***
She awoke the next morning and rolled over to find Kase already awake, fingers laced behind his head as he stared skyward.
Michelle bit her lip, wondering how she could phrase what she was about to say to make him not feel hurt.
“Listen, Michelle,” he said, noting that she was alert.
Wait a minute. No way. He’s not allowed to ask me to leave; I’m telling him I’m going!
The night before had been fun, there was no lying about that. The sex had been good. Really good. But the truth was, she shouldn’t have done it. Caving like that, it wasn’t the right move. She should be standing her ground with him. If he truly wanted her back in his life, then he was going to have work for it. Otherwise, she was just there for the funding for the lab, and she was not about to trade sex for that.
She spoke up before he could continue. “I should probably go.”
Kase looked at her sharply, then nodded slowly. “Yeah.”
It irritated her that he was in agreement. Had she not been worth anything more to him than a cheap fuck? Was he that eager to get rid of her all of a sudden? For a moment, she had second thoughts about her choice, but now was not the time to doubt herself. Not in front of Kase at least. Once she was outside, she could have all the second thoughts she wanted.
Slipping from the bed, she got dressed as quickly as possible, trying to pretend she wasn’t aware of his eyes roaming over her exposed flesh. Not because she didn’t like it, but because she did. Her goal now was to stick to her principles. To stay strong and fight for more money wherever it could be found. If Kase wasn’t willing to put it up, then she would go to the board and find out where it had been coming from up until now, and approach them.
This wasn’t over, not yet.
“Um, thank you,” Kase said.
“For what?”
“Uh.” He stopped speaking and looked away.
“Yeah. Anyway, I’m going to leave now.”
He nodded, displeasure evident on his face, though she attributed that more to his own inability to speak than to her leaving. He seemed perfectly okay with that.
Had the night before been a moment of weakness for Kase, too? So what if it was? You made your decision, and now you stick to it. You can’t be worried about his thoughts and feelings right now. You have a priority, and that’s securing funding, so you can start researching new cures again. It’s going to take time with all your research gone.
A pang of agony stabbed her as she recalled that not only did she need money, but she needed to start almost from scratch. Everything she’d ever had was gone, wiped from the drives at the lab by whoever had broken in and trashed it. If she ever found out who had ripped such a priceless thing away from her, condemning her father to certain death, she would never forgive them.
The anger of those thoughts helped fuel her departure. She nodded goodbye to Kase, went down the stairs, and out the front door. The door closed behind her, but it didn’t lock. She could still go back in if she chose. Confront Kase over what was going on, get some answers.
No, she should leave. Stick to her guns. Be strong.
She stared out at her car, biting at her lower lip.