Page 96 of How To Not Need You

How's the furry bastard?

Busy as hell here. Might be stuck longer than planned. Someone didn’t rock up for their shift

You okay?

Liv?

And the last one, sent three hours ago.

Starting to worry. Just let me know you're okay.

All delivered. None answered.

I stare at them again as though a reply might magically appear if I look pissed off enough.

It doesn't. This isn’t like Liv. She isn’t one for the silent treatment.

She might send me a middle finger emoji. She might tell me to stop being dramatic. She might respond to a perfectly normal question with a sarcastic comment that makes absolutely no attempt to answer it.

But she responds.

Especially after last night. I shake my head. No. Not last night anymore.

Fuck, I'm tired.

The night before the shift.

Where we gorged on her mother’s goulash with Tilly stealing bread. Liv opening up and telling me about her mum.

Then the key. I gave her a key. Which she took with only a little convincing before kissing me.

Everything was fine. Better than fine. So what the hell happened?

I try to rack my brain. The only remotely strange thing over the last few days was one message from Megan the other morning.

Something about a woman turning up at the house while she was there, acting strange and leaving before Megan could figure out what she wanted. I barely registered it at the time.

Why would I?

I was halfway into my gear when I read it, and Megan followed it with something about her landlord finally getting the hot water fixed, so I shoved my phone back into my locker and forgot about it.

Now the memory seems to be flashing with alarms in my head.

I open the text chain and read it again.

A woman came to my house.

Liv told me she was going to my house.

Fuck.

A woman. At my house.

My stomach drops. No. It couldn’t be. Right?

I read over the message again and pray that I am wrong. That somehow my exhaustion is messing with my eyes too.

Ben slams his locker shut beside me and turns back to me.