"Selling my soul would be a lot easier if I could just find it."

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𝑪𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒔

September 6th

I step out of the shower and wrap the towel around my waist.

The smell of turkey bacon motivates me to speed things up a bit. I smile knowing Morgan was thoughtful enough to prepare something great this morning.
She's always been an angel, but lately, she's like God herself.

Back on the farm, she joked about becoming so "domesticated." I see that now. Between ironing my clothes, greeting me at the door with tea and my slippers when I come home from work, she's definitely playing the role of housewife all too well. Hey, that's not a complaint.

It seemed like we were gone for a month 'cause so much went down, but it was only four days.
I finally returned Russell's calls - all bullshit. He thinks I'm his "right hand man" now but I'm not. Actually, I can't wait for this project to be out of my hands so I don't have to deal with him anymore.

Seeing Morgan so scared and against the people that I work with, it made me wonder. Of course I'll always support her, she's not a fucking nut job, so she must be onto something. I just don't know what's so bad about Russell, yet, or his elitists associates. Well, besides their disregard for people of lower social classes. Still, I don't think that's enough evidence for Morgan to think they're some sort of devils.

I'm almost finished getting dressed but the smell of Morgan's French toast lures me upstairs with my shirt over my bare shoulder.

There she is, future Mrs.Vaughn, looking like a sexy little nerd in those blue-light glasses she's been wearing. Her grown out hair is straight for a change and flowing down her back.
She chews one of my company pens, thinking hard about something (probably plans for my birthday party.) I know it's supposed to be a surprise but she left some tabs up on her laptop one day and I happened to peek. By "happened to peek" I mean I fully read every little detail. Sorry. I'm not going to let her know that I know, she'd kill me. I can act clueless for two more days.

I creep further up the stairs just to spy on Morgan some more.
She has on nothing but this pink satin mini dress and her breasts are spilling out of it.
One of the spaghetti straps slides off of her shoulders
and she doesn't bother lifting it back up.

I'm feral.

To make my presence known before she has to scramble and hide all of her big "secret" plans on the laptop, I knock on the wall.

"Hey, baby!" She beams, closing her MacBook. See.

"Good morning." I clear my throat, stepping fully into the kitchen.

Morgan gets up from the table to make my plate for me and then brings it to me at the table.

"Happy almost birthday." She sings, sitting on my lap.

The smell of ambery cedarwood hits my nose just right. She always smells so damn good. That's one of my favorite things about her, the way she takes care of herself. So hygienic, so feminine. Ugh, and she feels just as soft - thanks to her natural products. I love them, too, use the soap everyday and her body scrubs to exfoliate. Just 'cause I'm a man doesn't mean I need rough skin. Morgan keeps me together, but I draw the line at waxing my eyebrows. She's tried, though.

I just always wonder how she can be so put together at this time of the morning.

I kiss her silky shoulder and twirl my fingers in her hair, admiring how much it's grown in such a short amount of time, but she never likes to keep it too long, says that's "just not (always) cute to have (real) hair to your butt."

"What do you have planned for the day?" She asks me. Her voice is pretty, like everything else about her, even her laugh.

I can't help it, that trip to bumfuck really brought us closer together. That's why I've been encouraging Jas and JB to travel more; they need it.

Morgan feeds me some fruit and I know she doesn't mean to but she just does it so seductively that I get lost and entranced.

"After work, I'm going to a tattoo party with JB and Lee, remember?"

She shakes her head. "You don't really need another tattoo, do you?"

I nod my head. "Absolutely. I want to start the other sleeve."

"You know what we need," she suggests, "a vacation! What about Amsterdam?!"

"Morgan," I say between sips of my tea. "I think we'll have to wait on that, okay? I have to go, but text me."

She hops out of the chair and hands me my messenger bag for work. I thank her with a kiss and finally pull my shirt on.

"How do I look?" I cha-cha to show off my outfit and otherwise smooth moves, making her laugh adorably.

"You look perfect, as always," she says. "I am so lucky."

"Yes you are." I agree, but humbly.

Morgan giggles again and then gives me the biggest hug ever.

"Have the best day," she wishes. "I love you. So much."

I open the door and pretend I'm not going to say it back, jogging down the stairs.

