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Nayome coughed awkwardly, and couldn’t stop the blush from working it’s way up her neck, heating up her cheeks.
“Ah ha” Dani looked triumphant, grinning ear to ear. “I knew it, you met someone! Aint nothing else that could put that much of a spring in your step.”
Nayome laughed helplessly. Was she that obvious? “There was a guy…” She admitted, somewhat reluctantly, but she couldn’t help but grin at Dani as she said it.
“Do you have a picture?”
Nayome was about to say no, when she remembered the quick photo she had snapped in the hotel. “Actually, yeah I do.” Grinning conspiratorially, she pulled it up and slid her phone across the table to Dani.
Dani’s eyes widened comically as she dragged the phone in for a closer look.
“Holy crap, whatta hottie!”
“Yeah, he was…something.”
Grinning, Dani passed the phone back to Nayome. “Tell me everything, I want all the dirty details.”
Nayome laughed. It felt good to have a silly chat about men with a girlfriend. Why hadn’t she done this with Dani sooner? As she spilled some details—not anything specific, or incriminating, Nayome felt almost as though another piece of her life was sliding into place, similar to how she felt after Nick left her apartment yesterday.
She had needed this.
It had taken a near-death experience for her to sort out her priorities, but despite the trauma, Nayome was glad she had been reminded about what truly mattered in life. She didn’t want to go back to how she had been before Scotlant, burying her head in work. She loved her work, but it couldn’t be everything.
As Nayome enjoyed a lighthearted evening filled with wine, gossip, and lots of laughter, she couldn’t shake the nagging question—why hadn’t Bal reached out? She had called him yesterday, and had only gotten radio silence in return.
She hadn’t expected that he would be fawning over her, but after that last night they had shared…he hadn’t even checked in to make sure she had arrived okay. Nayome was disappointed, and trying not to let it cloud her memory of that last night.Is this what it feels like to be ghosted?
As they wrapped up and paid the bill, Nayome felt her phone vibrate in her bag. Whipping it out, embarrassed at how excited she was to see who it was, Nayome couldn’t stop the grin that blossomed across her face as a message popped up from Bal.Finally.
“Is that from him?” Dani asked, smiling as she grabbed her bag off the back of the chair and stood, as they got ready to head out.
“Yeah, finally,” Nayome admitted.
“Men. They can’t help it, especially the hot ones. So hard to pin down.”
“Well, I’m going this way,” Nayome said as they stepped onto the busy sidewalk outside the bar, knowing Dani’s apartment was in the opposite direction. “Thanks Dani, this has been fun.”
“Anytime! And I mean it, we work so much, it’s good to blow off some steam sometimes.”
“Agreed.”
Not wanting to deal with the subway tonight, Nayome hopped in a cab that was parked just up the street, pointed in the direction she needed to go. Grabbing her phone, she pulled up the message from Bal and frowned.
I apologize that I missed your call. Something urgent has come up, I haven’t been able to talk. I hope you arrived safely in New York. Call me when you can—I need to speak to you.
That didn’t sound good, Nayome thought. She was about to shoot a quick message back, when she thought better of it and just dialed his number.
“Nayome.”
“Bal.” She loved the way her name sounded when he said it. She had never been particularly fond of her name, but now…he made it sound so intimate, sexy.
“Are you alone?”
Nayome glanced at the cab driver, who was humming along to the radio and grinned, the wine having given her a pleasant head buzz.Next he’ll be asking what I’m wearing.“I’m in a cab, on my way home.”
“Can you call me when you’re home?”
“Um, yeah sure. Is everything okay?” Nayome asked, frowning. His tone sounded serious, not like someone who was about to engage in some lighthearted phone sex.
“I want us to be able to speak freely.”
“Alright, it should be about twenty minutes, I’ll call you soon.”
Nayome chewed her lower lip as she hung up, tossing her cell back in her bag. Tapping her fingers in a quick, anxious rhythm, as the cab driver weaved his way slowly through traffic.
