rissy stories

*Trigger Warning* for mature readers only

 

Present Day: 10:32 am

Mildew, she decided. This bathtub floor reeked of mildew.

And her knees were killing her. She became briefly reminded of Tracy, her housekeeping trainer during her first week of work, warning her not to go down on her hands and knees when scrubbing the bathtub floors: ‘Your knees will never forgive you, honey. And you need them to keep up with your little one,’ she had warned in her prominent smoker’s voice.

But how else was Willow supposed to scrape and scrub the smell out of the floor? It wasn’t the same simply bending over. There was never as much force behind the scrubs in that position. And if she was going to do work like this, then she was damn sure going to do it right.

So, Willow pulled her curly brown hair back into a ponytail and dropped to her knees. She picked up the green cleaning bottle she had placed on the tile floor and spritzed the entirety of the tub with white foam. Then she leaned over the side of the tub to start wiping down the porcelain walls. She instinctively scrunched her nose and sealed her mouth shut at the smell of the bleach mixing with scum. The floor of the shower still had pools of water from the guest showering that morning, so she waited to scrub the floor last.

This was her first year working at The Valley Sun Inn, and her tip-stealing-coworker, Melinda, had called in sick again. So, Willow walked into work with her 18-month-old daughter, Ellie, on her hip at 8:30 am with 22 hotel rooms scheduled to clean – 17 check outs and 5 stay-overs. However, her normal work day usually consisted of 16 or 17 rooms with more stay-overs than check outs. Not to mention, her bosses timed her, and each checkout took 20 minutes or more to clean.

She thoroughly hated this job, but it was the only one her husband would settle for after she’d quit her job at the bank, and she knew that Dylan compromised on this job specifically because it was such a shitty one that Willow’s boss let her bring Ellie to work. (And according to Tracy – most housekeepers weren’t allowed to bring their children.)

Plus, Dylan probably figured Willow would hate it so much that she would admit he was right all along, quit the job, and stay home with Ellie.

“Screw him,” she muttered angrily to herself, suddenly realizing that she was scrubbing the same clean spot over and over again. She sighed through her mouth, leaning back on her heels and wiping her forearm over her sweaty forehead. This was bound to be a long day.

“Mooooommy,” she heard Ellie’s drawn-out whine from outside the bathroom. Willow slowly stood up, grunting at the dull ache radiating from her knees as she dropped the rag and peeled the latex gloves off of her hands. She walked out of the bathroom to find her blonde, curly-haired daughter sitting in the red, green, and brown hotel chair that always sat by the door to each room. Ellie had Willow’s chocolate brown eyes, long eyelashes, and freckles speckled across her small nose and chubby cheeks, as well as Dylan’s blonde hair, round chin, tan skin, and sparkling smile (when he actually smiled). Willow always saw the man she fell in love with seven years ago whenever she looked into Ellie’s eyes.

“Monkey, mommy’s workin’, what is it,” she asked with her fists on her hips.

“Look, I found!” she squeaked, suddenly holding up something cream-colored and rubbery… like a deflated balloon. Willow’s brown eyes widened and her face paled as she strutted up to her daughter and ripped it out of her hands, doing a full-body cringe when she realized it was wet. Ellie whimpered after her new, stretchy toy was taken by her mean mother.

“Where’d you find this?” Willow asked angrily. She always hated how children had a knack for finding shit that they weren’t supposed to find. Ellie whined, pointing in between the chair cushion and the back of the chair. Willow swallowed the bile rising in her throat, immediately running out to her housekeeping cart sitting right outside the hotel room doorway.

“Fuckers,” she snapped under her breath as she threw the condom into the trash bag, then grabbed hand wipes and sanitizer. She walked back into the room, crouching in front of Ellie to viciously wipe her daughter’s hands while tears streamed down her face.

“M-mine!” Ellie cried. Willow sighed heavily as she started using the hand sanitizer.

“No, it ain’t yours. You didn’t put that in your mouth did you?” Willow asked with a grimace. Ellie shook her head, her curls bouncing around her wet face as she did so.

