The Abduction

by Nichole Allen

  Another tear ran down my face as I finally gave in and just started crying.

  “Hey, you’re okay,” James murmured, pulling me into a hug.

  “I haven’t cried over a boy since high school,” I tried laughing. “I just wish things could go back to normal. He’s the one who wanted this relationship anyway.”

  “He’s just upset. Let him blow of some steam and he’ll be back before you know it, okay?” James pulled back to look at me and I nodded in understanding. “Okay. Let’s just spend today inside. We can order some takeout and wait for Chris to get back.”

  I nodded again as he led me to the couch and wrapped me in a blanket, pressing a kiss to my forehead as he went into the kitchen to call for takeout.

  It was going to be a long day.

  *****

  When Chris finally came home, I was lying on the couch with my legs resting on James’s lap as whatever movie he chose played on TV. Both of us perked up at the sound of the door opening and watched as a tired Chris kicked off his shoes and dropped a duffle bag on the floor. He looked up at both of us and sighed.

  “I’m sorry.” At those two words, I was on my feet and in his arms in seconds. “I’m sorry, baby. I overreacted. I don’t blame you for getting mad about that girl last night.”

  “You didn’t do anything with her, did you?” I asked hesitantly.

  “What? God, no. I just wanted to get my mind off thinking you preferred James. I didn’t want to do anything with anyone other than you two.”

  “You could’ve just talked to us, man,” James said, sauntering over to both of us.

  “I know and I feel like shit for jumping to conclusions.” He glanced between James and me before forcing a small smile. “Can we move past this? Because I smell Chinese food and I’m starving.”

  I rolled my eyes but smiled up at him, knowing the Chris I had grown to know and love was back.

  “I guess we can,” I shrugged. “We ordered extra in case you came back in time.”

  He pulled both James and me into a hug before turning towards the food, but I grabbed his hand and pulled him back to me before he could move.

  “Oh, one more thing.” I pressed my lips to his in a tender kiss, far different from those we would usually share. “I love you.”

  “I know,” he smiled. “I love you, too.”

  THE END

  See the next bonus story at the next page!

  16 of 25 Bonus Stories

  Cat and Mouse

  Ryan was hungry, but he’d eaten the healthy lunch he’d brought with him hours ago. He had not expected to still be at the office three hours after his normal finish time. First, there was a computer crash, then there was a glitch in the program that set him back just over an hour and then he found that he’d missed an entire section of the report. His head was now thumping and his empty stomach had long ceased growling but he was finished and he was leaving the building.

  He was glad to see the back of the building and knowing that it was the weekend and he could stay home for two whole days was the only thing that was keeping him going. He locked the door and turned towards the row of shops. He was taking a large juicy kebab home tonight, complete with chips and extra hot sauce.

  Picking the short route home to save his dinner from getting cold, he crossed the road and stepped into the alleyway. It was always dark but at the end, the park opened up and he would get to see the twinkling lights of the of the city and it always looked better at night. During the daytime, it was covered by a haze of smog that blurred the beauty out of everything. He would have been half tempted to eat his kebab at one of the picnic benches if it hadn’t been for the film of dampness that covered everything.

  Ryan stuck to the path and kept to the well-lit areas for fear of treading in something. There wasn’t much he was scared of. He worked out and he may not have been much of a fighter but he was an excellent runner. He had often jogged along the path that he was walking now and he wasn’t surprised to hear a jogger’s feet hit the concrete behind him. He stepped to the side to allow the runner some room but when the sound came closer, his heart began to race.

  He turned to see what was making the strange sound and a black shape bounded into view. At first, he thought it was a dog but the creature’s eyes flashed under the lamp on the path and what he saw was definitely feline. He didn’t get the chance to process the scene. The creature smacked into him, sideswiping his body across the grass. He felt a burning flash of pain across his chest and all the air expelled from his lungs

  “Sorry,” he heard a deep voice say.

