The Assistant (Matt Sturniolo)

23

A soft chatter of voices occupy the conference room now, an hour into the party. Now, the fun was over and the last of us clean up the mess in order to return the room back to normal.

"Hey, stop that" a voice said from behind me. "This was your party. You aren't supposed to be cleaning up" they finished. Turning around, I saw Matt with a cloth in one hand.

"I want to help. Please" I replied, turning back to the table to pick up the spray bottle. I spray it and run the wet cloth over the sticky spot, until I was finished.

"I guess you can help" he huffed and I smiled, continuing the cleaning. "What did you think?"

"It was fun and very nice of you all. Thank you, again" I said, trying to circumvent having a real conversation. I moved to the other end of the table and he started on the next one.

An awkward silence followed until he cleared his throat to speak. "I'm glad you had a good time. I'm sure everyone else did too..they're going to miss you" he said and I nodded, feeling the guilt in his words.

The rest of the clean up consisted of a few words between Matt and I, or anyone else for that matter. We cleaned tables, folded them and put them away, stacked chairs, vacuumed and out things away. The room was now empty and quiet. Luckily, I found my escape after the room was squared away.

"All done?" A voice asked me. Looking over my shoulder, Luke stood across the room with a full garbage bag. My stomach dropped  all of a sudden with disappointment at who it is, and who it's not.

"Yeah" I nodded, guilt remaining over my disappointment.

"I can't believe you helped clean up. The whole point was having people do stuff for you, and you helped them?" He shook his head and laughed. I nodded and laughed when he almost tripped over the garbage bag.

"Are you on your way out now?"

"I think so..after dropping off some last minute things- keys and keycards, that sort of thing. Of course, I can't find the guy to give them to.." I confessed, searching the room for Matt.

"Hm...well it's getting late. Maybe he left or he had a late meeting. I'm sure you could leave them with Jason or Peter, if you need to go. I know you're dying to get those drinks with me tomorrow"

I leave him after a few more words, telling him I'd see him later. After saying goodbye to a few people, I left the room to look for Matt.

I looked at my watch, I wonder how the time went by so fast on my last day. Many people left here when the clock hit five. I sat down on my chair for the last time, knowing I'm not going to miss its squeak. It only got worse as I spun around on it.

"It's now or never" I said out loud, willing myself to stand.

I look up. Memories that took place at this desk pop up. Making Matt laugh so hard for the first time. Silly arguments about how he thought Liam Neeson was the best actor of all time. How he brought me coffee out of nowhere- Stop, I can't do this. Standing up, I take a deep breath.

The hallway was dim, but the light from the evening came in through the windows around his office. A hallway I'll never walk again. How can I handle never seeing him again? I can and I have to. It was too hard wanting him when he didn't want you back.

"Hey, are you leaving already?" Matt asked, looking at me. He stopped a few inches away, running his hand through his hair.

"Yeah, I was just going to drop the keys with you and go over a few things"

"Sounds good. I really need the bathroom, do you mind waiting? I'll be straight back" He said, patting my arm. I nodded and watched him walk away. He gave me sad smile before he turned away.

Now, for the hard part. The goodbye. Leaving him for the last time. Walking to his door, I opened his door for the last time. His messy desk.  His jacket over his chair. Empty mugs taking up space. Matt. It's all him. At that, my tears began to fall. Can I really do this? Even if I have to sit at that desk everyday trying to love him, it's better than leaving him.

I gulped, trying to get rid of the lump in my throat. At the same time, I was trying to dry my eyes.

"Aw, are you getting teary eyed on your last day?"

Please, for the love of God, no.

Suddenly, a switch in me changed. Instead of pushing him away for the last few weeks, I want him. I want him to come and save me and to see her for what she really is. "It's funny how you think you can still hurt me, Chloe" I snapped, turning to face her.

"I won, don't you forget that" Her head shakes as she pointed her finger at me.

Her blow hits me and she knew it. I couldn't hide my defeat because I lost the ability to keep the pain silent. The last few months have taken everything from me. My Grandpa dying, my Mom's continued abuse, Matt's bipolar ways and Chloe's physical and mental attacks.

"I don't care" I said, throwing my hands up in defeat.

"I know you do!" She laughed with excitement on her face. "You wanted him, but you couldn't have him, so you gave up. And I won!" She continued, stepping towards me.

I take a step back away from her. When I think I hear a noise, I stopped. It was a loud squeak on the floor that made me do it.

"I don't care, Chloe. You can have him! I told him what you did to me and he didn't believe me because you have a spell on him. Keep him and live a wonderful, beautiful life together. I don't care and I hate that I ever did"

Laughing, she crossed her arms over her chest with a smile of satisfaction. "I can't believe you had the nerve to tell him what I did to you" she mumbled, shaking her head. "As if Matt would believe such a thing. He probably thinks you made it up. For all I know, I never laid a finger on you"

"You left marks on me, Chloe" I said through gritted teeth.

"And still, that wasn't enough to convince Matt. I really do have him wrapped around my finger" She sighed happily. "I can't do anything wrong in his eyes. He hasn't noticed how much I've been gone lately, or how often I've been texting this new guy I'm messing around with"

"You slut!" I exclaimed, not able to hold it in. "Matt loves you and he'd do anything for you! He built this company from the ground up and that's how you treat him?"

"Excuse me? Who was throwing themselves at my boyfriend right in front of me?" She took another step in front of me. She wasn't laughing anymore, she was glaring.

"How stupid are you?" I laughed, feeling the anger rise in my chest. I don't care anymore because what do I have to lose? "You've a huge problem with that- which never happened, but thank you- but you think it's okay to cheat on him? You really are fucking dumb"

"I'm going to slap that smug smile off your face"

"No you won't!" A voice announced behind us

I took my eyes off Chloe to see who said that. It was a second too long, because it let her clawed hand collide with my face.