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When the fourth text went unanswered, my stomach tightened hard, knowing it wasn’t like him.
In fact, Myles was an almost compulsive text answerer. The only time he didn’t text someone right back was when he was sleeping or, well, sleeping with someone.
But he should have been just getting ready to leave work. Which was prime time for him to be ironing out plans with whoever he was meeting up with.
He would have seen my text.
I had no reason to suspect something was wrong, not really. He could have been in the bathroom, or dealing with a difficult customer. Really, any number of things.
But the way the hair on the back of my neck stood on end had me immediately dialing his number.
Once.
Twice.
A third time.
“Hey, this is you-know-who. If you are calling about you-know-what, then meet me at you-know-where.”
That was his answering machine message. It had been that way since he was a teenager, mostly because his uncle was a cop and it pissed him off to hear it when he called his nephew.
“Myles, it’s me,” I said, hearing how frantic my voice was already. “You need to call me back. ASAP. Like five minutes ago, okay?”
When that didn’t get answered, I called again. And again. And again.
“Alright, I got the extra-extra larger pee…” Remy started as he came in, finding me throwing my purse over my shoulder. “What’s wrong?” he asked, one look at my face telling him something was up.
“Myles isn’t answering me.”
“Myles. Your best friend,” Remy repeated, putting the bags down just inside the door.
“Yeah. I know it sounds like nothing, but Myles always answers. Always. He once answered me while in the dental chair getting a root canal. He should be answering.”
“Okay,” Remy said, nodding, his tone placating. “Alright. Come on. Let’s put your mind at ease. Why don’t you leash up Lyle?” he asked, making me turn and point, showing him Lyle waiting by his gate with a slip lead around his neck, ready to go.
“Great minds,” I said, taking the leash.
“So where are we heading?” Remy asked as he followed me outside.
“The smoothie shop first. He should have been leaving there a little bit ago.”
“Alright. And if he’s there, you owe me a smoothie.”
“One wheatgrass smoothie coming up,” I teased, even though the last thing I felt like doing was making jokes. At least until I knew Myles was okay.
The ride back to The Main Squeeze was only about twenty minutes. But with each minute that passed, my heart felt more and more crushed in my chest. Until it felt like I couldn’t breathe.
“Hey, take a breath, okay?” Remy said, his hand slapping down on my thigh, giving it a squeeze. It wasn’t until right then that I realized he had parked the car. “Let’s not borrow worries until we know there is something to worry about, right?”
“Right,” I agreed, exhaling hard.
“Let’s go.”
“I can’t bring Lyle inside the store.”
“Babe, who is going to tell on you?” he asked.
And, well, he had a point.