  He could hear shouts as men thundered past him but no one stopped to see if he was okay. When he got his breath back, he sat up. He had been knocked under one of the picnic benches and the bag that had held his dinner had ripped. He reached for the packages and tucked them under his arm. His shirt was ripped and blood had seeped across the edges of the tears but it wasn’t much and as long as the cat didn’t have rabies he would be fine. He wasn’t happy with whoever had the nerve to say sorry but not check if he was okay. Luckily, he was okay and his dinner was still in the cartons.

  When he passed his hallway mirror, he was shocked. He was wet, muddy, bloody and bruised. It was a good thing he lived alone because he didn’t think anyone would believe that he’d been bowled over by a giant cat.

  Showering was a painful ordeal. The cuts were shallow but ragged and muddy and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a tetanus shot. Finally, wrapped in his bathrobe, he sat down to a cold kebab and then fell asleep on the sofa.

  The world had turned very cold, or at least Ryan’s apartment felt like an icebox. He had woken up shivering and despite pulling on extra blankets and turning the thermostat up, he couldn’t shake the chill. He was starting to wonder if it was too late to get that tetanus shot or if he was going to end up dying from septicemia or some other cat-scratch related disease.

  The weekend disappeared in a sea of sleep, weird fragmented dreams, and a lot of feeling sorry for himself. When Ryan woke up to the alarm on Monday morning, he felt like a new person. He’d lost weight, the scratch on his chest had stopped burning and had scabbed over and the entire apartment smelled like sour sweat. He phoned in sick since he wasn’t quite ready to face the work crowd, but he was definitely ready to eat.

  He spent the morning showering, shaving and doing all the housework that he’d left over the weekend. By the end of the day, he had clean sheets, a neat and tidy apartment and had ordered his weekly shopping. For some reason, he wasn’t quite ready to go out and face the world. It was scary enough that a wild cat had escaped in his local area without even the briefest of mentions on the news, but now it seemed that his entire neighborhood had turned up the volume and although he was feeling better, it was a little overbearing.

  By the time he had flopped onto his leather sofa. he could eat a horse. In fact, he could eat any animal, or all of them. He’d always watched his diet because he’d been the chubby teenager who missed all the best chances with the hottest girls in school and keeping his weight down in his twenties was a full-time commitment.

  He was always hungry, but he had learned to ignore that feeling, or fill up with food made predominantly of air and water. When he had caught sight of himself in the mirror that morning he couldn’t believe his luck. Who knew that a washboard stomach had been hiding under the layer of soft flesh that he’d been wearing.

  He looked great, but now he was hungry again and could probably kiss those abs goodbye. He ate a whole tray of pork shoulder, a few sprigs of leafy salad out of a bag, and a yogurt; he crashed on the sofa before he could feel any guilt at all.

  *****

  When his Tuesday morning alarm rang, Ryan jumped up and went straight to the shower. There was no way his boss would let him have two days off sick, even if he did stay late on Friday. When he soaped his stomach, it felt alien to him; not only were the ridges of the washboard still there but they were even more pronounced than before. He e
xplored his newly sculpted body until he deemed it was no longer acceptable on a work day.

  He had just enough time left to grab a cereal bar and fill his travel coffee mug. By the time he’d reached the foyer of the building, he had given up on the cereal bar. All he could taste was a gritty substance coated in syrup; not a great way to start the day. As he passed the greasy breakfast street vendor his stomach tensed. The smell made him stop walking and turn around.

  “What is that?” he asked the man in the apron.

  “Bacon on a roll or you can have the vegetarian option which is an egg on a roll,” the man said, flipping both the bacon and the egg within the same meat juices.

  “Bacon please,” Ryan said and was embarrassed to find he was actually licking his lips.

