Unknown: Your boss can’t keep you away from me. He doesn’t even work on your level.
Unknown: You can’t keep ignoring me, either. At some point in time, you have to talk to me.
Unknown: Would you just answer my messages, for fuck’s sake? All I want is to have a damn drink with you.
Unknown: Fine. You’re probably off screwing Mr. Ryker for helping you out anyway.
Unknown: I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that. I’m just upset. How is it that you stand me up, yet I’m the bad guy? All I want is what you promised.
Unknown: All right, I’ll stop for tonight. But don’t think we’re done talking. At the very least, you owe me a conversation.
I wanted to throw my phone against the wall, but the only thing stopping me was the fact that I didn’t have the money to replace my personal phone. Fucking hell, how did things get so out of control? I flopped onto my bed and listened to every sound coming up and down the hallway. For a second, the idea of getting a guard dog for my place made sense, and I wondered if it would help me feel safer.
Then again, I still didn’t know why I felt safe the second JoJo rolled up on Tommy like that. I mean, the man had never done anything nice for me. All he did was humiliate me, and belittle me, and make me feel worthless. All that man wanted to do was ruin me. I was convinced that it was his only goal in life. And while I knew I couldn’t trust him—or any man, for that matter—it didn’t stop me from feeling as if I had been saved the second he walked up on Tommy and started calling him out on his bullshit.
Thinking about all of this exhausted me, and before I knew it my eyes closed, allowing me to slip off into an effortless slumber.
Before thoughts of JoJo with his hand wrapped around my throat infiltrated my dreams.
10
Rebecca
JoJo:Come in early tomorrow morning. Six o’clock. We need to talk.
“You even havehim saved as ‘JoJo’ in your phone, now what gives?” Brit asked.
I quickly turned off my work phone and put it away. “It’s nothing, really. Just some stupid nickname.”
She scooted closer to me, offering me a spoon for our tub of ice cream. “You have a nickname for him, so clearly you two know one another outside of work.”
I rolled my eyes. “We went to high school together, that’s all.”
She balked. “That’s all!? Were you two an item or something back in high school?”
I scoffed. “Him and my sister were, yeah.”
“Ooooooh, I see.”
I looked over at her. “You see what?”
She snickered. “He’s making your life a living hell because your sister broke his heart, isn’t he?”
If you only knew.“Ah, it’s not that bad.”
She giggled. “Well, at any rate, use that to your advantage. If you’ve known him for that long--.”
“I don’t know him, Brit. It’s not like we kept in touch or anything.”
“Still, I bet you could leverage it.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not going to do anything like that, okay? Now, let’s watch this movie. I have yet to see Magic Mike 2 and I don’t want anyone interrupting my ‘me time.’”
Brit cackled as she hunkered down beneath our shared blanket. “Girl, I feel you one hundred percent on that one. Let’s load the bitch up.”
My girl weekend had been absolutely wonderful, but I dreaded having to go into work early. In fact, long after Brit had left to go back to her place, I was still up trying to figure out what the hell JoJo wanted from me. Now that I had told someone that I knew him from high school, it was only a matter of time before that got spread around the office.
Would he be pissed that people knew that?
