A Love Contract: Five Years

of the contract,

n this very office, my ha

top. I' ll do anything. I' ll work for you for free f

a mask of indifference. Alex was standin

n you' re feeling now? It' s not even a fraction of what I felt that nig

came the perfect, obedient dog she wanted. I cleaned, I fetched coffee, I st

atch a flicker of frustration in her eyes when I agreed to a particularly demeaning ta

one of t

arah believed in these things, team-building exercises and force

s own ego, decided to up the ante. We w

ring my name. "I bet you can' t cl

t a professional climbing wall. It was a jagged pi

od idea," one of the ju

ing to you. I' m talking to the office pet.

g a glass of red wine, her face illuminated by the fi

. A fall would mean b

lent plea in my eyes. D

cker of the girl I used to know, the one who bandage

hardened. She lift

id, her voice carrying over the cr

inside me died. It wa

dropping to a near whisper, but I

seeped into me. No glov

hands got so cold they turned blue. She had taken them i

, Liam," she' d said. "I'

, a phantom pain that

wly. "Yes,

der my boots. I could feel everyone' s eyes on my bac

ched it, the cold bit into my flesh. It was a sharp, searing p

es of the rock cut into my skin, but I barely felt

laughing. "Look at him g

nd the next. The wind whipped around me, stinging my fa

it took my full weight. I scrambled with my feet, my boots finding no p

fe

d the wind out of me. I lay in the snow, ga

h laughter. "W

of the firelight, looking down at me. There

p," sh

a wave of dizziness hit me. M

s broken," I

face. "I said, get up. Crawl if you

y continued around me as if nothing had happened. I lay there for a long time before