  When the vendor handed him the food wrapped in a paper napkin, Ryan took a big bite and sighed. It wasn’t gourmet, but it tasted divine. He wasn’t thinking about his ability to put on weight faster than his ex could spend his paycheck, he was just enjoying the greasy, delicious meat. Why he hadn’t done this every day was a mystery to him.

  He stepped out of the elevator licking his fingers and the woman who made copies and filed gave him an indulgent smile. He turned around to check who was behind him and when he saw that he was the only person around he grinned. It was the first time she’d acknowledged him and he knew that every single man in the office was after her. Hell, most of the not quite so single men had been ogling her too short skirt levels. By the time he had sat at his desk, he was pretty sure he’d imagined the encounter; women were never that interested in him. He checked his shirt for grease stains but no, he had managed to keep it all clean.

  “Hey dude, how was your extended weekend?” Darren asked perching on the edge of his desk.

  “I was sick, man-flu I think,” he replied pushing the guy off the workspace.

  “Should have called me, I would have taken care of you,” Darren said winking before scooting off to his own department.

  “Hey, you look different,” Hannah said. “Did you have a mini-break?”

  “No, I was sick. I lost a few pounds though,” Ryan grinned and slapped his tight new trunk.

  “Looking good,” Hannah drawled, making Ryan blush.

  Ryan felt like there was a conspiracy going on and it was all about him. Everyone was looking at him differently, especially the women. He was starting to feel uncomfortable, like the dreams where you go to work without putting your clothes on. He felt vulnerable because he was used to feeling mediocre. On three separate occasions, he’d had to remove someone’s butt from the edge of his desk and that was definitely not normal behavior in his office and most certainly not with him being the recipient.

  By the end of the day, he was mentally exhausted from all the extra work he was putting into his conversations. He felt objectified, like a piece of steak that for some reason unknown to him was suddenly very popular and extra juicy. He didn’t want to be steak, he wanted to eat steak and on that thought, he had been asked to dinner by one of his female colleagues. The fact that he couldn’t remember her name was a testament to how weird things were getting.

  He left his desk a few minutes early and hid in the supply room, which is what any normal person would do at the end of their workday. He felt stupid hiding like that but he was no longer thinking clearly. When the door opened, his heart sank, and he pressed his body into the darkest corner. A woman had walked in but he didn’t recognize her. He was relieved she wasn’t one of the women that had harassed him.

  “I am a confident woman,” she said in a gentle voice.

  He ignored her because she wasn’t looking at him. She was obviously in her own world, just hiding out like he was. She stretched and removed her chunky glasses to rub her face.

  She had delicate features hidden underneath the over-sized glasses and honey-brown eyes. She pulled her long smooth hair out of its tight bun and ruffled her hands through it, then wound it back up and secured it once more. Most women wore their hair down in the office but this odd little creature hid her beauty behind no-nonsense clothes and accessories.

  “I am a confident woman,” she said in a louder voice and he jumped slightly, knocking a pencil off the shelf.

  “I’m sorry, I should have told you I was here,” he said stepping out from behind the shelves.

  “You should have,” she said blushing a delicate shade of pink.

  “My name is Ryan,” he said holding out his hand.

  “Josie,” she replied after considering his hand for several seconds.

  When he took hold of her hand, it was tiny and cool; her bones were delicate like that of a bird’s. He must have held on to it for too long because she snatched it back and wrapped it against her ribs as if he’d burned her. He stepped back to make her more comfortable, and she breathed in, visibly.

  “I was just hiding out here for a bit; things were getting a little intense, and I wanted to wait until everyone else had gone,” he said, not sure why he was being honest with her.

  “I come here often,” she replied.

  “To say the affirmation?” He asked.

  “That’s none of your business,” she replied.

  She yanked the handle of the door so hard the door nearly smacked him in the face but his reflexes were quick and he grabbed it. He watched her go. She was beautiful, so much more so than the heavily made up vixens with their carefully planned flirty gestures and their overpowering perfumes. She intrigued him and, as he watched her gather her things and leave, he realized that she worked in his office. He had the feeling that she had been there for long enough for him to have gotten to know her, only he hadn’t.

