Another snort, followed by a hiccup. “Dammit. Yeah, I didn’t think so when we were trying to track your ass down. Did you know it took months? Eleven long months where he could barely focus on anything else. But you know how some people are when they latch onto an idea, he was like a damn dog with a juicy bone.”
I nod and brush off her vaguely accusatory tone, watching the city fly by.
Jules is still in a weird fucking mood once the car drops us in the city center. Despite her insistence for us to spend the day sightseeing, she’s drunk off her ass by breakfast.
I persuade her to sit down in a café where I can shovel as many pastries into my face as possible, while she downs a noxious-smelling cocktail. She also insisted on picking the café and electing to sit outdoors, even though it’s been drizzling since we stepped out of the car.
I ignore the miserable weather and iffy company and focus on stuffing my face with fresh fruit and pastry while sipping delicious coffee.
So far, I’m two for two on girl’s trips where the other parties get hammered. I just hope she doesn’t leave me in the lurch like Ally and Lila did.
It makes me curious what a girl’s trip with Elara would be like. Chaos, probably. She’d bring along her dogs and let them run riot.
Still... it might be better than this.
After picking her pastry to crumbs without actually eating anything, Jules focuses her attention on her phone while I finish my coffee. The city is alive around us, with people hurrying through the drizzle-filled streets. I could sit here for hours just watching people living their lives. Maybe it’s me being a gawking tourist, but everyonelooks a lot more stylish than back home. I feel slightly self-conscious about the slightly tatty pair of overalls I’m currently sporting.
“Are you sure you want to do this today?” I ask as Jules scowls through her phone, thumbs flying as she types what looks to be an entire essay as a text message.
“Yep. Two secs and we’ll find some sights to see.”
Unfortunately, the day doesn’t get much better from there.
Jules drags me from sight to sight until we’ve seen all the major landmarks for all of two seconds. We stop just long enough for her to take a raunchy selfie with the Orc statue outside City Square. Then onto the Spirit Market which sells the weirdest variety of human and supernatural crap I’ve ever seen, which Jules insists on us going round at a breakneck pace. Next, we head to the famous Meridian Clock Tower, which has been knocked down and rebuilt a half dozen times since it was first built. We finally take a break at the Liberty Plaza, which has a massive screen set up and a bunch of people sitting around watching a movie in the middle of the day. By this point, my feet are burning and I’d love nothing more than to sit and take a break.
The entire time, Jules remains distracted. She flits between angrily typing at her phone and taking random selfies of the two of us, where I look bemused and she looks deranged.
As the day continues into the afternoon, I get this uncomfortable feeling where the back of my neck prickles, like we have eyes on us the entire time and I’m uncomfortable as hell.
We stop for a late lunch at this little café where we’re seated right beside the window of a busy street. I order another coffee to get me through the rest of the day and a sandwich. As our food is about to be served, someone stops by the table. I turn my head to thank them, assuming they’re the server, only to have a phone shoved into my face.
“Hey, what the fuck?”
“You’re the girl that’s banging all of Orpheus Underground, right?” A man wearing a soaked raincoat leans close enough for me to feel him dripping on my arm. He beams at me and I gape silently at him.
“What the fuck, dude. No photos,” Jules practically growls at him. “That’s rude as hell.”
That’s not the end of it, though. It’s like this one guy is the first trickle through the floodgates and then the deluge begins.
My sandwich arrives and I tuck in, only to be interrupted by another person wanting an autograph. Then a pair of teenage girls stop by for a selfie, followed by an older man wanting to call me a whore to my face.
I choke on my sandwich while Jules shoots him a death glare.
“Maybe we should head back to the hotel,” I suggest, lightly.
“Yeah, good idea,” Jules replies, before pulling my phone out of her pocket.
I frown at her. “I’d forgotten you still had that.”
“Dammit,” she mutters to herself, rubbing her forehead. “I wish I’d checked this days ago. I definitely should have thought of it last night.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re sharing your location, right?”
“Am I?”
She taps the screen and opens up my settings before clicking onto another page and eventually landing on what looks to be a forum.
