“You and me both.” I look at the top floor of the skyscraper, somehow missing it already. “Did you know?” I ask.
“What?”
“About Maya.”
It’s quiet for so long I worry the call really has dropped. “Will you kill me if I say yes?”
I chuckle. “Not at all.” I should thank her. But I won’t go that far.
“I didn’t think it mattered since she wouldn’t be there. But yeah, I knew she was the nanny and lying about her name the first time I dove into things. I didn’t tell you because… Well, I was hoping you would run into her while doing surveillance, but you never did.”
That would have changed everything… and yet nothing. I still would have completed the job. I still would have stayed if I’d been allowed.
“When you told me you were stuck, I… I purposely didn’t get you out.”
I shake my head. There’s the scheming Rosie I know.
“But then I lost my laptop, and my phone… I think my sanity as well, and there was no way to help you.”
“What happened?”
She gives a dry laugh. “You wouldn’t believe it if I told you. That’s why I’m calling. I’m going to have to stay here longer.”
“How long?”
“A month… maybe a little more.” My eyebrows fly up, and I resist the urge to drive there myself and fix whatever problem she’s dealing with.
“O-okay.”
“Okay?I thought you’d be freaking out.”
“I never freak out.”
“Except when you run into your ex and give her a concussion.”
“That’s not exactly how it happened.”
“So you don’t have a million questions for me?” she asks again.
“Whatever it is, I know you’ll figure it out. If you can’t, I’m only a phone call away.”
“Wow. You should run into exes more often.” There’s a muffled voice on her end, and I want to ask if that’s Hayden, but before I can, she says, “I gotta run. I’ll call you later.”
“Stay safe.”
“Always.”
She hangs up, and I look at the penthouse one last time. I can’t stay here any longer.
I make myself walk away, wandering aimlessly around a city that’s back to bustling with shoppers and workers. One day is all the world can stand still, and even that is pushing it. I’ve always been the same way, afraid to stop moving in fear something bad would catch up to me. But for the first time in a long time, I just want to sit.
I walk another block before I find a bench, and I take a seat as the world moves on around me. Everyone has something to do and someone to see.
Everyone except me.
Do I run to Maya now? Or do I give her time? The last two days have been a lot. She needs to process it and her new unemployment status, I’m sure. But does shewantto see me? I know a kiss can communicate a lot of things, but after all that, do I dare hope she still means the things she said while I was dangling off the building? She said she loved me, but she could barely look at me after Liam showed up.
My phone rings, and once again I pull it out, hoping it will beher.
