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“If we could explain, she’d understand,” I said, pressing the phone to my ear. “She would.”
The other two didn’t share my belief so I turned my back on them as her phone rang out constantly. Three phone call attempts later and her phone was off, putting me straight to voicemail. The gold-tipped rose in my upper jacket pocket started to weigh heavier by the second. I turned back to Danny and Sebastian, both of whom had been trying to work out the best way forward.
“Fuck. What do we do?”
“We find her,” Sebastian said firmly. “We find her, we explain, we tell her how we feel, and then… then it’s up to her.”
“What— no, I mean. She’ll understand,” I said as the grave look on Sebastian’s face turned my gut cold. “Won’t she?”
“I think right now, all she sees is that we dated her, got close to her just for Toby,” Danny pointed out. “And she’s well within her right too. I mean sure, you met her before all of this but Seb and me? We sought her out for Toby. It doesn’t matter that we fell for her, that’s all she will see.”
“Fuck.” I kicked the ground, turning to scan the crowd, desperately hoping I would glimpse Scarlett. The longer she was missing, the tighter my gut coiled, and a bad feeling started to burrow in my chest.
“Right, Lucas, you come with me,” Sebastian said. “Danny, you stay here in case she’s still around and keep an eye on Toby.”
Toby was on stage, stumbling through a speech that luckily everyone was finding amusing. Just the sight of him flared my anger hotly and I forced my gaze away.
“Where are we going?” I asked as Sebastian hurried through the crowd, leaving Danny behind.
“The only one place we know she might go,” he said, throwing a glance over his shoulder. “Her hotel.”
The drive wasn’t fast enough. Late at night, the traffic swelled as it usually did in New York City but tonight was the first night I contemplated climbing out of the car and running down the road instead as if it would be faster. Sebastian and I didn’t speak, sitting in an uncomfortable silence as the driver did his best to take us to Scarlett’s hotel as fast as possible.
My mind couldn’t quiet. Over and over, I repeated the conversation in my head, even fantasized about times when I should have told her sooner. How did it become so fucked up so quickly? Why couldn’t Toby just keep his mouth shut?
Why had I agreed in the first place?
Putting my best friend first shouldn’t have been the wrong decision but now, with the love in my heart for Scarlett, it felt like the biggest mistake of my life.
Was there even any coming back from this for us?
Finally, we pulled up outside of the hotel and I burst from the car, followed hotly by Sebastian. Inside, we skidded to a stop at the desk and faced down a very alarmed desk agent.
“Can I help you?”
“We’re here to see Scarlett Parker,” I demanded breathlessly. Please still be here, I prayed. Please let us see you.
A few tense seconds passed as she typed on her computer, and then her penciled brows pulled into a frown, sending my heart into my churning gut.
“I’m sorry. Miss Parker checked out about twenty minutes ago.”
“Did she leave any forward contact?” Sebastian asked over the top of my head.
“No, I’m sorry. There’s nothing here.”
“Can we see the room?”
“Excuse me?”
“Can we see the room?” Sebastian repeated and he passed over his ID card. As they talked, my heart beat sluggishly in my gut and a painful heat swept down my spine.
She couldn’t be gone.
Surely it wasn’t true.
Sebastian retrieved the keycard for the room and squeezed my shoulder on the way past. Together, we headed up to her floor and ran to her room, unsure of what we would even find. Part of me hoped there would be something left behind, or that she had just asked the desk to tell people she wasn’t there but when we reached her door and knocked, there was no answer.
Slotting the keycard in, Sebastian opened the door and together we stepped inside.
