Chapter 3: Same Old Worries

People in the lounge room had started to leave one by one as the end of their break was approaching them. Leaving the room almost empty except for the three ladies sitting at the table in strained silence. Cherry blinked her eyes copiously before giggling at what her friend had said. She retracted her hand that was being held by Leona before waving it dismissively.

“There’s no way that Brandon would cheat on me.”

“But-” Mary started but got swiftly cut off by Cherry, who held her hand up.

“It’s really not like that, ladies. I once too thought that he was cheating on me, but look what happened.” She raised her hand where her wedding band wrapped around her ring finger. “I got proposed. Brandon would never hurt me like that. He’s perfect in every type of way.” The words that left her mouth were firm silencing the two ladies and making it difficult for them to touch further on the subject. They wanted to say something else to their friend when a tall figure loomed over Cherry, causing their eyes to turn into pairs of saucers. Cherry’s brows raised in wonder, seeing the shocked expressions on her friends’ faces at the sight of something behind her. A shadow that didn’t belong to them was cast over their table, catching Cherry’s attention. She looked over her shoulder to see who was standing behind her, only to get stunned herself as Mark Moore, the CEO of the company, stood behind her wearing a superficial smile as he looked at the ladies sitting at the table.

“I hope that I didn’t interrupt in an important conversation, but Ms. Graywood has to attend a meeting with me. You ladies don’t mind if I take her, do you?”

With their jaws still slack, Mary and Leona shook their head slowly while staring at Mark absentmindedly, in disbelieve that he was truly standing in front of them.

Smiling at the ladies, Mark moved his attention towards Cherry, who also still need to grasp reality. Did Mr. Moore really come all this way to pick her up? She thought, surprised.

“Ms. Graywood.” Mark offered Cherry his hand. She stared at it before craning her head back to look at Mark, asking herself if it was truly alright for her to take his hand. She understood he was doing this out of politeness, but she didn’t want to create a wave of harmful gossips where she would get vilified. Her eyes wandered around the lounge room to see that it was empty except for them and decided that it was okay to take his hand as she gingerly reached for it.

Cherry stood up and let Mark guide her out of the lounge, but before the doors closed behind them, Leona, who finally broke away from her stupor, called out to her pregnant friend.

“Cherry!”

Though the doors were already at the point where they were ajar, her voice reached Cherry’s ears and made her look over her shoulder to see Leona rise from her seat. “I understand Brandon is a great guy, but you should remember that no one is perfect and when they seem to be perfect, there’s something wrong.”

Cherry couldn’t even respond to her friend as the door that was ajar was now completely shut, separating them. Eyes still fixed on the closed doors, Cherry’s mind was busy soaking up the words spoken by her friend and she couldn’t stop her lips from curving down. She could see where the concern of her two friends stem from, but they never even had a proper conversation with Brandon before, so to hear them accuse Brandon of something left an unpleasant taste in her mouth.

Her brown eyes were forced to place their focus on something else when she felt the hand that guided her out of the lounge room letting her go and her hand that had nowhere to go, fell limply at her side. When her head fully turned to the front, she could have sworn that she caught a glimpse of Mr. Moore wiping of his hand against his suit before dropping it against his side. She must have seen it wrongly, right?

Mark turned his head to the side, his blue eyes darting down to catch the pair of brown, confused globes. “April told me to drop you off at our apartment. Is there anything that you need to take with you before we leave?” He queried with a small smile on his face, to which Cherry responded with a silent head shake.

Mark hummed indifferently, the superficial smile on his face slipping off before turning his head back to the front and waltzing off, not noting the pregnant state that Cherry was in that made it difficult for her to keep up with his long strides. She wanted to ask him if he could slow down, but the sudden turn of his cold demeanor took away any courage that she had and she just kept her mouth shut while keeping her eyes on the floor, her hands clasped at the front as her fingers fumbled with each other.

Occasionally, her eyes would flicker to Mark’s stoic expression, questioning herself why he seemed so annoyed with her when normally when she visits their place he would welcome her kindly. It must be because April asked him to play uber driver. Cherry reminded herself to give April a good scolding for putting her in an uncomfortable situation.

While mulling over how she was going to survive the frigid air around her CEO, she realized that she still needs to inform Brandon about the change in plans.

“Um… Mr. Moore?” came the careful voice of Cherry. Mark gave her a side glance, letting her know he had heard her.

Being the focus point of the blue eyes that were colder than ice, she explained nervously, “Do you mind if I call my husband? You had met him once at the wedding. Um… he doesn’t know that I am going to meet April.” She pulled out her phone and pointed at it.

“Sure.” He answered clipped and Cherry felt the bad mood in him elevating, turning her worried and yelling at her friend in her mind.

Seriously, what did you tell him to have him act this way, April!?

They kept on walking and once in the elevator that descended to the parking lot, Cherry called Brandon. The phone didn’t even ring twice before Brandon picked it up.

“Hey sweetheart, great timing. I was about to call you. I am almost done with my work and I found this great restaurant that you’re going to love.”

Cherry hummed with a subtle smile on her face as she listened diligently to the words carried in an affectionate tone. The bright voice of her husband was infectious, dispersing the gloomy clouds in her chest and making it bearable for her to be with her moody CEO inside the elevator.

