Free Sweet Spot by Lucy Felthouse

fucking way.
    After what felt like hours but was actually less than ten
minutes, I arrived home. I motored into the underground car park, put my car in
its space and took the elevator up to my floor. I saw a couple of other
residents and exchanged smiles and greetings but mercifully no one was feeling
particularly chatty.
    Jogging up the corridor, I already had the key in my hand,
and slotted it right into the hole as I got there. I stepped through the door
and closed it carefully behind me, locked it, tossed the keys into the bowl I
kept on the sideboard, dropped my bag where I stood and headed straight for my
bedroom.
    Once there, I stripped down to my underwear and climbed
under the duvet, pulled it up over my head and let go. The prickling heat in my
tear ducts turned into fire, and before long hot tears poured down my face.
Silent at first, I let the grief overtake me, let myself sink into it until the
sobs came, growing more forceful by the second. There was nothing but the pain,
the guilt, the shock, the anger. I let them roam free, knowing that once I’d
poured out all my grief I’d feel better. Much better than if I’d kept it
bottled up.
    I’d wallow for the rest of the day, eat junk food, watch
crap TV, have a bath, drink wine. The same sort of things you’d do after a bad
breakup. Except this was worse than a breakup. So much fucking worse.

Chapter Nine
     
    My tears were still mid-torrent when I heard a knock at my
apartment door.
    Fuck! Really? I’ve been here months and no one has
darkened my doorstep. Why now?
    I ignored it, hoping whoever it was would go away. It had to
be someone from the academy, because I didn’t know anyone else in the area. And
given that so many of them were away on vacation, that narrowed the choices
down considerably. Austin, Mitchell, Nadia and a handful of others.
    Sighing, I came to the conclusion that it had to be Nadia.
I’d left Austin’s office looking okay—or so I thought. He had no reason to come
to my apartment. And I didn’t think Mitchell even knew where I lived. I
certainly didn’t know where he lived. Nadia had been waiting for me in the
cafeteria, to the best of my knowledge, so when I hadn’t reappeared she’d
probably gone looking for me, spoken to Austin and found out he’d sent me home.
    I wondered whether he’d told her why I’d been sent home. She
had been involved, after all. Or would he have decided it was my story to tell,
if I wanted to tell it?
    Another knock came, louder and more frantic this time.
“Virginia, I know you’re in there.” Nadia’s voice.
    How? How did she know I was in there?
    “I saw you zooming out of the parking lot at one hundred
miles an hour. I followed you here and your car is in your slot. It doesn’t
take a genius.”
    Oh bollocks. So she hadn’t spoken to Austin, then?
    “Virginia! Let me in. What the hell is going on?” She
paused. “Is it me?”
    Shit. Given that she had no idea what Austin had just told
me, she’d presumed that my disappearance had something to do with her. Or more
accurately what we’d just done.
    Wiping my eyes, I stumbled hastily out of bed. I couldn’t let
her get the wrong idea—it wasn’t fair. Not to mention the fact that tomorrow
I’d be okay. I’d wake up in the morning feeling better, having gotten the shock
out of my system. Everything would be back to normal and I’d be eager to pick
up where Nadia and I had left off. I wasn’t going to let that go down the
toilet just because of some scumbag.
    “Hang on!” I called, hoping she’d hear me. Then I scrambled
for the clothes I’d discarded even though part of me wondered why I was
bothering. The woman had seen me naked—touched me, for heaven’s sake.
    Once I’d put on some clothes, I headed for the door,
scraping my hands through my hair. I must have looked an utter fright but there
wasn’t really anything I could do about it. Not unless I made her wait outside
the door for fifteen minutes while I did my hair