Mr. Malik

Katherine stood in Mr. Malik’s empty office, staring at the opened doorway he just left through. She didn’t know what she was expecting when she verbalized her resignation, but she expected much more of a response than that. Tears welled in her eyes as she stood there dazed. He was so indifferent. It didn’t matter to him whether she was there or not, which only fueled the horrible thoughts in her head. It was confirmed by his actions that he was just using her for sex. She didn’t mean anything to him. She was just his play thing. And she allowed herself to be. She was so stupid.

Scrapping her dignity up off the floor, she quickly left the office and made a beeline for her bedroom. She slammed the door behind her, feeling a surge of anger. She let out a loud growl as she begun to pace the floor. He made her so mad. Absolutely livid. After everything she did for him. After all of his shit she put up with. What a complete bastard.

After taking a deep breath, trying to let his indifference slide off her shoulders as best she could, Katherine walked to her massive closet and retrieved her two large suitcases that she brought with when moving into the oversized apartment in the sky. She would take only what could fit in the two bags, to hell with the rest. Most of her stuff was in storage anyway.

She started pulling shirts off their hangers and pulling pants and the rest out of drawers. Before she knew it, her bags were filled to the brim and she finally realized she had nowhere to go. It wasn’t too long ago that she got a notice that the bank was seizing her father’s home while he was in prison due to back taxes that he hadn’t paid for who knows how many years. Her apartment was being sublet. The only options she had left were an over-priced hotel or taking a chance on one of her very few family members to take her in for a while.

Wiping away the lingering tears, Katherine sat down on the bed and flipped through the contacts on her phone. Her best friend in the world had to be her cousin Christine, and honestly, they weren’t that close, which said a lot about Katherine in the end. It was no wonder she fell so deeply for her boss. She fell into the trap he so obviously set for her. She was a lonely girl with no one to lean on. Her life was a mess.

“Kat? Hey,” Christine’s soft voice came through the line.

“Hi,” Katherine squeaked out.

“What’s the matter?” She asked immediately, concern in her tone.

“I—I quit my job,” Katherine told her, the words almost stalling on her tongue.

“What? That fancy gig with the hot billionaire? Why would you go and do that?” Christine choked out.

“It’s a long story…” Katherine said quietly, her cheeks burning red at just the thought of how explicit and dirty her time was spent under Mr. Malik’s employment.

“I’ve got time,” Christine countered, sounding absolutely pleased to get some sort of gossip. She was a housewife and mother of two small boys. She didn’t get out much anymore.

“I—I did something really stupid,” Katherine confessed, her words vague on purpose. She dreaded spilling her secrets to anyone, but she was so sick of bottling everything up when it came to Mr. Malik. She knew it was probably going to be a violation of the NDA she signed when she was first hired, but at that point, she didn’t care. Besides, who would Christine tell anyway? Her husband who worked in construction in New Jersey? Katherine was certain she’d be safe from any real repercussions.

“What did you do?” Christine asked, feigning a scolding tone.

“My boss…” She admitted, letting the two words linger over the telephone line.

“Your boss?” She asked, and it took her a minute to realize what exactly Katherine meant.

“Your boss? You slept with your boss? The hot billionaire?” Christine asked, her voice strained as if she didn’t believe her, as if she were really trying to wrap her head around it.

“Yes. Mr. Malik – erm, Zayn,” Katherine said, correcting herself. There was no need for formalities anymore. She was no longer under his employment.

“You had sex with your boss?” Christine asked again.

“Yes,” Katherine said quietly.

“So, what? Is he weird about it now? Is that why you quit?” She asked.

“Yes, but it’s not the sex he’s being weird about and it’s not the reason I quit,” Katherine told her.

“Okay, Katy. Let’s just drop the shit right now. Just tell me what’s going on. Put it all on the table. I don’t want to sit here and try to pry it out of you when you obviously need to get it off your chest. Just tell me what happened,” Christine told her bluntly, which she both appreciated and cringed at.

“We’ve been fucking since pretty much day one—” Katherine blurted out, before getting cut off by Christine.

“What?” Christine choked into the phone.

“We’ve been sleeping together – fucking in every corner of his apartment since I started as his housekeeper. He took me on the kitchen table, on his desk, against his office door, in the home gym…” She snapped, annoyed a little bit that Christine was being her usual bitchy self and even more annoyed that she was interrupting her after she told her to get it all off her chest.

“I get the picture. Jesus,” Christine chided. Katherine took a deep breath and continued.

“I had a miscarriage,” she said quietly, letting the conversation go dark with her words.

“Oh, Katy…” Christine breathed into the receiver.

“It was his and he found out and he accused me of getting pregnant on purpose, even though I had no idea I was even pregnant until I was rushed to the hospital,” Katherine told her as tears stung at her eyes again, feeling the weight of her words, of what they meant.

