#Chapter6
I was jostled awake by warm hands, files falling off my lap onto the floor in a disorganized mess. Shit, I had fallen asleep. I scrambled to my feet in a panic. Tobias watched me, dark eyes widening at my disheveled appearance. Tobias pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head. I fought the urge to yawn and stretch like a cat. Woken up or not, that had been a great nap. No seatbelt digging into my hip, no hard seats beneath me, just pure comfort. I felt like a new woman after that one night.
/"You were supposed to head home, have you been working all night?/"
/"Shit/" My hands flew to my mouth at the language I used in front of my boss. /"I must have dozed off. Just give me a minute and I will get cleaned up for the meeting./"
Theo stepped into the office looking gorgeous as ever in his grey suit. He took in my appearance. My shirt wrinkled, my hair a mess, god knows what my face looked like, but I knew it wouldn’t be pretty. I'd seen the drool a good sleep left plastered to my face, and I would probably look like a raccoon from my eye makeup. He raised an eyebrow at Tobias.
/"She fell asleep working,/" Tobias stated, clearly not happy that I was asleep yet again at work.
If only they knew I slept here every night, just not in the office. I smiled to myself at the thought. If they thought this was crazy, they would completely freak out if they knew the car garage was my current residence.
Moving towards me, Theo gripped my blouse. I squeaked at his closeness and leaned back. Theo reached for me again and gripped the bottom of my blouse, his fingers brushing my stomach as he pulled my blouse off over my head. I quickly covered up my purple lace bra, trying to hide from his lingering gaze on my chest. I had great tits, but that didn’t mean I wanted to show them off to my boss!
Tobias didn't even blink. He moved away from me, opening a door that appeared to be a closet of sorts. No matter the amount of time I had spent in this office, I had never known there was a closet in the wall. Inside a couple of men’s shirts hung, their crisp lines as perfect as the men who wore them. How had I never seen that the wall had a cupboard in it? Were there other hidden compartments? What else was hiding in here, and was Theo's office the same way?
Grabbing a white shirt off the hanger, Tobias walked over to me and stood in front. Theo moved to my side and watched. Tobias reached to pry my hands away from my chest, but I pulled back and scooted out of reach refusing to uncover myself. Tobias' eyes grew darker under the lighting making me squirm under his intense gaze.
/"We have a meeting in five minutes, and you can’t go in there like that./" He reached for my wrist again.
/"I can dress myself,/" I hissed, reaching for the shirt with one hand, the other still firmly across my chest. Instead of giving me the shirt, he shoved my arm through the armhole and pulled the other half around me, working around the confines of the couch I continued to sit on. I gave up and let him finish dressing me. I wasn’t their type. it was not like they would be gawking at my breasts.
/"Suppose it isn’t like it matters with you both being gay,/" I muttered to myself. I was being childish about being half-naked in front of them. I needed to focus on the meeting, it was my fault for falling asleep.
Tobias' hands froze at my cleavage where he was doing up the buttons. His brows knit. Theo came over and started rolling up my sleeves leisurely with a silly grin on his face. I could tell he was trying not to laugh. I watched silently, they seemed to be amused by something. I raised an eyebrow at Tobias who still had his fingers on the button right between my breasts, he hadn't moved, just stared at it as if it was the most interesting button in the world and could tell him life's secrets.
Theo snorted, trying to hold in his laugh almost choking on it.
/"What?/" I asked, annoyed that I wasn’t being let in on this inside joke of theirs. I stared from one to the other trying to decipher the mood change.
/"We aren’t gay,/" Tobias replied a faint smirk on his lips. I met his gaze, and his attention dropped back to that button. My entire body heated up, the blood rushing to my face and probably making me look splotchy as hell. I had worked here all this time thinking they were gay. How had I read that wrong? I saw them kissing...hadn't I?
/"You’re not gay?/" I asked slowly. Maybe they were tricking me?. My eyebrows disappeared into my hairline.
