Piss on your property to keep others away.
That was the way to go. Not that he did that. Ever. That was beneath him.
In the playpen, he found new toys, which he presumed she had brought for Dino. In the bathroom, he could smell her scent on the discarded towels.
She had marked his home thoroughly, yet he couldn't reconcile with it.
The information she had left behind meant nothing. But it was all he had for the moment. He knew what he had to do. He had to sit her down and apologize to her about his behavior. Then, he needed to keep away from her as much as possible.
So, he spent the weekend locked in his home. He pretended he didn't care to know more about the mysterious woman he had encountered earlier by studiously researching or cataloging information. Yet, he continued his habit of walking around the house to retrace her steps.
It confused Dino thoroughly because his owner seemed to be in a trance and not playing with him in the least. He ignored the vibrations of his phone and the outside world after telling his manager to leave him alone for a couple of days.
He sulked in embarrassment.
By the end of Sunday, he was thoroughly exhausted but made some decisions. He stretched out on the couch in his room, away from her scent, and worked out a plan.
She was an anomaly, he was willing to admit that. But she couldn't defeat him and her mission. Randall would use this as a challenge to test his discipline and focus on his goals. And if it didn't work out, he would let her go and find himself a new assistant.
But for that moment, he would immerse himself in her smell and her calmness and struggle to become stronger than just a lump of emotions.
- - - - -
Trina stood on the curb in front of Randall Wright's house talking to herself.
To a passerby, she looked unbalanced and Trina admitted that she probably was. That and more. She didn't know many people who would have gone back to their hostile workplace. She wasn't even sure if she still had a job. But when she was calmer and thought about Randall's response that night, she had to admit that he had asked her to leave in the calmest, smoothest, yet creepiest voice she had ever heard. She wasn't someone who quit for trivial reasons even though her cribbing about the clinic said otherwise. And with Mr. Wright being a jerk, as far as she was concerned, he was no different from those socialites she met on a regular basis.
It was a beautiful day, the first in almost a week. She wanted to take advantage of the sun and stay outside as much as possible. She hoped that Mr. Wright would take the opportunity to be out of the house all the time and be busy with his shooting. As far as she was concerned, as long as he was far away from her, she couldn't be bothered.
So, with one last curse under her breath, she was ready to head into the house. "Randall Wright can go fuck himself," she said before stepping off the sidewalk and onto the path leading to the front steps of the house.
With her chin up and shoulders squared, she strode down the walkway and up the steps. When she entered the house and looked at her desk, she saw the landline completely crushed. She pushed aside what was once the phone with her hand, having no idea what happened. It looked like a bulldozer had run it over.
Trina realized that Mr. Wright must not know this hand happened as he tended to use the garage door and not come into this part of the house often. There was no note on the desk, either. So, he had definitely not seen this. Had the dog done something? She really didn't want to discuss this with him in person or on the phone.
The house was in silence. Mr. Wright was out of the house or upstairs at the least. She decided to treat this day like any other like Friday hadn't happened at all.
Trina, walked through the house to place her lunch inside the refrigerator, noting that her food from last week was still left inside. Everything else was different. Like Mr. Wright had finished twenty pounds of meat in three nights. She understood there was a husky to feed, but huskies couldn't eat that much, it wasn't good for their health. She wondered if she should inform Mr. Wright about this before the Husky got unwell.
When she went down to sit on the desk, the computer pinged, showing that an email had come in. It was from Mr. Wright. The list of her tasks for the day was mentioned in it.
Trina was now sure that she hadn't been fired.
She noted that the first thing to do was call a repair person for the landline. It was still under warranty.
'Good, he knew already. It must have been the dog,' she thought. The list instructed her to stay in the house with the repair person at all times. It was surely because he couldn't come out and talk to other people about how popular he was. He had also given some other tasks which required her to write reports.
She found the contact information quickly and called the company. The woman on the other side squealed when she heard who Trina's boss was and said she would immediately inform someone to be at the house within the hour.
Trina rolled her eyes as she heard the eager secretary make arrangements for the workmen to be there as soon as possible. She looked at the daunting list in front of her and started going through it at a quick pace. She had made it through her few pages when the front door rang. Expecting the workmen, she rushed over to open the door. Instead, she was surprised to see that it was the postal delivery man carrying a huge box instead.