed to fire me without even being my boss.
My inner critic makes me feel bad for bitching about Corrado, because I’m living much better than I was living with Mom in the shitty apartment that smelled like stale beer and cigarettes.
But living with him comes at the price of freedom. He’s called me an angel and a bird, and it’s fitting since he treats me like a winged creature in his cage. He decides when I get to play outside and when I must stay put. He decides everything.
When I signed the agreement with him, I didn’t know he was such a huge control freak and that he’d interfere in my life on all levels. I’m hoping that his jealousy means that he cares about me. I’m not sure where that will lead, but his giving a shit about me makes me feel less stupid for missing him when I don’t see him.
I wait a few minutes for the crowds to clear from Evans’s office before I walk in. Evans is sitting on the sofa, his head thrown back, a towel over his face, a bag of ice on top of it.
“Are you okay?” I ask. When I walked by, I didn’t see bruising on his face. When Corrado’s in a room full of people, it’s difficult to notice anyone or anything else. He’s a lighthouse, and I’m the boat finding my way to him.
Evans lifts his head, making the towel and the ice fall.
I gasp at the damage to his cheek and eye and rush to his side. “Oh my God, Henry.” His eye is swollen shut! I want to help, but when I sit by him and pick up the ice, he scoots to the edge of the sofa. “Stay away. I need my other eye.”
“Corrado left.”
“He might have left, but he installed cameras everywhere the day you started working and has been monitoring us ever since.”
I gape.
Evans nods. “It’s true.”
“That’s absurd. Are you sure?”
“Certain. He told me himself.”
“Is that even legal?”
Evans snorts. “No, which is why I’m having them removed. I don’t need multiple lawsuits, especially not from Chris over there, who’s been banging Nancy in accounting, and now Corrado is threatening to send the images to Chris’s wife.”
“This gets better and better. What else has he done?”
“Gotten you fired from my team.”
“Awww, Henry, you must know I wanted to work for you.”
“Of course you did. I am awesome.”
I chuckle. “Yes.”
“But I fucked with Corrado when I hired you.” He pushes the ice around in the bag.
“No, you didn’t, Henry. I wanted the position you originally offered and not as an independent contractor, not so soon, anyway. I need a mentor, someone who will show me the ropes. Gah, some days, I want to shake him!” I look around. “Where are his cameras?”
Evans leans forward on his elbows. “Corrado called me and asked me as a friend to help you set up your business. I promised him I would, but then you came around asking for an advance. I remembered what you told me during the interview, and I couldn’t say no to you. But I should have. You are Corrado’s wife.”
I want to correct him. I do, and yet I’m afraid Corrado will kill him if he knows I’m only his wife on paper. Instead of being the cause of Evans’s demise, I point to his face. “I’m sorry about your eye.”
Evans waves it off. “No big deal. This isn’t the first or last time Corrado and I get into a fight.”
“No?”
“Nah. I barely got out alive when he found out I banged his sister.”
“Oh no.” I cover my mouth.
Evans smirks. “Oh yeah. You see how it could’ve been a lot worse.”
Corrado could’ve asked him to jump from the window. “If there’s anything I can do for you…” I pause, waiting to see if he’ll say there is something.
“Stay on your end of the bargain with Corrado. You work for you. Here.” Evans stretches his arm behind him and reaches the library that serves as an office partition, giving him some semblance of privacy. He picks out two books and hands them to me. “Those will help. For the rest, I’ll have my new secretary type something up for you. You are going to the event this weekend?”
“Corrado mentioned an event, yes.”
“During the event, scope out clients and try to get at least one interested party willing to have you work on their space. I’ll provide instructions for the rest. How to manage them, what to say, and most importantly, how to close your first deal with a high profit margin.”
“You don’t have to do all that.”
“It’s the least I can do. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to see about resting my eyes.”
Evans throws the towel back over his face.
“At least let me wet it for you.”
“Michela Mancini, you will not wet a single thing of mine.”
“I meant the towel.”
He chuckles. “Cameras, remember?”
Evans is dismissing me gently, but I linger, curious about this one thing. “Hey, Corrado called you his soldier.”
There’s a long pause before Evans answers. “We served together.”
“That’s what he said, but I feel like there’s more to it. Is there?”
Evans shrugs. “Better ask him.”
“I doubt he’d tell me.”
“Then he doesn’t trust you.”
“Ouch.”
“Don’t take it personally. It’s the nature of his beast.”
I return to my desk and try to go on about my day, which consists of turning all my projects over to Helen, who hates me.
Sometime after lunch, Daisy visits and I make her tell me all about her date. She tells me how she wishes he was less polite and more forceful. She says he’d be the type of a guy who would ask if she were okay while he fucked her, and she wouldn’t want that. I tell her she’s lucky and should keep him because on the opposite end of her man is the man who expects absolute obedience for fucking her without apology.
I don’t think Daisy would trade her freedom for some fun in the sheets.
And that’s the problem with conceding to Corrado. Once you give yourself completely, he’ll take over everything, then depart along with your heart, leaving you walking around New York like a zombie, unable to function without him dictating your every move.
As I grab my purse, intent on going home and making that lasagna I said I’d try, I consider all the ways Corrado’s already taken over my life. Somewhere between my desk and the elevator, I decide that I want a night for myself.
I catch up with Daisy and ask her if she wants to go out. Excited, saying she hasn’t been out with a girlfriend since high school, Daisy agrees.
She takes me home so I can grab a few things, then we go to her house to change and get dolled up.
I haven’t been out clubbing with girlfriends since Katie left for Jamaica. I miss her, and Daisy’s cute, bright face is just what I need to let loose tonight.