"Chris!" Morgan shouts, alarming passing pedestrians.

I laugh on the way to my car. "I was kidding! I love you more!"

~~~

"Where the hell did you run off this time, Vaughn?" Phil tests me once we leave the hour long team meeting.

I dodge Frank's playful left hook and push him into one of the interns who spills their coffee.

It's a girl in a red knee-length skirt.

Phil and Frank laugh and I nudge them for it.

"Sorry." I say to her, getting ready to bend down to help.

When I offer a hand, though, she does a double take and I retract my limb so we don't have that awkward moment of brushing each others hands.

"Thanks." She says lowly. "I'm Amber."

"You're welcome." I reply stale, walking away.

"Not touching that one, huh?" Phil catches up just to tease me.

I wave him off.

"Why would he, he's got a great girl at home? How is Morgan, by the way, my wife's been asking about her since that little episode at the ball?" Frank goes on.

I just look at him and blink slow.

"Speaking of," Phil guffaws, "dude, you were totally about to beat Beck's ass. That was the greatest thing I've ever seen!"

I shake my head. "I wasn't going to fight him."

"Whatever, man, he deserves it. The way he was talking to Morgan, I would've uppercut his ass." Frank spills.

"Uppercut? You can't fight, dude." Phil gives him a hard time.

Frank then demonstrates his piss poor wrestling moves but I'm stuck on the last thing he said.

"I'm sorry, what did he say to Morgan?" I wonder.

Frank and Phil stop cutting up to give me some answers.

"Uh, my wife said she heard the whole thing; something about drugging her and sending her flowers?" Frank reveals after all this time.

"I thought you knew?" He covers his mouth and starts to pace. "Dude, I am so sorry. Don't tell Beck you heard that from me, though."

I put my hand up and walk ahead alone, having heard enough.

Adrenaline carries me all the way to Beck's office.

I bypass his secretary and barge right in.

He's on the phone and facing the windows, sucking up to whoever's on the other end of that call.

I look around. What's here? A stapler. A baseball bat. A collectible sword. All things I could use on him but my fists will suffice.

"—K. Bye-bye." Beck Jordan hangs up the phone. He doesn't turn around to acknowledge me, but says, "Ah, Christopher, what can I do for you?"

This is it.

"Well, hurry, I don't have all day." He rushes me.

Everything in me is on fire. I'm physically shaking, I'm so mad.

"Come to finish what you started?" He cackles, spinning in his chair.

And when he finally faces me like a man, I drop my palms onto his glass desk and exhale.

"I'm giving you my two weeks notice." I let out, feeling relief leave my body. Leaving here will be a far better satisfaction than giving him a concussion.

"What?" He basically gasps, looking up at me.

"Do you need it in writing, or something? In two weeks from now, I'm done. I'm leaving. I quit. Or you want it in Spanish: Lo dejo." It feels good to get that off of my chest.

"Vaughn, you can't quit."

"I can, and I am. Find somebody else, I don't have to deal with this shit."

"Well why don't you just make it easier on yourself and leave now?"

"Are you trying to tempt me?"

He stands and scoffs, "What is it you want, a raise? Done."

I just shake my head and head towards the door.

"A personal assistant?" He shouts after me.

"I don't want anything from your or this company, Beck. This is what you wanted, right, me gone? Stop while you're ahead 'cause this is the nicest I'm gonna be about the situation."

"VAUGHN!" Beck yells after me as I push the door open and walk through it.

~~~

"Goddamn." I hiss at the burn of the cognac.

"That'll put some hair on ya chest." Jabari comments, pouring another shot.

"I missed my brothers. We haven't had guys night in forever." Lee has to be the one to be sentimental.

"For real, I missed you, C. Did the trip do you good at least?" Lee asks me.

I look at the tattoo artists' work as he finishes the piece on my arm.

"Yeah," I answer with no hesitation. "Morgan and I had a good time, we're a lot closer. She's— oh my God— she's been even more perfect since we got back."

"Really?" Asks JB.

I nod proudly. "We haven't even had sex, yet."

"Damn." Lee adds.

"And you're cheesing like a little girl. Man, she got you whipped. What the fuck did y'all do out there?" Jabari questions.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Shit, I would like to know; Jasmine's been on my ass about this romance stuff. I took your advice about the foreplay shit, but after I ate her out, she said she was tired and went to sleep." Jabari makes me laugh.