“I’m so sorry,” Christine told her, sounding sincere.

“That’s why I quit. That’s why I need to get out of here,” she told her finally.

“You’re still there?” Christine asked quickly.

“I have nowhere to go. I just packed everything I could into two suitcases, but I—I have nowhere to go. My dad’s house got taken by the government. Grammy just sold her house and went into assisted living. I could call Uncle Dan, but I don’t know how comfortable I’d be there…” Katherine explained as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

“Come here. You can stay here for a while, Katy. You can help out with the boys. I’m sure Aaron wouldn’t mind,” Christine told her.

“Are you sure?” Katherine asked.

“Yes. That’s what family is for,” Christine said finally.

She felt like a weight lifted off her shoulder at the invitation from Christine. She didn’t really know what she would do if she turned her away. She knew her bank account would be sure to dry up if she had to shack up at a hotel for an extended period of time.

Dragging the two large suitcases out of her massive bedroom in the Malik estate, Katherine gave the space one last once-over, hoping she wasn’t leaving behind anything with too much significance to her. She didn’t want to have to come back. With one last deep breath, she shut off the bedroom light and walked out, pulling the suitcases to the front door. She thought of leaving Zayn a letter or a note of some sort. Maybe something formal to signify her resignation in writing, but knew he didn’t deserve another moment of her time, of her care or patience.

“Miss Mason?” She heard from behind her and turned quickly seeing Mr. Bates standing there.

“Derek…” She gasped, using his first name for the first time ever. She was really on a roll when it came to dropping the formalities.

“Where… where are you going?” Mr. Bates asked quickly, his eyes dropping to the two suitcases at her side.

“I quit,” she said finally, taking a cleansing breath.

“You quit?” He choked out.

“I quit,” she said again with a nod.

“Does Mr. Malik know?” He asked, looking almost horrified.

“I sure hope so, since I told him before he left for the office about two hours ago,” Katherine informed the man who stood in front of her – still green in experience, still young in age.

“Oh,” he said, dropping his gaze to the floor for a moment.

“I’m sorry for everything you’ve had to… see,” she told him, almost wishing she didn’t bring it up. Because the dark shade of red his cheeks turned was almost worse than the words themselves.

“I’m sorry,” she said again.

“It was a pleasure, Miss Mason… I mean, working with you. Working with you was a pleasure… not you know… Damn it. I’m sorry,” Mr. Bates said, fumbling over his words, fumbling over his embarrassment.

Katherine was too broken to feel any kind of embarrassment over it anymore. She succumbed to the fact that the security team had a front row seat every time Mr. Malik fucked her.

“It was a pleasure, Mr. Bates,” she told him with a nod before she turned to the door.

“Let me help you,” he offered.

“It’s fine. I’m fine,” she told him, but it didn’t stop him from taking both suitcases and lugging them out to the elevator.

Mr. Bates rode with her down to the lobby. She stammered, trying to tell him to go back up, that she could take the bags once they reached the lobby, but he insisted. And by the time Katherine looked up, she was bombarded with Mr. Malik’s presence, followed shortly by Mr. Higgins. Zayn’s eyes were on hers in an instant. His dark ones piercing through her soul, tearing her apart even more inside. She wanted to run in the opposite direction, but there was nowhere to go. She was stuck.

“Miss Mason,” Zayn said, his voice velvety smooth and delicious. Her insides twisting and turning as she stared back at him.

“Zayn,” she breathed lowly. His eyes only dropped to see the two large pieces of luggage in Mr. Bates’ firm grasp, before looking back up at her.

“My cab should be waiting,” she said, turning to tell Mr. Bates, so he knew where to take the bags. He nodded and began walking toward the exit, but Zayn stopped him.

“Mr. Bates, tell the driver his services will not be needed…” Zayn informed his second in charge. Katherine’s heart sped up. Was he going to beg her to stay?

“Mr. Malik?” Mr. Bates questioned.

“Take the SUV and bring her wherever she needs to go,” Zayn finished and the breath Katherine was holding in was let out hard along with the last bit of hope she had for the man standing in front of her.

Zayn’s eyes were on hers again a moment later.

“Always a pleasure, Miss Mason,” he said finally, his words piercing her like a dagger to the heart. With that, he continued on toward the elevator. Mr. Higgins sent her a look of sadness before he patted her shoulder softly and continued on toward his asshole megalomaniac boss.

Once Katherine got into the back of the SUV her tears hit her again full force. Compared to the morning, her last run-in with Zayn hit her like a bulldozer. Taking her last shred of dignity and demolishing it. He didn’t give a shit about her and she realized he never did.

Notes