“I aim to please,” I mumbled. “The past twenty-four hours, I’ve experienced every emotion in the book.”
“That must suck. I’m only horny, hungry and ready for baseball.”
“Ah, to have such a simple life,” I retorted, earning a smile.
Chapter Twenty
Zade
I left the gym on a high. I threw great, almost pushing my personal best with the weights. Nicole yelled at me every second of the way, but I couldn’t help it—I admired the hell out of the woman. I preferred to keep it to myself, though. Plus, if I had the ability to speak she’d think the workout wasn’t hard enough. My phone went off, distracting me from my thoughts.
“Z, what’s up, sis?”
“Cheery Zade is nice and all, but save some for the rest of us. You sound too happy. It’s annoying. Also, can you come over tomorrow morning? My shelf broke. I need help.”
“I love it when you’re weak. You’re nicer. But, yeah. I’ll stop by sometime in the morning. I have a workout then I’ll swing by.”
“Thanks. Until I land that lucky son of a bitch who wins me over, I need to use you for your man card.” She made a gagging noise. “That hurt saying, by the way.”
“I’m sure. So no luck with Pedro, then?”
“The mouth breather? No. He was boring as hell and only talked about his mom.”
“Uh, one might say he’s…sweet. Right?”
“No. Creepy. Way creepy.”
“Hmm. Who was before Pedro? George?”
“The loud eater.”
“Harvey?” Her online dating ranged from pathetic to hilarious.
“Without being cliché, he rivaled Two-Face. And by that, I meant two different people depending on the night.” She sighed. “My life is sad. I’m married to my major, but I don’t mind it. Enough about that. I keep getting weird calls.”
That sounded my alarm. “How?”
“I’m sure it’s nothing, but some person keeps calling asking for Zaria and insisting that it’s me. I stopped answering, but they keep leaving me voicemails to call them back as soon as possible.”
“Block the number.”
“I did, but here’s the thing. I got a letter in the mail yesterday. There was nothing alarming about it, but it said the same thing—‘call me immediately’.”
“Fuck.Zaria.Don’t stay home alone tonight.”
“Zade, I live in a townhouse. It’s gated. No one gets in here without the code and, plus, it was mailed to my PO box. They don’t know where I live.”
“I don’t like this one fucking bit.” I clenched my fists, wanting to barge in and search for clues like I was the star ofCriminal Mindsor something.
She laughed. “Me neither. But I’m fine. We’ll figure it out tomorrow when you come over.”
“You can stay at the house tonight if you want. I’ll take the couch.”
“Eh, a house full of college guys? Hell to the no. How about this—if I feel unsafe, I’ll stay with Claire’s mom. She’ll let us crash.”
“Good idea. I prefer you aren’t alone. Are you going to tell Mom?” Claire had been her roommate and her best friend for two years. Plus, her family lived in a really nice part of town.
“Am I crazy? No. She’ll order a SWAT team or something and I don’t want to deal with the drama. Shit, I need to go. Fourth period is starting. I’m shadowing a math teacher today. Eek!”