“I w-want!” Ellie continued to cry. Willow pulled her lips in between her teeth to prevent her from shaking her daughter and screaming “Trust me, you won’t like the taste of cum, Ellie,” but that was a conversation for when she was a little older. For now, she turned the TV on for Ellie, whose cries were now mere whimpers.

“Watch the TV until mommy’s finished cleanin’, okay? Don’t leave this chair, and don’t. touch. anythin’,” Willow instructed sternly. Ellie didn’t reply as she started sniffling and watching the weatherman discuss the sunny weekend they were supposed to have while Willow stood back up and groaned at the pain in her knees.

She could practically hear Dylan in the back of her head, screaming ‘You can’t let her watch TV all day!’ but there was literally nothing else Willow could conjure up to keep Ellie occupied while she worked. She felt guilty as she watched her daughter’s eyes glaze over at the screen, then walked back into the bathroom and glared at the foamy tub she hadn’t finished cleaning. The sight of it triggered a flashback from the conversation she had had with Dylan six months after Ellie was born, when they settled on this job in the first place.

Six Months After Giving Birth

“Why would you wanna work when you don’t have to anymore? It’s not like you went to college anyway, so what kinda career are ya really lookin’ at here,” Dylan asked.

“I’m fine with just bein’ a teller! Look, I love Ellie too, but I don’t wanna be at home all day, every day. I wanna work,” Willow claimed. It was what she’d done all her life – she had always hated staying in the house all day.

The only time she went home as a kid was to sleep at night. That way, she could mostly avoid her father’s drunk rampages and nasty hangovers, as well as her mother’s inclination to stress-eat and stay in bed all day.

“How can you be so selfish? I don’t want her growin’ up with some stranger takin’ care of her 24/7. This ain’t about you, Willow. It’s ‘bout Ellie.”

“Well, maybe you can stay home with Ellie then.”

That purely innocent suggestion earned her a look of disbelief mixed with anger that showed she’d struck a nerve. Her muscles tensed and she stood stock-still because Dylan very rarely gave her that look before Ellie was born, but this had been the third time she’d earned it from him in the past six months since their baby girl arrived.

“What and be some pansy-ass stay-at-home dad? No, no fuckin’ way. ‘sides, I make more ‘n you do working in construction,” he yelled, his voice frantic and loud.

“And I think we need both our paychecks, Dylan!” Why was she still pushing him?

“No – it ain’t your paycheck no more. Yours ain’t separate from mine. And we can live without the checks from the bank just fine. So, it’s settled, you’re stayin’ home with our daughter.” The threat laced within his tone chilled her. She’d never seen him so angry.

“Why don’t we just try a nanny first and see how things go for a while before makin’ this decision?” Again, she hadn’t meant for her simple question to have the impact that it inevitably did. The next thing she knew, she was pressed up against the wall, the back of her head was pounding, and her left cheek was burning and stinging.

“Why d’ya always need me to knock sense into you? Do you really not want what’s best for me? For our kid? You never think before you act!” Dylan’s striking blue eyes softened on the mother of his child as she began to cry and apologize. He pulled her into a tight embrace, putting a hand on the back of her head, and kissing the top of her curly-haired head.

“It’s okay, baby. I love you, and I don’t wanna hurtcha, you know that,” he soothed. She nodded against his chest, her hands clutching the back of his shirt in fists. After she had pulled away from him, he captured her lips in a heated kiss, compromising to letting her take the part-time housekeeping position in between kisses, lip bites, and soft breast gropes.

If she were being truly honest with herself… she would have reciprocated to his advances whether he compromised or not.

To Dylan, fighting was their foreplay, and the apology always took the form of sex. And she never seemed to mind because the fact that he still wanted her body in that way, even after she’d given birth to Ellie, boosted her ego. So, once he pressed her back against the pantry door with his rough hands sliding up her thighs, their fight was quickly forgotten by Willow.

Present Day: 11:21 am.

Willow finally tore her eyes away from the tub and placed her hands on the granite sink that was opposite the tub. She tried to keep her breathing even as her head hung low. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes and her pony tail fell over her shoulder, the ends of her hair tickling her cheek. Why did she feel so trapped all of a sudden? And claustrophobic?