“I hope that I’m properly dressed for that place.” Cherry raised her brow pointedly at him while her lips curved up a fraction. Brandon has this weird quirk where he would take Cherry to this extravagant places as a surprise, but she would arrive there in an outfit that was comparable to a potato sack. This time, though, knowing her husband, she wore a lengthy flowy floral skirt dyed in a mixture of pink and lilac. She choose this skirt because of its elastic waistband that fit over her huge baby bump, shortening the length to knee-length. She wore a black wool turtleneck sweater over it and some black boots to complete it.

Now she doesn’t look overdressed, but at the same she was dressed for the occasion.

Brandon chuckled. “You are. Trust me, love. Why did you call me?”

“Yeah… I called to tell you that I am on my way to April’s place right now, so you can pick me up there.”

“Right now? What about work? Won’t you get in trouble? And how are you even going to get there in your state?”

“April really wanted to see me right now, and she said that her husband will make sure that I won’t get in any trouble and that he will drop me off at her place.” Cherry explained, to receive a beat of silence.

“April’s husband is going to bring you there?” The lightheartedness in Brandon’s voice was gone, replaced with something dark, causing a slight panic to course through Cherry’s body at the thought that her husband may be misunderstanding the situation.

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“You’re not thinking about anything crazy are you-”

“Don’t worry, Mr. Graywood, I will make sure that no harm will befall on your wife.” The booming voice materialized out of thin air gave Cherry a fright, and she snapped her head to look at her boss wide-eyed, who was dead set on giving her the cold shoulder few seconds ago to now have this mischievous glint in his eyes. Cherry frowned discontented, feeling as if there was some underlying meaning behind her boss’ words.

Why is Mr. Moore acting like this? Inwardly, Cherry was burning with the want of shredding her boss into pieces.

“Cher.” The flat tone of her husband’s voice snatched her attention from boring holes in her boss’ body back to her phone.

“Y-Yes?”

“Have fun at April’s place and be careful. I’ll pick you up somewhere in the evening. I love you.”

“O-Okay, I love you too.” Cherry stammered before the line between them got cut by Brandon.

As soon as the line got cut, the dinging melody of the elevator could resounded in her ears, letting them know they had reached their destination. The doors of the elevator slide open and both Mark and Cherry stepped out. Their spirit when they came out of the elevator was like day and night, where Mark wore a refreshed expression while Cherry’s mood was sourly damned.

“Did everything go well with your husband?”

Cherry’s jaw tightened, and she threw a side glare at Mark to find him smiling. And she wished she could slap that grin off his face.

“Have I done anything to offend you today, Mr. Moore?”

“Hmm? Not at all.”

“Then why do I feel that you’re acting standoffish towards me and that you were provoking my husband just now?”

“Must be your imagination. Come, I don’t want to keep my wife waiting.”

Whilst Cherry and Mark were getting in the car on the other side of the city, further down the highway, passing the empty land, Brandon stood in the rickety warehouse. Anger rippled through his body and the phone in his hand suffered under the crushing weight as his hand clenched tighter and tighter around it, causing a hairline crack to appear on the screen.

Cherry may not had understood the underlying meaning behind the words spewed by that bastard Mark, but Brandon could hear the mocking tone and how the man stressed the word ‘harm’ out of his mouth. The thought of leaving his wife with someone dangerous aggravated him to no end, but Cherry would become suspicious when he suddenly tells her to watch out for April’s husband.

He will kill him if even one strand of Cherry’s head gets mangled. Brandon thought menacing as he cursed under his breath.

“You have outdone yourself again, mister Processor!” A jovial voice that came from behind Brandon’s back reminded him where he was and, with a grimace on his face, turned around to see his client holding a severed arm up that he pulled out of the bag where other body parts were stored.

Putting back on the smile reserved for clients, Brandon spoke. “I’m glad that you’re satisfied with your purchase, mister Charles. You told me it had been hard for you lately.”

“It indeed has been a difficult time for me. I haven’t been able to find good human meat to eat and I am famish my friend, famish I tell you.” Charles exasperated at the reminisce of the harsh days where he was forced to eat the mediocre chicken meat to fill his stomach. “You don’t know how happy I was that you were taking commissions again. The meat that you deliver is always fresh and of a top quality that could only satisfy my palate.” He brought the arm closer to his face and smelled the raw fleshy end of the arm and Brandon had to mask the disgust on his face when he heard the man groan in ecstasy.

His stomach was churching even more when he watched how the tongue of the cannibal peaked out of his mouth to take a lick at the jagged skin. The blood trickling from it caught on Charles’ tongue.

Brandon was appalled at the short black-haired man for consuming human flesh, but that man and all the other cannibals were the perfect wastebin to destroy any evidence of murders linked to him. If anything, the police will accuse them of the kills once they find their fridge that are stuffed with dead bodies.

“I may have complained before that I was tired of eating chicken, but did you know that human flesh taste similar to chicken?”

“I would have never guessed.” Brandon answered, the enunciation of it monotonic matching the bored expression on his face. He just wanted the man to leave already together with the garbage so that he could pick up his wife.

“If you’re curious, I could make you something as a thank you for your terrific service.” Charles offered.

“Thank you, but if the human flesh indeed tastes like chicken, then I’m better off eating the mediocre chicken.”

“Pity you don’t know what you’re missing. Oh well, more for me, I guess.” The cannibal shrugged and placed the arm back inside the bag. “Please give me a female next time. They have more fat on their meat.”

“Consider it to be done.”

“Great! Have a terrific day.” The man finally strutted away as he whistled a nursery rhyme, and the muscles on Brandon’s face instantly relaxed.

“Crazy son of a bitch.”

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