THE BOSS OF BOSSES: THE COMEBACK OF JUDE ARIMIDAS

Chapter 5: DIVORCE PAPERS

Chapter 5: DIVORCE PAPERS

Jude blinked and then he pulled himself up to stare at the screen again with his one good eye.

This was crap. Had to be a ridiculous hoax. He dropped his phone on the coffee table in the middle of Brady's office, determined to ignore the mistake.

Because it had to be a mistake, he was certain nothing would make that amount of money sit in his bank account.

He fell asleep on the couch after setting an alarm that would wake him up before anyone else got there in the morning.

~

There was banging on the door.

There was banging on the door and Jude didn't know how or why, but him and Alicia's bed had gotten harder. Why did it feel like he was lying down on a cold slab of block?

He opened his eyes, and then winced as his left eye twinged with pain.

Ouch.

He raised his hand and gingerly pressed his fingers to the eye. It didn't feel so swollen today. Suddenly he remembered the events of yesterday night and where he was currently.

It hadn't all been a nasty dream.

The banging on the door continued.

His head ached with all the pounding on the door and crap, Jude thought he had missed his alarm and she would be caught in here.

He swiped up his phone and hurried out of Brady's office and went to answer the door. He unlocked the door and was immediately pushed back as Brady stepped into the space.

“Jude?” Brady was clearly surprised and angry that someone had spent the night here. “What were you doing in my store? Tell me, what?!” he demanded forcefully.

Jude winced, raising his hands in a plea. “ I'm very sorry I came here without your knowledge and spent the night, Brady. I promise you, I only slept here, nothing else happened.”

Brady looked him up and down before his eyes got caught on Jude's black eye. “What the fuck happened to you, man?”

Jude shook his head, unable to talk. To say anything about his current situation would only bring him further humiliation and damage his reputation and dignity.

“You owe me two days work washing cars for sleeping here,” Brady growled low and then brushed past Jude, deciding that he wasn't even interested in what the guy got up to in his free time. That black eye didn't do him any good as a teacher though.

Jude was pained but there was nothing he could do about it. He had technically broken in here. And he needed to remain in Brady's good graces, moreso now that he was really in deep shit.

He nodded, and then asked Brady in a low voice. “Can I also use the bathroom and your stuff?”

Brady's sharp owl eyes turned to Jude. “Don't come to me being all pathetic and shit. I am not your fucking mother.”

Jude winced. His mother wouldn't even grant him something like this if he asked her.

“Go on, use the bathroom. Don't touch my shit though.”

Jude was glad for that much and dragged his body to the back again, this time to a different door at the end marked bathroom. He probably would have felt a little better if he had slept on an actual bed, or even a soft sofa and not Brady's hard as hell couch.

His back ached, he felt sore and tired and he could still feel the effects of the pounding he had gotten. He turned to the small square mirror Brady hung in the bathroom and looked at his face, examined his black eye.

The swelling was actually going down now, but lifting his eyelid was still proving particularly painful. He gingerly pulled his clothes off, and turned on the shower. Brady didn't bother with a heater in here, so Jude shivered as the cold water lashed him.

When he finished, he had to pull on his same old clothes from the day before even though they smelled of sweat, oil and soapy water from washing the cars and blood. His own blood was on parts of the shirt that had once been his favorite.

Now he was going to have to throw it out. He felt pained at the thought, not elated.

He was going to stay at Brady's and work today and heal up, he decided. He couldn't go into work today looking like this. He was outside the main part of the store, heading behind the counter when the store's door was shoved open.

“Where is he? Where is that worthless trash that had the guts to hurt my daughter?!”

Jude looked up at the voice.

Alicia's mother, Brenda the wicked witch herself. And beside her, the worst of Alicia's brothers, Michael.

She looked around the store in disdain and disgust, trying not to brush herself along the walls or let anything touch her.

She marched to the counter, a sneer on her face. “YOU! I have brought you divorce papers. Sign them now and free my poor daughter!”