“Hello?” she answered. “Andrew?”

“Hello, Aubrey…”

“What do you want?” Her voice was cold.

“How are you?”

“What do you want, Andrew?” she asked, even colder. “I’m busy.”

“Then why did you pick up?”

“It was a mistake.” She ended the call.

I drew in a sharp breath, shocked that she hung up on me. I started to type up an email, chastising her for being so rude, but I noticed that she hadn’t responded to my last three in months:

Subject: Your Resignation.

Even though the last two words of your resignation letter were ridiculous and unprofessional, I’d like to take you up on your offer to f**k you.

Name the time.

—Andrew.

Subject: My Suit.

Since you have yet to pick up your final check, should I assume that’s your way of letting me keep it to replace the suit you ruined?

—Andrew.

Subject: BALLET.

I stopped by your dance hall earlier. You weren’t there.

Did you quit that, too?

—Andrew.

I decided that I needed to replace her. Fast.

I grabbed my laptop from my nightstand and logged into LawyerChat, looking for another Alyssa-type.

I spent all night roaming the chat rooms, answering questions left and right—gauging the personalities of the askers, but none of them grabbed me. Still, one woman who was listed as a high profile lawyer with ten years of experience seemed promising, so I clicked on her chat box.

“If you have ten years of experience, what could you possibly need help with on this site?” I typed.

“You’re never too old to learn new things…Why are you on here?”

“I’m looking for a replacement.”

“You’re trolling for an employee?”

“No, just someone I can talk to and make cum occasionally.”

She blocked me.

I tried talking to a few other women—keeping my true words to myself, but ultimately they just wanted to use me for information. They weren’t open to talking about anything else, and since LawyerChat had expanded its site recently, there seemed to be an influx of law students using it as a complaint board about their professors.

I shut the laptop and took another swig from my bottle—immediately realizing that there was only one “Alyssa-type”: Aubrey…

Maybe I made a mistake…

Out the corner of my eye I spotted an envelope under the slit of my door. It hadn’t been there when I first arrived home, and it hadn’t been there a few hours ago when I ordered my dinner.

Confused, I walked over and picked it up.

It was an official court summons to testify in a New York hearing, but it wasn’t addressed to my new name. It was addressed to Liam Henderson.

Remedy (n.):

The means to achieve justice in any matter in which legal rights are involved.

Aubrey

The Firebird.

Jewels.

Swan Lake.

I wrote down the roles I wanted to audition for in my planner, smiling as I ran my hands across my acceptance letter for the umpteenth time. I had ten copies of it—two of them were framed, seven were for inspiration whenever I was feeling down, and one was for my parents. (I just hadn’t had the time or energy to draft an “I f**king told you so” letter to mail with it.)

I looked at the clock on my wall and checked my phone, trying to suppress the butterflies that were fluttering around my stomach.

The guy I was now dating, Brian—a fellow dancer in the company, was supposed to call me with something important he wanted to talk about.

Ever since I met him, he’d been trying his hardest to woo me—taking me on dates in between rehearsals, joining me as I danced on rooftops and icy park benches. He was kind, sweet, funny, and the perfect example of what it meant to be a gentleman.

He was like the nice guy in the Old Hollywood movies, the type that held your hand for no reason at all, the type that walked you to your door and waited until you were completely inside before stepping away. He was the type that kissed you—softly and tenderly, whispering that he liked your lips, but never taking things any further.

In other words, he was nothing like Andrew.

Nothing like.

Even though his kisses never left me panting and wet, and his touches never set my nerves on fire, he never made me feel like shit.

My phone vibrated and I looked at the screen. Brian.

“Did you receive the roses I sent you today?”

I grinned, looking over at the red and white blooms on my fireplace.

“Yes.” I texted back. “Thank you very much. I love them.”

“I placed something else in the vase for you, too...You should use it to relax tonight. I’ll be calling you after I get out of rehearsal.”

“Looking forward to it.” I added a smiley face at the end of my text and walked over to the vase, lifting the flowers up by their stems. There was a huge packet of pink bath beads and rose petals with a handwritten note across the front:

“The next time you take a bath…Think about me…

—Brian”

My heart fluttered and I couldn’t help but want to immediately take him up on the idea. I slipped out of my clothes and headed into the bathroom, tossing the beads under rushing water.

As I let down my hair, I turned the volume on my ringer to the highest setting, and before I could set it down, I noticed a new email. Andrew.

My heart nearly jumped out of my chest, as it always did when one of his sporadic emails or calls graced my screen.

Everything in me told me not to open it, to continue ignoring him, and to let him feel just how alone and underappreciated I felt months ago, but I couldn’t help it.

Subject: Thoreau & Alyssa.

You once said that you missed when we were Thoreau and Alyssa because I supposedly treated you better. I don’t think I treated you any differently. I just really wanted to f**k you. But when we did meet in person, I unfortunately wanted to f**k you even more.

I personally prefer us as “Andrew & Aubrey” because on a night like tonight, when there’s nothing I would rather do than f**k you against my balcony until you cum, at least I can actually picture what your pu**y feels like and no longer have to imagine.

Pick up the phone…

—Andrew

I shook my head and set the phone down, mentally erasing that message and stepping into the tub.

I lay back and let the hot water rise to my chest, exhaling as it warmed my skin.

It was becoming easier to avoid thinking about Andrew now that I was talking to Brian, but it was harder trying to force myself to forget. I still thought about him late at night when I was in my bed, often wishing he was inside of me.

Nonetheless, I wasn't running back to him and his ass**le-ish ways, and I would never allow him to come back to me.

Never.

I scrubbed myself clean with a soft loofah, trying my best to ignore the intense throbbing between my legs that always came when thinking about Andrew. I filled a ladle with water and poured it over my head—unable to push away the thought of Andrew washing my hair in the tub, of him telling me to stand underneath the streams and hold the wall as he grabbed my waist and f**ked me from behind.

My fingers found their way to my clit as I remembered him bending me over the vanity in his bathroom, saying “I need you to f**king take it…All of it…” as he palmed my br**sts and kissed his way down my spine.