She jumped when she heard her ringtone blare from her pants pocket.

“She’s fine, Dylan, please stop callin’ every damn day,” Willow said after she dug her phone out and held it to her left ear, not even having to look at the caller ID to know who it was. She tried to sound as calm and chipper as possible.

“Where the hell are you? I wake up and you’re just gone?!” she cringed at Dylan’s tone.

“I left a note sayin’ that I went into work this morning,” Willow claimed.

“Where’s the note?” he demanded. She sighed, not wanting to deal with this right now.

“The kitchen table,” Willow answered, doubting that he’d even gotten out of bed to check the rest of the house for her before picking up his phone to call her.

She was never awake before he was on days that she didn’t work, so the fact that she was missing from bed this morning was probably enough evidence for him.

“Leave shit like that on the pillow next time, or better yet – wake me up before takin’ our daughter outta the house without me knowin’,” he snarled. Willow had no idea why he was obsessed with preventing the two of them from leaving the house without him.

“I thought I’d let you sleep in a little,” she said.

“Don’t. Do ya have eyes on Ellie?”

“Yes, Dylan, she’s alive and well.”

“Don’t talk to me that way.” Willow cringed at her own upcoming apology.

“Sorry, it’s been a rough morning,” she said, rubbing a hand over her face.

“Just do your job,” he growled before hanging up. Willow stared off into space with her phone still by her ear as she chewed on the inside of her lip.

And then she heard something fall outside the bathroom. She groaned.

“I said don’t touch anythin’ Ellie,” she snapped uselessly. She often wondered what life would be like with this job, Dylan, or Ellie. If she had just stuck by her friends.

1 Month After Giving Birth

“Willow?”

Willow froze, recognizing the light, happy voice immediately. It had been years since she heard it, but Willow was doubly reassured when she spotted his tall frame in her peripheral.

“Tommy,” Willow greeted half-heartedly, fully turning away from the bread she was eyeing up at the grocery store. She normally didn’t visit this one, but this store was cheaper than the usual, and they really needed the money. Now she was starting to regret that decision.

Tommy Lepin used to be one of her best friends, along with Gina Powell. Tommy still rocked the Catholic-school-boy-who-knows-how-to-party look, only with more facial hair.

And Willow hadn’t seen Gina in a year. Gina was wild, and Willow had been a sucker for getting plastered and forgetting the night beforehand as a teenager. They’d continued the party streak after high school, while Tommy left them to go live his dream in college.

“Haven’t seen you in a while,” he said with a smile. Willow worried her lower lip and nodded, feeling slightly self-conscious. He looked so put-together and she hadn’t exactly dolled herself up. Her hair must’ve looked like a lion’s mane, her puffy eyes must’ve had ten dark bags underneath them, her breasts were always leaking in her nursing bra, and her stomach wasn’t nearly as flat as she wanted it to be yet.

“Yeah,” Willow replied anyway. “How’ve you been?”

“Pretty good. I just graduated, so now I’m working in marketing with my fiancée. What’s going on with you?” Tommy asked, still with that damn smile on his face. Willow blinked and gave a fake smile. That’s exactly what Tommy always wanted to do – become educated, rich, and obtain a cute trophy-wife. In fact, shortly after graduation, he slowly dropped contact with Willow. And she was convinced that it was due to his ego. He was way out of her “friendship” league now, so he was probably just rubbing her nose in it.

“Dylan and I just had a baby, so that’s been takin’ up all my time,” she said, not nearly as enthusiastically as she’d tried to go for. His smile faded as he glanced at the baby on her chest. His heart sank as he remembered the reason he had drifted away from her years ago.

“Dylan. How is he?” Tommy asked, his tongue lacing the name ‘Dylan’ with disgust. He had hoped that Willow would shake Dylan off one day –  the guy always teased Tommy about being a goody-two-shoes and a nerd – he was an asshole.

Willow nodded, frowning at Tommy’s response.