/"Definitely not gay. We both like women,/" Theo replied, rolling the sleeves of my shirt up. His eyes lingered on my exposed chest, a hungry glint just beneath their surface. I had just gotten semi-naked in front of my bosses. What were they thinking? That was a lawsuit waiting to happen, not that I would sue them. I needed my job, but this entire scenario made me mortified
/"But I saw you kissing his neck,/" I blurted.
Tobias raised an eyebrow at me. /"Not everything you see is what it appears to be./" Could he get away from my chest? I didn't have that many buttons! But I couldn't bring myself to pull away, it was all I could do to just manage to stay upright.
/"Well, I’m pretty sure I didn’t imagine it, and you both live together./" I pointed to the two of them as if forcing myself to remember their connection.
/"We share a home, but that’s not all we like to share,/" Theo’s voice whispered beside me. I jumped at his closeness, his breath was cold on my neck and made me shiver. There was that hunted feeling again.
/"We aren’t gay, we like women too,/" Tobias emphasized the last word, licking his lips. Were my bosses hitting on me, or was I blowing this all out of proportion in my head?
I scrambled to my feet, doing the last of my buttons, and scurried out of the office. I could swear they laughed at my escape. I rushed into the bathroom and did as much damage control as possible. I still had a meeting to get through.
When I walked in, a few people’s heads turned at my shirt choice, but no one said anything. Even if they wanted to, I doubt they would have dared with Tobias and Theo walking in directly behind me. Whenever they were around, people seemed to disappear or walk away in the opposite direction. No one liked crossing their path for fear of losing their jobs or being yelled at or having something thrown at them.
The fact that every other secretary quit under them showed how demanding they could be. Once the meeting was over, after endless hours of going through the files I'd sorted, I hastily left the room, going back to my desk, when my phone rang. It was the hospital calling. I didn’t hesitate to answer. I prepared myself. /"Hello./"
/"Imogen, it’s me, Sally./" Her voice came out in a rush. My heart skipped a beat. I had been waiting for this call, I just wasn’t expecting it to be today.
/"The Medical Ethics Board ruled against you. They have decided to turn your mother’s life support off, saying it is no longer medically viable to have her remain on it./" Her words made sense, but after her first sentence, I found it impossible to focus.
My lungs constricted painfully, the pressure almost unbearable. I thought I was prepared for this phone call. I'd wasted a night I could have seen her, one more day holding her hand, telling her I loved her. My throat got tight, it was hard to breathe, and I started hyperventilating. My eyes blurred with unshed tears. I couldn't afford to pass out. Not when my mother needed me. My heart plummeted into my stomach. I fought the tears from spilling over. Sally was still talking, I needed to focus on her. Grasping the phone, my knuckles felt like they were going to split through my skin. My voice shook, I could barely get the words out, I was surprised Sally could understand me at all. I couldn’t even recognize the simple word that just came out of my mouth. /"When?/"
/"Tonight, Imogen. I’m so sorry./" Sally didn't sound like she was doing so good herself. But I had nothing in me to care about others. I hung up the phone in a daze and grabbed my keys and purse. I was on full autopilot. My hands shook as I tried to think of what I should be doing at this moment. Gathering the last few things I needed, I made my way to the elevator. My vision had gotten dark, all I could see was straight ahead. I jabbed the button to go down and the doors slid open revealing my two bosses in all of their glory. But yet, none of that mattered to me. I had to get out, get to the hospital and get there now.
They were talking but stopped immediately as I shuffled into the elevator, moving between them. They turned around both staring at me. Theo spoke but I couldn’t hear a word he was saying, my ears pounded with my heartbeat. The only word I heard was tonight, they were taking her off tonight. Theo reached for me, but I put my hands up, warding off their advances as my body shook.
/"Don’t touch me, I… I need to go,/" I stammered out before slamming the button repeatedly to go down to the ground floor. They quickly stepped out of the elevator, concern etched on both their faces before the closed doors erased them from my sight.
I knew they were concerned, but right now I didn’t care to explain my current situation. Not that it involved them, or that they would care. I just needed to get to her. Get to my mum and say goodbye before it was all over.