Page 14 of Corvus and the Broken God

“Freya?” she answered immediately, almost shouting.

“Oh my God, Mindy. It’s so good to hear your voice.”

“Freya, is that you? Matthew told me you were dead. He’s already planned your memorial for next Friday.” She spoke quickly, excited and relieved at the same time.

“Wow. He sure moved fast.”

“I told you he was slimy. Are you okay?”

“Yes, definitely.”

She chuckled, tension leaving her voice. “God, I can’t wait to tell him you’re alive.”

“Listen, you can’t do that yet. There are some issues.”

She paused, then, “I’m listening.”

“I can’t really explain right now. But can you pick me up at National this afternoon?”

“Of course. Give me your flight info.”

I told her my number and ETA and promised to tell her everything in person. I just hoped she would believe me.

You know you have a good friend when they pick you up from the airport, and you look nothing like you used to less than a week ago, and they still treat you exactly the same. She was certainly shocked, but not for a moment did she make me feel rejected. Instead, she took a deep breath after looking me over and said, “Woo babe, have you got a story for me.” Then she hugged me, squeezing me for a long minute.

My shoulders dropped in relief. “Yeah. You wouldn’t have believed it until you saw me.”

She nodded, looking me up and down in awe. “Let’s get out of here. I have a big bottle of tequila at home, and it might not be enough.”

I climbed into her car in a daze, clutching my laptop bag to my chest. Now that I was about to reenter my real life, I began to count the ways everything could go wrong. Every word Matthew had said to Cassandra rushed back to me, especially how I had ruined the pitch by not noticing the error sooner. Then there was my barely recognizable face. I sat there staring out the windshield until I realized we weren’t moving.

I looked over at Mindy.

“You sure you’re okay?” she asked, her forehead wrinkled in worry.

“Not really.”

“Tell me.”

“When we get to your condo, okay? I’m still processing everything. Then again, that might take a while. Wait, what’s going on at work?”

“Well, the presentation was a total fiasco.”

“Yeah, I figured. I found a big problem with our design on the flight out and worked through all the corrections but didn’t have time to send it to Matthew.” An evil smile took over my face.

Mindy laughed. Shaking her head, she turned the car on and backed out of her parking spot.

“They told everyone your car broke down on the way to the meeting. They found your car but not your body. I guess they did the whole search and rescue thing.” She looked at me, eager for an answer.

“No. That part was a lie. They did find the rental car, but after the laptop was missing, they gave up on me, if they ever looked at all.”

She let out a sigh. “I should’ve gone out there. I know you don’t have any family, Freya, no one to make sure Cass and Matthew were telling the truth. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. Listen, it’s a good thing you stayed away. You wouldn’t have found me. So I guess we lost the bid. Who got it?”

She told me the name of one of the other two competing firms. With some prompts from me, she filled me in on the office fallout. My desk had been packed up, my work belongings still in the storage room. They even called to cancel my rent, but luckily, my landlord demanded a death certificate before agreeing. Something was still left standing in my life. But what would Matthew think once he saw me? I could call him and tell him I’d be out of town for a little while. Maybe by the time I figured out my next move, he wouldn’t remember how different I used to look. Unless they fired me first for screwing up the project.

Traffic wasn’t too bad, and by the time we got to her condo, I was beginning to lose some of the panic. My brain worked on overdrive, trying to find a way to come back from this giant disaster. It hadn’t been a week since I’d left, and yet my two realities refused to sync up. As if I had left a part of myself back on the mountain.