A massive thank you to all the people who gave feedback on the story, and especially to Grandeman, who not only put a lot of time and thought into feedback, but also provided invaluable editing work!
And thank you for reading! I hope you enjoy.
...
Weeks later...
Eliza took a deep breath and tapped the folders on her desk to straighten them. Time to go meet with the boss. As she got up and crossed the office floor, she saw the receptionist smirk and whisper something to the coworker chatting at her desk. They both stifled a chuckle.
Now that Gene had more power around the office, the rest of the team seemed to be more willing to... find the humor in his power games. Things had been going poorly for both Eliza and David ever since Eliza had given in to her hunger and betrayed her husband by lying to HR during their investigation. The public apology that David had no choice but to give had been brutal. Eliza had watched in real-time as David, red-faced, stammered his way through the speech, the faces of their coworkers shifting from mild pity to cringing distaste.
Worse yet, the apology had been immediately followed up by Carl, their manager, announcing Gene's promotion. He was to be Carl's right-hand man.
Eliza hesitated for a moment, then stopped at the door of her husband's office on her way across the floor. She knocked softly, and David glanced up, wearing the same look of helpless frustration on his features that seemed to be there all the time these days.
"How are you holding up, honey?" asked Eliza softly, trying to keep the pang of guilt out of her voice.
David gave her a wavering smile. "Oh, you know. Just another day in paradise. Gene gave me a new account to piece through, so at least I have a chance to prove myself."
Gene had been exactly the type of boss that both Eliza and David had feared he'd be. He rarely passed up an opportunity to humiliate his new subordinate David. So far, that had included giving him the most brutal and tedious work that Gene could get his hands on. "Hang in there," said Eliza with a grimace, unsure of what else she could say to make her husband feel better.
David sighed heavily, leaning forward on his desk, elbows on his desk, fingers in his hair. "It's just... I don't fucking understand it. We were sooo close. I thought he was about to be found at fault and fired!" His voice held the hint of a question, and his pained eyes lifted to meet Eliza's.
She shrugged uncomfortably. "All that they would tell me was that they received anonymous testimony that changed their minds," she said evasively. It was kind of true, although she had left out the fact that the testimony was from her. Luckily, HR was keeping the reason for their change of heart under wraps to protect her from repercussions. They still believed David had coerced her initial testimony against Gene after all.
It wasn't the first time that they'd had this conversation. David still hoped Eliza could use her HR connections to discover how Gene had beaten him and plan a counterattack. But he would never get his wish, and never know why.
Eliza walked over and put a steadying hand on David's shoulder. "You need to stop obsessing over it, babe," she said softly, feeling the tension in his body, and an answering thrill of guilt inside her, "It's not good for you."
All of the stress was starting to affect Eliza's husband outside of work as well, making him more anxious and frustrated every day. He was even struggling to perform in bed due to his stress, which only made his growing inferiority complex worse.
And that was unfortunate... because Eliza had been feeling particularly horny lately. She couldn't really explain it; she had never considered herself an especially sexual person, despite enjoying her relatively tame sex life with David. But suddenly, all that it took was a stray thought, a passing glance from an attractive stranger, or the sound of a deep, confident voice to make her pulse quicken and her hair stand on end.
There was only one thing it could be. Eliza had received her loathsome refill from Gene when she sold out David. Drinking the foul liquid daily in her coffee kept her perverse cravings at bay... but it seemed to be having additional effects on her libido. Her suddenly peaking sex drive combined with David's stress-based sexual dysfunction meant that she felt almost constant sexual frustration, even though her hunger was under control.
She had been sneaking out of bed to guiltily masturbate after David fell asleep, trying desperately to keep a lid on her growing lust. She was only having limited success.
"You're right, babe," said David wearily, patting the hand resting on his shoulder, "as usual."
Eliza's heart ached as she saw her husband's evident stress and frustration. She had done this to him. Well... it was more like Gene had wielded her like a tool, but that didn't make her feel any better. "Why don't we do something nice this weekend?" she asked suddenly, trying to find anything to help her husband, "I hear that they are doing a street art festival down in the city center."
David rubbed a hand over his face with a twist of his lip. "I don't know babe, I'm feeling so worn out I would rather just..."
"I insist," said Eliza firmly, kissing him swiftly on the top of the head, "You need to take your mind off things. Come on. We can take Kim with us. She loves that kind of thing."
Eliza watched the faint smile quirk up the corner of his lips at the mention of his little sister, just like she had hoped. David was closer with Kim than anyone besides Eliza herself, and it had been a while since he had seen her. "Ok," he said with a smile that already seemed a little freer from stress. "You got me. I'm in. Now you better hurry to your meeting I guess..." The last thought seemed to darken David's face again, and Eliza cursed Gene internally.
The daily meetings were just another toolbox in Gene's arsenal. A way to openly antagonize David by building interactions with Eliza into the official workday. It was working; the idea that Eliza frequently spoke to Gene alone in his office clearly ate away at David.
Eliza had no desire to make her husband's pain worse by lingering over the goodbye. Without commenting on his despairing look, she squeezed his shoulder one last time, gave him and peck on the cheek, and left him behind at his desk. Regardless of how her husband felt about it, she would have to meet with Gene.
And not just because it was now in her job description.
