“Mikey—”
I didn’t hear the rest because I hung up. I grabbed a whole box of granola bars from my pantry on my way out the door because I was starving and didn’t have time to think. My phone buzzed again, Guy. I didn’t have time. I had to get to her. I didn’t bother waiting for the elevator, tearing down the stairwell to get back to the parking garage.
Where the rain was light on the way home from the airport, it poured now. Jessie hated rain.
A crack of lightning whipped across the sky and I grew hysterical. Jessie hated storms. This was what her nightmares were made of. Did she feel safe at Guy and Kitty’s?
“I’m on my way, honey,” I said to no one in particular. I put my car into sport mode and went as fast as I could, being a dick and driving on the berm when I needed to get around an accident. I tried calling Jessie again, but she didn’t answer. I needed to talk her down. Even if she was mad at me, I couldn’t have her being alone with people who didn’t understand her like I did. She needed me, even if she didn’t know it.
The drive to Guy and Kitty’s should have taken about twenty-five minutes, but I made it in fifteen. I ran through the pouring rain to their door, ringing the bell over and over. Jessie’s car wasn’t in the driveway, but maybe she’d put it in the shop like I told her to.
Guy answered the door in just a pair of sweatpants, his upper body red and splotchy.
“Fuck, man, were you fucking?”
“I... uh, yeah.”
“Is she here?”
Guy rubbed his hand over his forehead. “No. She’s not here. But come in.” I slipped off my soaked shoes on their doormat as Guy called out to Kitty. “Mikey’s here,ma puce.”
Kitty’s “okay” sounded from the bedroom.
“Sorry, man. I just, I really, fuck. Where is she?”
Kitty walked in the living room with an oversized t-shirt and some sweatpants, too. Her expression was that of a funeral director. “Hey, Mike.”
I couldn’t help myself. I barged past her into the guest bedroom. Jessie’s suitcase sat open on the floor. I stormed back out to the living room.
“She moved in with you? What the hell? You could have told me, Stelle!”
“She’s been working long hours and this was closer,” Kitty consoled me, flopping on the couch. “She got the big promotion, you know.”
My heart swelled. “She did? She didn’t tell me.”
Kitty’s eyes turned murderous. “Well, I’m pretty sure you bitched her out and dumped her when she called to tell you, Michael.”
“Easy,” Guy warned, raising his eyebrows at Kitty. Kitty’s attention was on her phone anyway, a soft “oh shit” issuing from her lips. She got up and went into the kitchen.
“Hey! What’s wrong? I saw I missed some calls.”
I rushed into the kitchen. “Is it her? Where is she?” I mouthed.
Kitty held up a finger to silence me. “Can you drop a pin? And slow down, it’s hard to understand you. Is a tow truck coming?”
Of course. Her fucking car. And it was storming on top of it all.
Jessie’s voice rushed through Kitty’s phone. “Deep breaths, Jess. Are you safe? Are you on the 5?”
Muffled sobs came through, with a little shriek as thunder rumbled in the background. I heard a faint “I’m fine.”
“Send me that pin. I’m leaving now,” I said, racing for the door.
Kitty ran after me as I tore out the front door, grabbing my shoes as I went.
“You’d better have your shit together, Michael! Don’t you hurt her!” Kitty raged. What was with these women in our lives who went absolutely apeshit when they were mad? Kitty was about as scary as mad Jessalyn.
“Hurt her? Are you fucking kidding me? Her car’s broken down and she’s afraid of fucking storms, Kitty! I’m going to help her!”
