"I didn't hear you, and I must have left my phone in my pants pocket. This bathroom is well insulated, so it’s hard to hear any outside noise if the door is closed."
He makes his way to the tub to start a bath. I don't know what's wrong with me because I clearly have jumped to a ton of conclusions today. His explanation was completely plausible but something about his demeanor seems off. Maybe there’s something going on at the office I don't know about after all. But I file that away for later and take off my clothes.
"You failed to tell me how intense the self-defense classes at Dane's gym are."
"I know you aren't really the gym type, so I didn't want to scare you off. There is really no way to properly prepare anyone for Nova's intensity, anyway."
I cringe at the mere mention of Nova, and the familiarity Chance seems to have with her. She looked familiar to me, but I can't place where we've met. I definitely would have remembered her if it had been recent because she sort of reminded me of Rihanna when she had the long hair with one side shaved. Nova looks just like that. Except she’s not as petite as Rihanna looks. "Uh oh, it must have gone worse than I thought." Chance chuckles, pulling me out of my internal musings of how intimately he probably knows Nova.
"It went fine after Nova basically dressed me down like a drill sergeant in front of the entire class." I say with a show of annoyance on my face. This only makes Chance laugh more as he lowers himself into the tub, waiting for me to get in. Once again, I’m being that girl when I intentionally get in the tub directly across from and facing him instead of putting my back to his front like he was motioning for me to do. I do this for the sole purpose of seeing the reaction on his face to the questions I ask. "You know Nova well?"
"Very well," Chance says, too vaguely as he looks down at my foot that he is now massaging. Damn it… I know he's doing this on purpose. I can't even see his face like I wanted. I begin to move my foot when he hits a spot near my heel that instantly sends a cooling sensation of relief to my lower back. Baffled at how he did that, I no longer think of stopping this massage. But I continue on with my questioning.
"You're going to have to elaborate on that for me, Chance. If you have a history with her at least let me know so I'm not blindly following someone who secretly despises me." This only makes him laugh harder. Damn this foot massage. I try to move my foot to get up, but Chance just holds it firmly.
"What is wrong with you, why are you so mad?"
"Why am I so mad? I'm trying to give you an opportunity to be open and honest with me for once tonight and you're making it into a big joke."
"For once tonight!?! What does that even mean? You know what, don't even answer that. Apparently, I’m the only one who can have people get a good laugh at their expense tonight. Maybe it's a hard concept to follow, but I haven't fucked every girl that I've come across Lex. I was laughing because I thought that your little jealous streak was cute. Nova is Dane's little sister and unlike Dane, the only time I’ll be getting physical with Nova is once a month, when I volunteer to have my ass kicked in her self-defense class as her demonstration dummy. “
Now I just feel stupid. I never knew Dane had a little sister. That leads me to a whole other line of questioning. Chance hasn't gotten up and left the bathroom yet, so that’s a good sign, and I'm grateful when Chance continues with my foot massage in silence.
Chance
After last night,Alexa must’ve felt a little guilty because she rode to work with me today with no argument. If I’m being honest, I feel guilty also because yesterday I wasn't lying per se, but I was withholding information. After my dad left and I was able to review the file he left for me with Dane, I was a little shook by his guy’s findings.
Apparently, Pearce has been making moves to insert himself in my city and back in Alexa’s life. He’s been buying up property under a dummy company, and from the moves he’s making, it seems like he is gonna try to and take over Sullivan Work Group. It was a mistake because that’s what tipped my dad's informant off and now has my dad more invested in taking him down.Not that he wasn't already.
In addition to that info, he got the car that was there the night of Alexa’s assault and break in. There were prints in the vehicle that matched what we found in the house and video footage of a dark-haired female who had abandoned it. I couldn’t place who the female was, even though the video was of decent quality. The crazy thing was that she had all of Alexa's most distinct features, as far as height, hair color, length, and body style. The only reason I know it wasn’t Alexa is because of the prints and the way this person carried them self and moved in general. Other than that video, she has seemed to disappear into thin air. We sent Tim out to pick up where the trail left off but we haven’t heard anything yet. That’s why my audience in the bathroom was one man short last night.
Dane and I were in my office for hours yesterday, trying to come up with a way to flush Pearce out. This task proved to be more difficult than we originally thought… he’s heavily connected. Then there was mystery chick as we’ve begun to call her. The video was something. But once we reviewed it, we’re even more confused about how she had ties to me. After hours and hours of digging and playing out scenarios, we tabled it for today so I could get home before Alexa got home from her class. So yeah, I didn't make a big deal about her spazzing out on me last night about Nova. Because she was right about something being off. I had new information and was hiding it from her.
Today, I had the forethought to have Miranda send over a week's worth of files from some of our lesser performing accounts to Alexa. They are accounts being managed by other associates but would benefit by Alexa giving them a once over to see where improvements can be made. All that just to keep her occupied for a couple of days until we figure this shit out. Dane knocks his usual quick three knocks before coming in with this laptop and the file that my father left yesterday. He can’t stop smiling, so I already know where his head is at.
"Go ahead and get it all out now so we can get to work asshole."
"What? I didn't even say anything."
"No, you didn't. But you don't have to, I can see it all over your face." My statement seems to give Dane the go-ahead to full-on get it out of his system as he tries to multitask, setting up his work area laughing the whole while.
"You ready to work now?" I say, feigning my annoyance. I could give a shit if half the town saw me naked last night. I'm just ready to deal with Pearce and this unknown threat, so Alexa and I can get on with our lives. I've been doing some digging myself for this female and can't for the life of me figure out the identity of this mystery chick and how she’s connected to me. Surely, I haven't been with that many women that I would’ve forgotten, one that looks so much like Alexa. Right as we are about to begin, I get a text.
Lexa: gotten through 2 accts n should be good for an early lunch if you'd like?
Chance: Go ahead without me stuck helping Dane with a case
Lexa: OK do you want me 2 bring you back food?
Chance: Miranda's ordering the usual u... want in onthe order?
Lexa: No
"Are you ready, or do you want me to come back?" Dane says, now more serious than he was mere seconds ago.
"Oh, now you're ready to work. I'm trying to keep Alexa occupied until we get some answers or a solution. "
"I say tell her. Maybe she even knows this mystery chick and can help us out. Being that’s her twin and all."
