“I gave you a fright? You messaged me 911, and I all but ran out on the very hot and very naked firefighter I was currently seducing.”
“I did?” I stared at her, trying to make sense of her words. “I messaged you?”
She walked over to me with her hands held up in surrender as she took the Nutcracker from my hand, frowning at it like it had offended her, and threw it on the sofa.
“What’s going on? Where is Elijah?”
“Oh, yeah. He’s probably in room 213 right now, getting a post-flight blowjob fromTiff.” I scoffed, half choking on my tears.
Ellie’s silence was eerie as she digested my words, and her gaze roamed over me like she was double and triple-checking that I didn’t have any physical wounds.
“I’m going to need you to explain everything to me.”
“I’ll do you one better.” I handed her the offending iPad, which felt like it was burning my skin despite it being nothing more than a cold metal block—even if it seemed to burn my entire reality to ash.
Chapter Five
Bonnie
Ellie paced back and forth between the kitchen and where I had resumed my spot on the floor. She rotated between shooting me worried glances and mumbling very detailed visions of how to get rid of a body. At one point, she even started opening the cabinets, looking for large, black plastic trash bags. When she came up empty, she asked if I had a tarp stored anywhere—same with acid.
“Sure, El, right under the sink next to the extra sponges. That’s where I keep my tarps and acid.”
She didn’t find me nearly as amusing as I found myself, and I laughed so hard at my own joke that I had to swallow down my vomit before I ended up choking on it.
She eventually laid down next to me on the floor after finally calming down and snatched the drink from my hand and downed it in one gulp.
“Hey!” I protested.
“Oh, hush, you’ve had enough,” she said, keeping her gaze on the ceiling, “Bon?” she asked.
“Yeah, El?”
“Did you realize how he didn’t respond to a single message in the chats? Not asingleone. Not in the group chat, not to Tiff?”
She was damn right I had noticed. That was why all the pieces didn’t fit together, didn’t make sense. And I couldn’t putit together, couldn’t grasp the reality of the situation because of the silence.
“Is silence any better?” I let my question hang in the air while we both thought about it. She sat the iPad down between us, and I couldn’t help but pick it up and start to scroll through the messages again, pulling up the group chat first.
Justin: You coming out with us tonight E?
Tiff: Doubtful, you know his old ball and chain probably has him baking Christmas cookies.
Chad: Yeah, she needs another cookie like I need a colonoscopy.
Tiff: LOL
Elijah had said nothing, so I kept scrolling and re-reading everything that had already imprinted itself behind my eyes. I saw the words every time I blinked.
Justin: I saw that we were all grounded this weekend, you guys up for some darts?
Chad: Name the place.
Chad: E? Can you leave the girlfriend at home? She’s always a downer.
How dare he? I was a hoot. I just didn’t much like spending my time with men who had god-like egos, treated waitstaff like they were less than, and couldn’t hold their liquor. By 9 p.m., they were the worst of drunks. I found myself constantly uncomfortable in their presence, wondering how the hell someone like Elijah stood his friends. But they werehisfriends.
Ralph: Sorry I’ve been MIA. Work has been killer.
