“Me, too, Jada. Me, too.”
TWENTY-FOUR
Breathe, Jada. Breathe.
I pulled up to Kari’s cream-colored stucco house and looked around nervously before I got out of the car. Everything looked normal. The neighbor lady across the street was watering her bushes, and a teenager a couple of houses down was tossing a basketball through a hoop.
I gave the house a final once-over. The curtains were all drawn, the wooden door closed, the landscaping tidy. Nothing looked out of place.
My heart beat matched my steps stride for stride as I made my way to the door.
Even though none of us had heard from Simon since the incident, I still felt a lot of anxiety when I was alone.
What if he came for me again?
I unlocked the door swiftly and locked it behind me. The security system began beeping, and I disarmed it before tossing my things on the chair by the stairs and making my way over to Kari’s sofa.
I sat down and kicked my feet up on the coffee table, smiling to myself that if my sister was home, she would be going on and on about how unsanitary it was.
I closed my eyes and breathed deeply.
Cane had stayed with me the entire weekend. He’d seemed as unsure about leaving me as I’d felt about him going. We had the house to ourselves because Kari worked a couple of shifts and then spent the rest of the weekend at Max’s. I was worried that it would feel weird because we knew so little about each other.
Despite my concerns, everything was great. Maybe even perfect … until Sunday.
I needed to call my father and explain most of what had happened. Cane thought we should go see him in person and then drive tohishouse to stay the night. I didn’t want to discuss everything with my father in front of Cane. Moreover, I didn’t want to leave the house. And staying at Cane’s so soon just seemed like a bad idea. It was too much, too soon.
With Cane in the shower, I had called my dad and told him I had dinner with Simon and that it had ended badly. Of course he was angry that I had been with Simon at all, thanks to Cane’s phone call. When I told him I was fairly certain that Simon wouldn’t follow through with the purchase of Solomon Place, he said he had received a phone call Friday afternoon from Simon’s lender. Dad wasn’t sure what was going on, but Simon’s financial backing had apparently fallen through.
So many things had happened so quickly. As I sat on Kari’s couch, a mixture of emotions rolled through me. I was still nervous about Simon even though Cane assured me everything would be taken care of. There was excitement and nervousness about my relationship with Cane. Even though I was grateful things didn’t end worse with Simon, I was disappointed that I let myself get played by him in the first place.
I looked at the clock, feeling my stomach start to flutter. There was enough time to jump into the shower before Cane came over.
So I made my way upstairs to change out of my work clothes, a silly grin breaking across my face as my phone chirped.
Cane: Be ready in an hour. Wear the orange dress.
Me: What if I have plans?
Cane: You don’t.
Me: Maybe I do.
Cane: Cancel them.
I laughed at my phone, thinking up a response while another text from him came through.
Cane: It doesn’t matter. I will be there in 57 minutes. Be ready.
Me: What if I’m not here?
Cane: You will be.
Me: A bit arrogant, wouldn’t you say?
Cane: I’ve been called worse.
Me: You’re impossible.
