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What is cliché is falling for the first man to pay attention to me...twice.
Chapter Nine
Nash
TRU HAS BEEN ACTINGstrangely since last night at the bar. Well, stranger than normal.
When I get back from a trip to my dad’s to help him move some furniture, my chest hollows out the moment I open the apartment door.
She’s gone.
I can feel it.
I swallow and stand there, one foot over the threshold, the other stubbornly clinging to the hall. It won’t be real if I don’t go in.
What’s wrong with me? I wanted this, right? My quiet life back. My old patterns resumed.
I rub my chest, surprised at the sharp pain beneath my ribs.
Stella opens her apartment door behind me. “Oh, good. You’re home. I have to go and I was going to have to bring your dog with me.” She hands me the end of Bo’s leash and he pays no attention to me because he’s slathering to get into our apartment thinking his girl is in there. “Perry tried a charcoal mask and can’t get it off. She’s crying.” She holds up her phone so I can see a picture of Perry with mud all over her face. Women are so weird. “I have to go help her. And take more pictures and maybe a video. Anyway, take your dog and call Tru and say whatever you need to get her home. I mean it, Nash. She was really good for you.” She reaches up and kisses my cheek. “Normally, I’d be all up in your face about this but I have a feeling you’re already going to feel pretty shitty without my help. Plus, nobody ever gets to see Perry cry, so I don’t want to miss it. Do the right thing and call Tru. Love you.”
She’s down the stairs before I can even respond. I look down at my dog and he’s staring at me like I’m an idiot. He’s one to talk.
“You’re right. I am an idiot. Why am I standing in the hall when I just got my life back?”
We go inside and he runs around sniffing everywhere trying to find Fifi. The guest room door is open, the bed made, the dresser and nightstand empty.
My heartbeat thickens when I see paper on the kitchen counter. Did she leave me a note?
The closer I get, I see it’s typed. Numbered paragraphs and indemnities and clauses. I go to the last page and see her signature.
She signed over her percentage of Ironwing to me.
She’s gone.
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