He did not realize he was talking to someone who had already left the building and was simply collecting her coat.

And so I gave him the eight-tooth smile and agreed to every humiliating term, and watched the confusion flicker behind his eyes, because a man who wants to dominate you needs you to resist, and I would not give him even that.

I would give him nothing to push against.

I would simply, calmly, be gone.

“Well — what are you waiting for?

Clean the kitchen.