“Are you going to meet him?” said a woman’s voice.
He looked up. She appeared to be in her early twenties, and looked like one of those beauty bloggers Ryder may have had on his arm a few months ago.
“Yes,” he said, unsure of what else to say.
The whole carriage erupted with cheers. Okay, that was weird. He couldn’t help but smile.
“Where is the secret place?” she asked.
“It wouldn’t be a secret if I told you, would it?”
She giggled, but didn’t push him any further. Thankfully, after that, people mostly left him alone. He was texting back and forth with Laura. She was already waiting for him at the station.
About five minutes from arrival, the train ground to a complete halt. After ten minutes of nothing, the driver came over the loudspeaker and said there’d been a signal failure and no trains were going in or out of the station for the foreseeable. He had forty-five minutes until he was due to meet Ryder, and it was a fifteen-minute walk to where he needed to go.
Felix was scrolling through his phone when he felt the presence of someone in his space. He looked up and saw it was three guys. They were clearly drunk, so Felix said nothing, and went back to his phone.
“Oh, he’s too important to talk to the little people now,” said one of them.
“Can I help you?” asked Felix, hating how tentative his voice sounded.
“You don’t remember me, do you?”
Felix looked at the guy who was talking. He had a jock vibe about him, but only in the sense that he was a muscular guy who was drunk and had an attitude problem. Not that he wanted to stereotype.
“Sorry, I don’t.”
“Eddie Hargreaves.”
Felix took a sharp intake of breath. He remembered that name, but he looked completely different. He was definitely not a jock when Felix had known him in college. Back then, he’d been a total nerd, like Felix. They’d competed in debate and quiz teams together. Felix had always beaten him. It wasn’t personal, and had only been for fun, but Eddie took it seriously.
“You lookdifferent,Eddie. How are you?”
“Don’t be friendly suddenly. Not after what you’ve done.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Ryder Quinn!”
“Do you know him?”
“Know him? We talk all the time, and you’ve stolen him from me.”
What. The. Fuck!
“Weren’t satisfied with stealing all my trophies in college, but you had to take my man as well.”
Felix wasn’t sure what to say or do. It was clear liquid courage had emboldened Eddie, but there had to be something that made him think that way. Unless he was just insane, which was an even more terrifying prospect. Felix suspected what might be going on, but he needed to test it. The downside was that it could anger Eddie even more, and Felix was mindful of his silent friends, who resembled gorillas in size.
“Why don’t you give Ryder a call now and put him onspeaker? If you two are meant to be together, I won’t meet him.”
“You know full well I don’t have his number. We only talk online.”
As Felix suspected. Eddie was one of those people Ryder had told him about. Ryder liked to engage with the comments on his posts, to show he read them and that he appreciated the love he got from his followers. Some of those people took his reply as something much deeper than it was. Ryder was just a nice guy. There was no more to it.
“We’re going to follow you to meet him. Show him what he’s missing out on. Look at the fucking state of you. Ryder needs a real man, not some pathetic little runt who wouldn’t know what to do with a god like that.”
Fuck!
