“I know, but…” I trail off. I felt like an imposition, even if they assured me that I wasn’t. Plus, their place is so small already without me crashing on the couch.
“I get it, but if you get lonely in that big house, then you know who to call.”
I nod. “Thanks, girl.”
She lifts her bag to her shoulder. “See you tomorrow?”
“Yeah.”
She starts to walk off, then calls over her shoulder, “Try being on time tomorrow, Walsh.”
I huff a laugh. What a bitch. God, I love her.
As I pull up in front of the scene of the crime, I mean the house I’m renting, I sit in my Jeep and stare at it. If the key isn’t waiting under the mat, I’m turning around and going to Kinsley’s house.
My phone pings from the middle console. I glance at it, but when I see my agent Everly’s name, I decide to wait until I’m inside to respond.
I step out of the car and look around. The neighborhood is even more stunning in the daylight. It’s like something out of a movie depicting upper class suburbia. I did not grow up like this. We were very solidly lower middle class. I had the essentials in life, but very little outside of that.
The first time I got sponsored for gymnastics, a whopping thousand dollars to do a photo shoot wearing a designer leotard, I thought I’d hit it big. The thought brings a smile to my face. If sixteen-year-old me could have only seen this. Despite all the shitty things that have gone down in the past week, I’m here. I made it. I’m so close I can practically taste it.
I grab a box from the back seat and head up to the front porch. The key is, miraculously, exactly where the realtor said it would be. I let myself in and drop the box in the entryway.
“Woah,” I say, tilting my head back to take in the tall ceilings. There’s a very expensive looking, almost gaudy, chandelier hanging in the entryway. I didn’t have a chance to really look around last night, what with the police showing up only minutes after I got inside through the upper window.
The memory has a fresh wave of shame rolling over me. I didn’t do anything wrong, but it was so humiliating.
My phone rings from my front pocket. Everly has switched from texting to calling and a new kind of unease pricks my skin.
I accept the call and hit speaker. “Hi, Ev.”
“Hello,” she says almost as if she hadn’t expected me to answer.
“Sorry I missed you earlier. It’s been a day. I spent the evening at the police station.” I walk back out of the house to grab another box from my Jeep. “Long story short, there was a misunderstanding with my new rental.”
“I heard.”
I pause in the middle of the driveway. It’s cloudy out today with a crisp fall breeze that whips around me almost ominously. “You did?”
My steps resume, but I walk slowly as I wait for her to explain how she’s already heard about the most mortifying night of my life.
“Yes. Meyer called me this afternoon.”
Silence falls between us. My throat tightens and my heart rate picks up speed. Meyer is my sponsor. They’re a sports apparel company, specializing mostly in tennis, but this summer they added a dozen new athletes across a wide range of sports, including me, in an effort to expand into other areas.
“Wait. How dotheyknow?”
“I’m not sure, honestly. I thought for sure they had the wrong client, but then I did a quick search on your name, and it does come up in an incident report from last night.”
Somehow this only gets more humiliating.
She continues as I rub two fingers across my forehead. “But unless they were looking for it, I really have no clue how they found out so quickly.”
“This is so embarrassing. Should I call them to explain?”
She’s quiet for a beat.
“Everly?”