  *****

  Of course, he would notice her now, now that he was Mr. Popular. To make it even worse he’d seen her saying that stupid affirmation, and he’d had the cheek to ask her about it. As if hiding out in the supply room wasn’t bad enough but to be caught speaking to herself was just plain awful. Why was he in there, anyway?

  She tidied her desk and turned off her computer. She was supposed to be meeting a man from the dating agency but she just didn’t know if she could go through with it. She thought that five minutes of affirmations in the cupboard would calm her nerves but thanks to Ryan, her nerves were frazzled. He had looked her up and down like she was a woman, which she was, but hell he hadn’t ever noticed her before, let alone, appreciated her form. She needed a glass of wine and a good book not a date with a man who looked a little cross-eyed if his picture was correct.

  “I’m sorry I scared you,” Ryan said again from across the room.

  Everyone else had vacated the office, running out to avoid being drafted into work a little longer on boring accounts. She had no distraction but her bag and her coat. He was staring at her like he expected an answer and she had to at least acknowledge him. After a moment she sighed, she was not ready to go on a date if she couldn’t speak to a man in her office.

  “It’s my fault, I should have checked,” she said.

  “Can I walk with you for a bit? People have been acting really odd today and you’re the only one who isn’t,” he said and he looked confused.

  “Okay,” she replied because she really didn’t know what else she could have said.

  They were right, of course, she’d heard the gossip, he looked great. He’d lost a few pounds and maybe worked out a bit but there was something else that had changed. His skin was glowing and there was a sparkle in his eyes but it didn’t match the look on his face; his face said he was tired and fed up. She stepped into the elevator and he followed her, sinking against the wall like he needed a prop.

  “I spent the weekend in bed sick, and I came back today to find that people are acting weird around me. Are they joking?” He asked.

  “You look different, like you spent the weekend at a spa and came back healthier,” she replied and thought she had done a good job of masking what her mouth was desperate to say.

  “That’s weird because I didn’t, I worke
d late on Friday night and took a kebab home. I got scratched by a large cat in the park, wanna see?”

  He began unbuttoning his shirt and she flinched. She had imagined this scenario so many times that she kind of knew it off by heart but to see it happening, and not in a private place like her bedroom, was totally disturbing and he must have seen that in her facial expression.

  “I’m sorry,” he said and buttoned up once more. “Have you heard on the news about a large cat escaping a zoo or something?” He asked as the elevator doors opened.

  “No,” she said willing the blush on her face to remove itself, she was almost sweating.

  “No, me neither. It must have been a dog,” he said but she could see he didn’t think it was. “Do you want to go for a drink?”

  “No, I have a date,” she said.

  “Of course, I’m sorry,” he said, but she wasn’t sure what he was saying sorry for this time.

  “Goodbye,” she said and walked away hoping that he wasn’t watching her.

  “Goodbye, Josie,” he called after her.

  She resisted the urge to turn around and kept on walking. She realized when she put her key in the door that she had walked right past the wine bar where she should have met her date. She wasn’t going back, she would just leave him a message on the dating site that she found someone else and then she would open the bottle of white wine in the fridge and run a bubble bath.

  She would read her new book in the bath and wouldn’t think about Ryan at all. She wouldn’t think about how his slimmer face was more chiseled or about how his shoulders filled his shirt so it was bursting with manliness, and she definitely would not have fantasies about being semi-naked with him in the cupboard during office time.

  She failed miserably at not thinking about Ryan and she even took a glass of wine onto her balcony which overlooked the park. She knew where he lived, she had walked behind him on many occasions and he hadn’t noticed at all. She’d seen him jogging on warm evenings while she was reading on a park bench and he hadn’t once recognized her. She was invisible which was perfect most of the time but sometimes she wished that one person would see her and now he had, she was terrified.