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“What the hell was that earlier?” I whisper-yell. The traffic below is loud so no one can hear us.
“That was me trying to see what the heck is up with this guy. And he knew what I was going to ask.” She stares at me.
I run my hands through my hair, glancing over to where Marco is standing. His eyes meet mine, and he smiles. I look away quickly. “So he liked the name he gave me. It’s not like he knew I lived here.” I shrug.
She twists her lips, tapping her finger on the table. “I don’t know, Addie. He definitely has a thing for you though.”
I try to forget about the Marco situation while we inhale our food. It’s more amazing than the view. We enjoy a bottle of red wine, compliments of Marco, of course. Syd’s phone starts to play “Bad Boy” by Inner Circle. My mouth gapes open as she answers and says hello to Damon.
I mouth, “Really?”
She giggles. She doesn’t talk to him long. When she hangs up, I say, “You really gave him that ringtone?”
“Yep. It definitely fits.” She wags her eyebrows.
We both laugh as we pick up our wine glasses. “To sisters, who’ll hopefully be back together again soon,” I say, holding out my wine glass.
“To sisters.” We clink our glasses and take a drink.
A car horn pulls my attention toward the street. People crowd the sidewalks. That’s one thing I love about New York City, it’s always busy here. A red baseball cap catches my eye. I narrow my eyes to look at the person wearing it. He is sitting at the restaurant patio across the street from us, but his head is down so I can’t see his face. A shiver runs through me as I notice the clothes. He’s wearing the same clothes as the person from this morning.
“Syd,” I say, putting my wine glass down, “there’s that guy again.”
Her head turns toward the guy. “Are you sure? There are millions of people in this city. What are the odds of you seeing the same person twice?”
“My thoughts exactly,” I say. “Let’s go.”
“What? Go where?” She grabs my arm.
“I’m going to find out who the hell he is.”
“Addie. Addison!” she yells as she catches up to me. “This is not a good idea. Maybe you should really call Aiden. Or… I don’t know, the police? You know, all your new friends…”
When we pass Marco, I tell him we’ll be right back. He looks at me with confusion, but I don’t give him enough time to ask any questions. Taking the stairs two at a time, I’m outside in a couple minutes with Syd right behind me. She complains the whole time about this being a really bad idea. I put my hand in my purse and rest it on my gun as I cross the street.
The guy is still sitting there as I approach, but his head is still down as he continues reading. My heart beats fast and my hand grasps my gun.
I approach him. “Why are you following us?” I say in a tight voice.
The man looks up with a malicious grin. My spine stiffens. It’s not the same guy. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says snidely, but he’s not surprised by my accusation. I narrow my eyes.
“We’re sorry. We thought you were someone else,” Syd says, yanking on my arm. He nods slowly.
As we walk away, I turn back and his smile makes my skin crawl. His eyes are cold and flat. As we walk up the stairs back to the restaurant, I look at Syd, who is watching me. “Someone is screwing with me,” I spit out. “That guy has the exact same clothes and is the same build as the guy this morning. And he wasn’t surprised to see us.” Syd nods, her lips pressing together.
When we get home, I notice Syd hasn’t said much. “I’m sorry. Tonight was supposed to be fun.” My shoulders hunch over as I look down.
“Hey, I’m not mad at you, I’m worried. What if you’re right?” She takes a water out of the fridge. “Maybe you should really tell Aiden.”
I sigh. “I promise if anything else happens, I will.”
Chapter Forty-one
Aiden
I’M REGRETTING MY stupid decision to not give in to Addison until she figures her shit out. What the hell was I thinking? I wasn’t even the one who was drunk. Couldn’t I have thought of something that wouldn’t have left me with blue balls every night? On top of that, I miss her. And it’s only been a week. She wanted to spend time with Syd, so I backed off. It’s Monday morning and I’m supposed to be working, but nope, I’m sitting here thinking about Addison. I’ve picked up my phone at least five times to call her and ask her to lunch, but I’m afraid she’ll reject me. When the fuck have I ever been afraid of rejection? Oh, yeah, never, ’cause it’s never happened!
I don’t understand what’s in that head of hers. She’s afraid of something. I throw my head back and groan in frustration.
