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“Of course,” she says, waving her hand in the air as if she can swipe me from the room.
When he reaches out to her, she turns her body just enough so that his hand falls uselessly to his side.
And that’s my cue to leave.
“Uh... I’m going to go take a shower. It was nice to meet you, Rachel.” I try not to walk away too quickly, not wanting Rachel to think she’s managed to make me uncomfortable, despite her efforts.
The second my door latches, I hear her shrill voice.
“Who is she?”
Poor Drake.
She isn’t even trying to be quiet in her quest for answers. I don’t hear his response, but it doesn’t seem to be what she wanted to hear.
“A friend? And yet you’ve never mentioned her?”
I don’t want to eavesdrop, truly, so I try my best to ignore them as I search through my suitcase for an outfit. I want something comfortable but also eye-catching. Even if my situation with Chase is all kinds of screwed up right now, I still want to look good.
“I think I deserve more of an explanation, Drake. Wait, is she the reason you won’t commit to me?”
I grab my phone and see a text from Olivia that was sent earlier this morning.
Olivia: How are you feeling?
Me: Feeling fine.
I add a heart for good measure.
“No, Rach. You’ve got this all wrong. And stop screaming. You know she can hear you.” He’s finally loud enough for me to hear, even if I’m still trying not to listen.
“Really? Because it looks like you guys just spent the night together. You’re wearing gray sweatpants!”
At this point, she’s full-on shouting, and when Drake laughs in response, I cringe. I don’t even know the woman, but I do know that laughing is just going to tip her special kind of crazy over the breaking point.
I’m not about to leave the room to go take a shower while they’re out there locked in a screaming match. So I grab for the earbuds in my purse and plug them into my phone, turning on a random playlist. Standing, I stretch my arms high in the air, hoping to work out some of the kinks in my sore body; however, instead of relief, a sharp pain shoots through my lower abdomen.
With a grimace, I fall down on the bed and rub at the pain, doubling over at the middle. After a few moments, it fades, but I can still feel a dull ache in its place. I must have gas pain from the pizza last night. Now I feel bad for judging poor Kevin so harshly.
My upbeat music shuts off as my phone vibrates in my hand, and I look down to see Olivia’s name pop up on my screen. I lie back on the bed and answer.
“Seriously, Addi, you can’t leave a girl hanging for forty-eight hours and follow up with a simple I’m fine,” she says.
“I am fine. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to call yesterday.” I feel terrible for not getting back to her the night before last. She must have been worried when Chase and Drake called her to try to find me.
“It’s okay. I understand there’s been a lot going on. I appreciated the text at least. Besides, Drake called me last night and told me you were going to be staying with him for a few days, even though Chase offered you a perfectly good bedroom at his house.”
“Huh,” is all I say, finding it interesting that he felt the need to call her after our talk last night.
Olivia is quiet, probably trying to figure out the best way to move on from that information without sounding suspicious. “I’m on my way to a meeting for CMF,” she finally says, referring to the Children’s Miracle Foundation.
Every year around Christmas, she puts on the largest fundraising event for the organization throughout the entire United States.
“Drake didn’t give me near enough info, and I’ve got twenty minutes for you to fill me in on everything,” she says.
I give her a brief rundown of the chaos of the past few days—excluding this morning’s drama between Rachel and Drake, of course. That’s not my business to tell.
“Wow, Addi. I don’t even know how to process all of that,” she says once I’ve finished. “What the hell are you going to do?”
