Page 106 of Strum Me

Chapter Thirty-Three

Brad

No one will tell me where she is. Someone must know, but no one will tell me.

Not Dennis, not her editor, not even her mother, who has spent the entire time we were friends trying to get us together.

She won’t answer her phone, she won’t reply to my emails.

I don’t know how she is, how Ben is, and how that fucker Silas fits into the equation.

I only know that once again, I have a gaping hole in my life in the shape of a blue-eyed, shiny-haired brunette, and it feels like all the air in my lungs gushes away into that abyss.

“Tell me where she is, Phil.”

“I don’t know. I don’t know anything more than you. Only that she sent me all her notes, an outline of her article, and a simple ‘I’m sorry.’”

“TELL ME WHERE SHE IS!”

“Brad. I promise you. I don’t know. I would if I could. But she hasn’t been in contact with me at all.”

“You’re just pissed at her because she left you high and dry.”

“I can see how you might feel that way. But at this point, I just wish I knew that she’s okay. Let me know if you find out anything.”

I know he’s telling the truth. It’d be easier to think otherwise. At least then I’d have hope of having some way to get in touch with her, but I know, I know he cares about her. He didn’t blink an eye when I asked him about helping to fund a nanny for Ben on the tour. He only asked what else he could do to make it happen.

“I will. I’m...I apologize for yelling at you. I’m just very worried.”

“I know. I’ll let you know if I hear anything.”

“Please.”

I hang up the phone and stare at it. It’s ridiculous that someone can just vanish into thin air. Two people, I remind myself, though I hardly needed to. I didn’t think it could’ve been worse, but the ache is double what is was when we last parted. There are two empty spots in my heart now.

“Hey, have you heard anything?” Jez wanders into the living room on the bus from his bedroom.

I just shake my head.

“Nothing at all?”

“Yeah. Not from her. No one that will answer my phone calls has heard anything either. That, or she’s told them not to tell me anything.”

“It’s fucked up.”

I shrug. I don’t know what to say.

“It is fucked up, Brad,” Jez says firmly, surprising me.

“What’s fucked up?” Marius asks, climbing onto the bus, Sebastian and the girls trailing behind him.

Jez just sighs and gestures his head toward me.

“Ah. Well, for once, I agree with you.”

“What do you mean?”

“You didn’t see what we saw when she left.”