“Who are you trying to obtain to come get you to rescue you now?”
Meirna doesn’t look up at me, still thumbing away at her screen. “Nettie.”
Her best friend?
That girl couldn’t afford a plane ticket, let alone get her ass here with her womanly wiles, with the way she talks too much and is way too aggressive.
“Do I need to send her money?” I ask, prompting Meirna to finally glance up at me. “She couldn’t afford it.”
Her light brown eyes don’t narrow or widen from my commentary.
Instead, she replies, “Did you need my phone to see what I said? Or do you have it in your tracking app?”
“I didn’t bug your phone.”
“Didn’t you?
“You tell me. You have it in front of you.”
Meirna doesn’t make a move to check; she probably already has and thought I have a separate one just to keep hers singled out.
I don’t.
Just Bobby’s, Alan’s, and Catherine’s.
If Meirna went through their text threads, I have no idea. But they’re there if she wants them. It’s black and white, no honeyed responses, just candid bullshit of how Catherine and Alan wanted her for Bobby’s image. That she was a pawn in a game of chess where checkmate was already called because she’d never know another way until it was too late.
That Catherine thinks she’s too lowly for her son.
“What did you go to school for?”
At first, I don’t register the question as one for me, but when she doesn’t continue, it clicks.
“Business,” I deadpan.
“Boring.”
“Sorry to disappoint, Daydream.” I hand her over her plate of mixed leaf salad with grilled sea bass. “You need to eat.”
“You need to sit.” I expect her to leave me hanging with the plate, but she takes it from my hands and settles it in her lap. “I havequestions.”
I bow my head and take the seat across from her, curious as hell against my better judgment to fall for this shit.
I know she wants to go home.
I’m fully aware this is a shock to her.
And I’m too enamored to play along with this game because I can sit in front of her, as myself, for the first time.
If she were smart, she might negotiate her way out of this.
Or at least try.
Instead, she asks, “How long did you stay with me?”
I furrow my brows. “Excuse me?”
“You said you were with me several times. How long did you stay?”