"Anyway, don't tell Izzy or Jas but I know what Morgan planned for my birthday."

They both groan and flail their arms.

"What the hell, Chris?" Lee snarls.

"She gon' kill you." Jabari says what I already know.

"It doesn't matter, anyway, I'm not even in the mood for a fucking birthday party. I gotta figure out what to do about work."

"I still can't believe you gave him your two weeks notice like that." Lee gripes.

"Fuck that. I still can't believe you ain't whoop his ass. Why you ain't whoop his ass?" Jabari humors me.

"I don't wanna get in anymore shit. Beck would like if I beat his ass, he'd get off on it. No, I need to ruin his life another way."

"The way you fight, you will ruin his life. All I'm saying is, we can call Trey and AJ and handle his ass."

"All done, my guy." The tattoo artist shows me the tattoo in the mirror.

"Thanks, man." I say, hopping out of the chair.

~

10:34 pm

"I should probably go home, Morgan doesn't like to sleep without me. And I do have work in the morning." I try to convince the guys it's time to retire but they clown me and jump the velvet rope outside of the club.

I look up at read the name of the place:

Dice bar

There's a decent line outside but JB knows the security guard so we get to bypass it.

The half-dressed hostess seats us at a dark table across from a trio of Latina women who are already staring at us.

"Sorry, ladies, I'm taken, but I can still buy you a drink." Lee doesn't think what he's doing is flirting. The way I see it is, if I wouldn't like or let Morgan do it, it's cheating.

The women laugh and exchange whispers. They point to JB and I, and I pretend to read the menu even though I already know what I want - chicken tenders and fries, the safest thing to get at a bar.

"JB, don't do it." I have to warn him in a whisper.

He cuts his dark eyes at me. "I ain't doing shit," he claims. "just going to talk. Order for me, I'll be back."

I shake my head once I realize that they've both left me so they could talk to the women.

With the sudden urge to piss, I get up and ignore the last girl's thirsty comments at me.

I leave the bathroom and run into someone on my way out.

"Chris Vaughn?" One of the bottle girls says my name.

"Who are you?" I genuinely don't know this person.

"Nobody to you, yet," she calls herself flirting, I think. "Your friends moved to the red room in the back, they wanted me to tell you."

"Here," she offers me a shot and winks. "it's from the guys, they said 'don't be a pussy.'"

"Pfft." I take the double shot and shoo her away with the empty glass.

I rub my burning chest and head towards this red room she's pointed to with her ridiculously long black nails.

This is just like Lee and JB to want to stay out and party all night just because they're not loyal to their girlfriends and have shitty jobs they can just not show up for and it won't matter.

I'm gonna go in here to tell them I'm leaving and that's it, I make a plan in my head.

"Yo." I project my voice as soon as I walk in.

We'd been drinking since six but that shot just did it. Fucking hell. What even was that?

I hear laughter from the corner of the room and spot JB being escorted out by some dancer. She's naked and already helping him out of his clothes.

"Jabari!" I yell but it makes my head throb. Goddamn it.

I stumble back and take a seat.

"Lee?" I croak, hoping he's in better shape than JB and I.

Only, he's doing blow off of another girl's flat chest.

"What the fuck?" I groan, burying my head in my hands. Strippers? Cocaine? What is this?

When I lift my head up, everything is spinning.

Lee is being escorted out by another naked lady and I can't even yell loud enough to get his attention.

My first instinct is to call Morgan and tell her about this predicament before it's too late.

I take my phone out of my pocket but I can barely feel my fingers. It's a very strange sensation, but they're going numb. That, and my battery is extremely low at two percent.

I keep trying, though, and finally use my knuckles to dial her number but it just keeps ringing. She must be sleep. I try again but my phone falls out of my hands.

"Need a hand, Mr.Vaughn?" A voice whispers in my ear.

"Fuck," I exhale, leaning over the seat I'm in. "yes. Please, get my phone."

I try sitting up to see who is there to thank but my vision's gone blurry. I can't make out facial features, just that it's a woman's body fully nude.

I blink over and over but my eyesight just gets worse and—