Fragile Bonds by Sloan Johnson

for what she did, but I bite my tongue. She’s not going to get off the hook with nothing more than a tongue lashing, I want her to look me in the eyes when she tries to justify what she’s done to me. “It was interesting, that’s for sure,” I respond, hoping my voice is steady. God, I hate that she knows me so well. “Can you meet me at my place in about an hour?”
    It’s going to be cutting it close to head to the outskirts of town and make it back to my apartment in an hour, but I don’t want to put this off any longer. I would rather she be waiting for me when I get there than pace around my living room waiting for her to show up. I hope I have a bottle of wine ready for when she finally leaves.
    “Yeah, you sure you don’t wanna head out? You’re always working, even more than you used to. Are you getting paid for all this time?” I’m not, but that doesn’t matter to me. I don’t spend extra time with Alyssa and Jacob for the money, I do it because they need me. There’s no sense pointing that out to Stacey because she’s the type of person who only goes above and beyond the bare minimum expected of her if she’s well compensated. For the past forty-eight hours, I’ve been trying to figure out how we stayed friends as long as we have. We have nothing in common and most of her personality traits are more grating than endearing.
    “No, I want to chill at my place. You know how it is when you get home from vacation.”
    Stacey pulls into the apartment complex parking lot at the same time I turn in. I’m shocked she’s already here. Luckily, I have the time it takes me to go up to my apartment from the underground parking garage to compose myself. Now that this is really happening, I’m not feeling nearly as brave as I was an hour ago. I hate confrontation.
    “Hey , chicka!” she squeals, running across my living room as she opens the door. Mental note, get locks changed tomorrow morning.
    “Hey,” I say unenthusiastically. I toss one arm limply over her shoulder when she hugs me as if this is the first time we’ve seen one another in decades. I shudder, wishing I hadn’t touched her. Bile rises in my throat as I get ready to jump into what’s bound to be an epic blow-up for us. I motion for her to take a seat on the couch as I curl up with Brody in the papasan chair. “So, I have to tell you something…”
    Brody climbs up my chest, giving me kisses which does help ease my nerves. At least he still loves me. “I’m working for Xavier.” I’m surprised Stacey’s head doesn’t spin out of control with how quickly she turns to look at me.
    “What in the fuck are you talking about? I thought you got that stupid fucker out of your system years ago,” she snaps. Her nostrils flare as she lets out a deep breath, her loathing of the man still quite evident. “How in the hell did he even find you?”
    “We’ll get to that whole ‘out of my system’ business in a minute. As for your last question, it was completely random. His wife is dying and she’s my client.” Stacey’s brow arches as she listens. I’m wondering if she heard a word that I said after mentioning her statement about me getting over Xavier. She has to know that I know the truth. Even she’s not that vapid. I hope.
    “Uh, and why am I just finding this out now? You’ve told me about Alyssa, but you somehow failed to mention that she’s the wife of the man who tore you down to nothing!” I hear something clatter to the floor of the kitchen when Stacey goes in search of something to drink. I would tell her to get out of my fridge, but I figure she might as well have something strong because I’m not going to let this go. “And why in the fuck wouldn’t you tell him to go to hell when you realized who he was?”
    “You are just finding this out now because I knew that this, ” I say, motioning toward her, “is how you would react. And I was tempted to turn down the assignment, but I thought better of it. And