“He’s an amazing guy,” she said defensively. Tommy pressed his lips together, then gave a sympathetic smile, digging his hands into the bottoms of his jean pockets. He often missed Willow before Dylan. She was independent and strong, and now she couldn’t breathe without Dylan by her side. She appeared as though she hadn’t left the house in months.

“I’m… sure he still is,” he replied hesitantly. Willow cleared her throat, hugging Ellie closer to her swollen, sore chest.

“Okay, just because you went to college doesn’t mean you get to judge me,” she said while she looked around and tried to keep her voice as calm as possible to not upset Ellie. Tommy looked stricken, shaking his head and putting his hands up in surrender.

“Willow, that’s not what I’m doing,” he responded, shocked to hear that come out of her mouth. She never used to be this defensive either. “You know, I talked to Gina last week and she said she hasn’t heard from you since a New Year’s party last year. When’s the last time you left the house?” he asked. She rolled her eyes and scoffed, knowing that Gina would take that personally. Willow had just found out that she was having a baby at that time, and Dylan didn’t feel comfortable with her attending parties after that. So, he convinced Willow to cut off all ties to Gina ‘temporarily’ so that she wasn’t tempted to go off and party when she wanted to escape life. ‘You can lean on me for that,’ he had told her. She had agreed.

“I’ve been meanin’ to contact her again, but if you haven’t noticed, I’m a little too busy to hang out,” she said, nodding down towards the baby. Tommy sighed. That baby was like a grenade strapped to her chest. And Dylan would surely blow them both up one day.

“Promise me you will,” he said, sounding and looking a bit sad.

“I will. It was nice to see you Tom,” Willow replied uncomfortably as she grabbed her cart and steered away from him.

“Take care, Low,” she heard his tentative voice say behind her.

She had a feeling this was some sort of set-up – Tommy randomly showing up out of nowhere, automatically questioning her life and bringing up Gina. She didn’t like being ambushed, especially by people she thought were her friends.

She couldn’t wait to vent to Dylan after he came home from work.

Present Day: 11:53 am

She loathed Dylan most days, and hated to admit it, but she especially felt it on this bad morning in particular. However, she also felt guilty for feeling that way. He was still her first real love, her high school sweetheart – she’d given her virginity to him for Christ’s sake, and he had singlehandedly saved her life by yanking her away from her toxic parents. She moved in with him as soon as she turned 18. They’d been together for 7 years – she was nothing without him.

She hated that, but she was scared to leave him.

She gritted her teeth together, scrunched her nose, and closed her eyes.

She needed to get a grip and take care of herself for once.

She wiped away each tear with her hands as they fell.

She bounced her left leg, the leg she often bounced Ellie with to calm her down.

She refused to look up into the mirror.

After a minute, she calmed herself and turned around to face the tub again.

She got back down on her knees and finished the cleaning job.

Present Day: 5:46 pm

The workday was, in fact, as long as Willow had been expecting. Ellie continued wreaking havoc in every hotel room they entered, and she turned her phone off after the 3^rd time Dylan called, on top of her trying to clean 17 checkouts. Her cleaning became more and more aggressive with each passing room, so her body was to the point of collapsing by the end.

Willow wanted nothing more than to sleep when she finally pulled into the driveway of their one-story house. She grabbed her sleepy Ellie out of the car and walked through the front door, knowing Dylan would be home. Low and behold, she found him sitting at the small kitchen table, eating leftover chicken.

“So, why’d ya have to go into work today, dear?” he asked, not even looking up at her as she walked in. She frowned and placed Ellie in her highchair. She normally tried to diffuse this type of situation and submit to whatever he wanted because that was the easiest decision to make that didn’t involve getting hurt.

However, this had been the day from hell. And her muscles were on fire.

“Someone called in sick, so they called me in,” Willow explained, dropping down into the seat next to him.

“You know you’re gonna to get Ellie sick from bringin’ her around those chemicals and disgustin’ hotel rooms so much,” he growled. Willow rolled her eyes.

“She’s fine – I make sure she’s not around that stuff,” she exclaimed, brushing a blonde curl away from her daughter’s eyes. Dylan scoffed.

“You’re so naïve, babe,” he replied. Then he followed it with: “Did ya go anywhere else?” She knitted her eyebrows together.

