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“Yet, you somehow got the evening off,” I remark pointedly.
“About that,” he says grimly. “It seems that your brother doesn’t want to see my face right now.”
“Holy shit, was that because of me?” I panic a little on the inside, worried that my brother has been berating Smoke, the way he did me this morning.
“He is definitely not my biggest fan right now. I think he’ll eventually come around to our way of thinking on this subject, so I’m trying not to get too bent out of shape about it.”
“You know, I’m getting tired of talking about my idiotic brother. Right now, he’s acting like a prize asshole, and I’m not returning to his house until he can get his emotions under control.”
Smoke lifts his glass into the air and says, “I’ll drink to that.”
I gently clink my glass against his and we both swallow a sip of wine. I have to admit it feels good to have someone who understands what I’m going through.
“So, what’s the plan? Are you going to look for your own place?”
I nod. “Yeah, I’ve bookmarked a couple of places on my phone, that I’d like to arrange a viewing for on Monday afternoon when I get off work.”
“How about you come in for the morning, sign off on all your paperwork and take the rest of the day off?”
“That’s a generous offer.”
“Not really. Remember, you’re a partner now. That means you set your own schedule.”
“That’s going to be a problem for me. I’m a terrible workaholic.”
“Not me. I appreciate having my free time to myself. I discovered early on in life that I can waste years working for greenbacks, and then lose them all in one turn of the stock market. Now, I strive for a better balance between work and my personal life.”
“That actually sounds like smart thinking to me.”
“If you’re serious about not going back to your brother’s house, you’re welcome to stay with me until you find your own place.”
“Since we’re just friends now, that shouldn’t pose a problem.” I’m secretly thrilled that Smoke invited me to live with him temporarily. This solves a lot of problems for me. It’s nice to find a genuinely nice person to be friends with.
When my cell phone jingles, I’m convinced it must be Gina at long last. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to check my text messages. I’ve been trying to get a hold of my friend for days. I don’t want to miss out if she’s trying to contact me.”
“By all means. Don’t let me stand in the way of talking to your friend.”
I quickly pull out my phone. I’m thrilled to find a message from Gina. When I open the text it only says Be. That’s it, just the word be. I keep staring at the screen, waiting for the rest of her message to appear. Seconds tick by, and then minutes, but nothing else appears on my screen. I have to admit everything about this is strange.
Smoke leans forward in his seat. “You look worried. What’s going on?”
Without hesitation, I tell him all about it, “I’ve been trying to call and text Gina for the past week. We communicated regularly since I left San Francisco, but last week she stopped answering my messages. Until just now I haven’t gotten any response from her. Now I get this message and it just says ‘be’. I’m starting to get worried for her.”
“Do you mind if I see your message stream?”
“No, of course not,” I say as I hand my phone over to him.
Smoke takes the phone and begins scrolling through the messages. He freezes in place for a moment before his head comes up and I see his stunned expression. “What in the holy fuck is going on here, Serena?”
“I just told you. My friend hasn’t been responding and I’m worried for her.”
“Yeah, I agree, that part is weird. But what’s weirder is that you seem to have a fucking full-blown stalker and haven’t said a damn word about it.”
“I don’t know who the hell that is. I changed my phone number right before I left San Francisco, this is a new number and phone. I think whoever the stalker is, he’s stalking the woman who had the number before me. I don’t recognize anything about the dude. I couldn’t figure out how to block the messages as I need to be able to receive calls from withheld numbers for work—so instead, I just ignore them.”
Snoke growls, “Are you being for real right now?”
I nod, wondering why he’s getting so worked up about it. “Granted it’s all text messages, but I don’t recognize anything in his manner of speaking, and he never mentions a name. I wish there were some way to figure out who owned the phone before me so I can get word to her that’s someone from her past is hell bent on killing her.”
