“Come in, come in. I was just having a coffee,” he says. Although he doesn’t offer one to any of us. He also doesn’t offer for us to take a seat. “So all three of you are friends of Wren’s?”
“We work together,” I say, but he focuses all his attention on Echo.
“Is she here by any chance?” Echo asks.
Brogan continues to stand close to her, practically gluing himself to her side. I guess I’m not the only one that doesn’t like how Andrew is eyeing her up. Echo just smiles at Andrew politely, but it’s not her usual beaming smile.
I’ve known the woman a day and I’m already interpreting her smiles. Fuck, what is happening to me?
I take a few steps away to snoop around Andrew’s enormous living area—it’s all very white, clean lines and minimal furniture, a bit like stepping into an art gallery. There are no books, no magazines, no mugs littered about on the coffee table. And while I’d consider myself someone that likes cleanliness and order, even to me, this place looks barely lived in.
Andrew laughs, and it’s one of those false chuckles that makes me want to punch him in the face. “Oh no, I live here with my fiancée, Talia.”
“We visited your old apartment,” Echo says with a nod. “How long ago did y’all move here?”
I twist around at her wording. It’s the first time I’ve heard the yokelism come out of her mouth and while it sounds natural, I have a feeling that she’s presenting herself in a certain way for a reason. Andrew is already looking at her like he wants to eat her up, his attention entirely rapt on Echo’s extraordinarily pretty face. But I have a feeling that she wants him to see her as stupid. Probably a good game plan, so I keep my movements quiet and my mouth shut. I have a feeling if anyone’s getting information out of this guy, it’s going to be her, and not me or Brogan.
“A few months back. It’s a lovely bit of the city, don’t you think?” He grins widely at her.
“It really is. When was the last time you saw Wren?”
He furrows his brow thoughtfully. “At least two or three months ago, I’d say. Before I moved here. What’s all this about?”
“Did she ever talk to you about not being happy at work or anything? Talk about where she might go if she just up and disappeared one day?”
Andrew blinks once, twice and then taps his fingers on the counter in front of him. “Is that what’s happened? I’ve not seen or heard from her in months, but I didn’t really expect to.” He sighs heavily. “I’m not sure how well she took our breakup. She seemed fine but you never know, do you?” he says, shaking his head slowly.
There’s a long moment of silence where yet another fear is added to the list. Where the hell are you, Wren? Are you choosing to disappear or do you want to be found?
“She seemed a little… lonely, I guess you’d say,” he adds thoughtfully.
I grunt. “She kept it to herself if she was.”
He shoots me a cursory glance, shaking his head again. “We didn’t spend a huge amount of time talking.” He grins lasciviously, and it makes me want to puke. “I got the impression that she saw more for herself, wanted more out of life. And I can’t imagine the way things went between us helped much with that.”
“So you guys were dating?’ Echo asks.
“We had an arrangement,” he replies smoothly.
“Fuck buddies?”
I have to turn around again, facing the window and the impressive view outside. Something about her saying the word ‘fuck’ has me all hot and bothered, and I find myself sweating and getting semi hard again.
He chuckles again. “You could call it that. We scratched one another’s mutual itches. But then, of course, my life moved on. I moved here with Talia and things couldn’t continue between the two of us.”
Echo nods, just as there’s the sound of the key in the door and Andrew springs up like he’s been electrocuted. A short, blonde woman steps into the apartment and freezes as she spots all of us, throwing a confused look at Andrew.
“This is my beautiful fiancée, Talia,” Andrew says, striding over to her and planting a kiss to her lips like he wasn’t just eyeing our girl two seconds ago. “Thanks for stopping by.” It’s clearly a dismissal and Echo takes it that way. Not that I think any of us are eager to hang around any longer than necessary.
“Nice to meet you,” Echo says. “Thank you for your time, anyway. But I think we’d all better head out and leave y’all to your day.”
She shoots me a look I can’t interpret and then the three of us head home.
6
Echo
“So, what did we all make of that?” I ask once we’re safely far, far away from Andrew and his fancypants apartment. I figure it’s a good idea to head straight back to the garden so that we can debrief on that, frankly, super weird, encounter.