He really shouldn’t go down the cheating path again. Not today.

“No, just work and then straight home.”

“Then why’d you take so long gettin’ home?”

“It’s rush hour, babe. Why’re you so tense?”

“Don’t change the subject.”

“It was just a question!” Willow exclaimed. He clenched his fists.

“I’m tense ‘cause of you. You’re not takin’ care of her well enough.”

“Well then you take her to work! Let’s see you do a better job!”

That earned a fist pound on the table, a jerky standing position, and a 200-pound man hovering over her, looking like he was about to commit murder.

Despite feeling enraged, Willow pushed back her wooden chair with her feet so roughly and quickly that it scratched the hardwood underneath it, and she flipped over. Her head smacked against the back of the chair as it hit the floor and tears sprung to her eyes. A piercing scream-cry from their daughter erupted while Dylan came back into view, no longer looking ready to kill, but concerned. She cringed when he knelt down to stroke her hair.

“Baby, are you alright?” he asked worriedly. He knew she couldn’t resist when he sounded genuinely apologetic and concerned. Willow wiped tears off of her face and nodded. He helped her to a standing position and then he threw his arms around her. She buried her face in his dirty t-shirt that held his musky scent while their child wailed, and he sighed as his chin rested on the top of her head. This was the usual move after she’d gotten hurt because of him – the same exact song and dance. Something about it made her feel sick now.

“You shouldn’t push me like that, I really don’t wanna get you hurt” he muttered. She nodded against him, feeling numb. Normally, at this point, she would see the old Dylan in him – the sweet, caring, loving Dylan with whom she fell in love with seven years ago.

“‘M sorry,” she whispered out of habit and he hugged her tighter.

“Me too, it won’t happen again, promise,” he said. “C’mon, let’s go relax on the bed for a bit, okay?” he then asked sweetly. She nodded again, suddenly feeling like she should stop what was about to happen as they walked out of the kitchen and into a small hallway.

Then she was saved by their unattended, sobbing daughter.

“Wait, Ellie,” Willow said, trying to turn around, but he stopped her.

“Let ‘er self-soothe,” Dylan said. “She needs to learn how to do that anyway.” She bit back a scoff at her hypocrite husband.

“I can’t just leave her wailing in the kitchen,” she exclaimed. Dylan had a smug smirk on his face as he backed her into a wall in the hallway. “Wait, Dylan, wh-” she stammered until his hand slid up the thigh of her scrub pants and tightened between her legs. Her body betrayed her, and her hips jerked slightly at the sudden contact. She turned her head away to avoid the stare he knew she found intoxicating and was no-doubt giving her in that moment.

“Can you leave her now?” he asked in the low, breathy voice she loved so much. She could feel his breath on her cheek and neck. Her knees were already shaky enough, goddammit.

“No,” she muttered. There was a long pause – she waited anxiously.

“No?” he asked, sounding surprised.

“No,” Willow repeated, finally turning her head to look at him. “I have a headache and our daughter’s screaming,” she explained. She watched him comprehend what she was saying, and the primal look in his eyes told her that he wasn’t having it.

He started moving the hand that was pressed up between her legs. Then he ducked down to kiss her neck and he grinded his hips against her thigh. Her face flushed.

“But I wantchu now,” he growled. Willow shook her head and tried to squirm away from him, despite how her body was responding. She started breathing heavily – from fear or arousal, she wasn’t 100% sure. All she knew was that her blood pressure was rising.

“No,” she said again, but he kept going. “Dylan, I said no,” she said a bit louder.

“Yeah, I heard you,” he snapped, lifting his head to look at her. “But I’m not buyin’ it, babe,” he said as he finally removed his hand from her crotch, only to slide it past her waistband and into her underwear. His other arm and the rest of his body pressed her against the wall, so she couldn’t move. She gasped and squirmed, then both of her hands clasped onto his forearm, trying to pull his hand out of her pants.

“Enough,” she said, but he still didn’t stop. “I said enough!” she yelled, finally shoving him hard, away from her. He staggered backwards with a shocked expression. She readjusted her pants, glanced at him nervously, and rushed back into the kitchen. He grabbed her upper arm in a tight grasp before she could.

