He nodded. “That’s all I wanted to say.”
“Tell Amy I said thanks for her concern.” I stood up to go.
“I will tell her that,” he said, and smiled. I could tell he was relieved.
I grinned back, and then left the office. Janice was talking on the phone as I passed, but she gave me a slight nod. I walked quickly to my desk, my head buzzing with conflicting thoughts and ideas. I was hung over and barely holding myself together, and certainly not in any state to process all of that information. I buried my head in my heads as Marissa launched back into whatever story she had been telling before I stood up and left. It was going to be a long day.
Chapter Six
Two days later, Saturday afternoon, and I was spending the day on the couch. My conversation with Shane kept replaying in my mind, over and over. He seemed genuinely worried about me, although incredibly uncomfortable. I didn’t really know Shane, and suspected nobody but Amy really did, but his warning seemed heartfelt and kept ringing in my ears. Rex Latour is a violent man. Stay away from Rex Latour. I sighed and looked out the window.
Before I could fall too deep into another daydream, my phone rang. I swiped right and held it up to my ear.
“Hello?”
“Darce, it’s Amy. What’s up?”
“Not much, kiddo, how are you?”
“I’m fine. I heard Shane talked to you.”
I laughed. “Yeah, he gave me a stern talking to.”
“I’m sorry. Seriously, I didn’t tell him to do that. I only found out about it today.”
“Yeah, well, I would have told you earlier, but you’ve been MIA at work lately.”
Amy sighed. “I know. I’ve been swamped with the new app launch, I haven’t had time for anyone.”
“Anyone but Shane.”
“I know, I’ve been a crappy friend. Let’s get dinner tonight?”
Lately, my relationship with Amy had been strained. We were best friends, sisters even, but her job and her new relationship were all consuming, and we barely had time to see each other. That worked fine when I lived in a different city, but we had no excuse anymore not to see each other. I knew how busy she was because I worked on her app, but I also knew she could have been delegating some of the responsibility. Amy was a very particular person, and liked to micromanage as much as possible.
“Yeah, definitely,” I said. I needed to be more understanding, and she was definitely trying at least.
“I’ll pick you up at like seven. My treat,” she said.
“Free food? Sounds good to me.”
She laughed. “I thought you’d say that. Anyway, tell me more about this Rex guy.”
“Not much else to say, I guess. He’s not really my normal type.”
“Oh no? No backwards hat and popped collar? No trust fund?”
I laughed, picturing my last boyfriend. He was a typical, snobby New Yorker asshole. He came from a wealthy background, like I did, but his parents never lost their money. It didn’t last very long.
“Not at all like that. He’s tall, lots of muscles, rugged. Covered in tattoos. A little scary actually.”
There was a pause at the other end. “A lot scary, according to Shane,” Amy said.
“Don’t start with me. You know I can handle myself.”
She sighed. “I know you can. Just be careful.”
“He’s a big puppy. All bark and no bite. But god, those muscles.”
“I understand that,” Amy said, laughing.
That was probably the most comfortable conversation we’d had in weeks. I missed her, if I was honest with myself. I hadn’t moved to Philadelphia to be closer to her, but that definitely was a huge bonus. I didn’t have any other good friends in the city, and her distance made things hard. Eventually, our conversation wrapped up, and I promised I’d see her later that night.
I lounged back on the couch again and looked back at the TV. I had on some reality show about female wrestlers, and I couldn’t help but reflect how time in front of a camera can turn a perfectly normal person insane. Amy was going through something like that. Her rich and famous boyfriend was reclusive, but there were still paparazzi hounding their every move. I knew I couldn’t judge her too harshly. There was no real way for me to understand what she was going through, and a lot of it she couldn’t talk about because of Shane’s obsessive privacy. I knew he was good to her, but sometimes I thought he was a straight up asshole. He was pretty controlling, although Amy said she didn’t mind it one bit.
As some red-haired amazon girl got into the ring with a pale British chick, my phone buzzed again. I checked the screen, and it was a text from a number I didn’t recognize. Curious, I pull it up and read it.
hey spoiled girl, come to drake’s tonight was all it said. But I knew exactly who it was from. A thrill ran through my stomach and up my spine as the memory of him came roaring back: dangerous Rex Latour and his dreamy green eyes.