“What gives you the right to put your hands on me?” he asked, backing her back into the wall. She cringed as the back of her head made rough contact with the wall.

“Let me go,” she demanded, channeling her loathing of him for once in her life. He let out a breathless laugh.

“Seriously, don’t look so scared o’ me, baby, I just wanna show you how sorry I am,” he said, but the grim darkness in his eyes told the truth.

“By sticking your hand down my pants?” she asked. He shrugged.

“You never said ‘no’ to it in the past,” he pointed out. And he was right. She hadn’t.

“Well now I am,” she said.

“Why?”

“Because I’m not in the mood, Dylan. I had a rough day.” He scoffed at that.

“Awww, poor Willow. Life must be so hard for you, even though you’re only cleanin’ all day long with our daughter,” Dylan spat drily. She cringed as his grasp on her arm tightened.

“You’re hurtin’ me,” she muttered, but he still didn’t let her go. He was crowding her wordlessly against the wall again, and that’s when something inside her snapped. “You want a blowjob so fucking bad? Here, have one,” she spat, kneeing him in the groin as she said ‘have one’, pushing him away, and rushing into the kitchen before he could stop her.

“You BITCH,” he yelled behind her as she scooped up her crying daughter and held her in front of her this time, like she was still a newborn baby, instead of placing Ellie on her hip. She turned to face the doubled-over man she’d left in the hallway. He was now trying to straighten up and stumble into the kitchen, pain evident in his expression.

“Stay right where you are,” Willow ordered, her voice shaky.

“After everythin’ I’ve done for you,” he growled. She felt a pang of guilt.

“You were hurtin’ me,” she claimed. He practically snarled at her.

“I’m not gettin’ down on my knees to beg for your forgiveness when you should be doin’ that for me. You coulda made me sterile, Willow,” he snapped.

“No one’s askin’ you to do that,” she retorted. “And I’m done with that too,” she added, despite how angry he appeared.

“What?”

“I said I’m done goin’ down on my knees for you. My life won’t be spent givin’ you constant apologies and payback hummers. So you better treat me like a person for once, or I’m gone, and I’m takin’ Ellie with me,” she clarified, practically shaking in her shoes. Ellie had now resorted to whimpers in her mother’s tight embrace. While her parent’s voices were raised, they weren’t screaming at each other. So, she felt free to relax while the air thickened around them. Willow found it increasingly difficult to breathe.

“You’re not takin’ my daughter from me, sweetie,” Dylan said in an eerily calm voice and demeanor. He took small steps towards her since his groin hadn’t fully recovered. She was frozen in place – he wouldn’t hurt her while she was holding Ellie, right?

“I don’t wanna do that either, but I will,” Willow threatened. He was still slowly approaching her, like he was approaching a deer and didn’t want to scare it off.

“You want me to shape up? Treatchu better? That it?” Dylan asked. Willow nodded hesitantly. He stopped walking when he was finally hovering over her again. They stared at each other for a terrifying moment before he tilted his head down to kiss her. Her eyebrows shot up in surprise and her instinct was to jump backwards, but he grabbed ahold of her shoulders to keep her still. The kiss didn’t take long, he pulled away after several seconds.

“What was that for?” Willow asked suspiciously.

“I’m givin’ you what you want,” he replied. Her lips parted and she took a sharp breath in, like she was about to say something, but couldn’t find the words. “It’ll be different this time, baby. I promise,” he whispered. Willow worried her lower lip and reluctantly nodded.

“Now, c’mon, we’ve all had a long day. Why don’tchu put Ellie down for a nap and we’ll just watch TV in bed? Okay?” he asked. Willow looked him up and down as he placed a hand on her upper back and gently began pushing her forward so she would start walking. She stumbled at first, but consented to that in the end.

She walked into the nursery, right across from their bedroom, and placed Ellie in her crib, Dylan watching her intently as she did so. Then she uneasily followed him into the bedroom, and he closed the door behind her.

She even tried not to worry when he locked the door behind him.