“Hey, is this Amy? It’s Payton. I’m not sure if you remember me, I’m one of Blake’s friends.” Liar. “Is he around? I need to talk to him and it’s urgent.”
There was a noise as the phone fumbled in hands. In the background, I heard muffled voices. He asked who it was and she said, “Some girl who says she’s your friend.”
“Hello?” Blake said on a sleepy voice.
“Blake, it’s Payton. My phone’s broken and I need Evie’s number.”
“What the fuck? It’s like five thirty in the morning.”
I tried to remain calm. “I know, I’m sorry, but it’s really important I talk to her right now.”
He sighed, and after a few seconds where I assume he was scrolling through his contacts, he rattled off the number.
“Thank you. I’m sorry I woke you guys.”
“Yeah, okay.” He hung up a second later. Dick.
chapter
SIX
The emotions caught up with me before I dialed her number. My job was gone. In a few short months, I’d be out of money. I wasn’t really big on saving and I couldn’t exactly file for unemployment, either. What was I going to do? My worry for Dom and my need to explain what happened got tabled as this new fear took hold. My whole life had changed when Dom walked in that room.
I went into full panic mode when I called her.
“Who’s dead?” she asked, once she realized who it was.
“I am,” I said. “I need to talk to you, I’m kind of freaking out. And I’m coming over.”
My ass was dragging as I headed for my car. Caffeine was required. I got two coffees at Starbucks on my way to her place. Oh, shit, not her place. It was Dom’s. Would he be there? Why didn’t I think of that before?
I flew into the apartment when Evie opened the door. The couch was empty, and she looked at me like she didn’t know what had happened, so, no. He wasn’t here.
“Are you pregnant?” she demanded. Her deep brown hair had been pulled back into a damp bun from her shower, her blue eyes large on mine.
“What? No.” I slung coffee on the counter when I pulled my cup from the cardboard tray and she instantly went to clean it up. How Logan had changed my best friend. When we’d roomed together in Amsterdam, she’d kind of been a slob, but creative types usually were.
Evie was girl-next-door pretty. She had a normal, real body-shape to her. Hips that flared, a slim waist, and large boobs. I loved and envied her curves. She wasn’t a gym freak like me, but still stayed in shape. She was effortlessly beautiful. I’d been attracted to her from the get-go. The threesome had sort of been her idea, but just as much mine, too.
Women were sexy. I liked what we’d done. Up until Dom, Evie’s was the only kiss I’d felt something in. Yet, the threesome with Logan proved to me that while women were fun, I swung much more toward the males when it came to sex.
Ugh. I actually didn’t want to think about sex right now. That had to be a first. I felt unglued. My arms and legs had been pulled out and stuck back in at awkward angles. I was rambling about the money, about how I should have been warned, or some shit like that. I probably sounded like a crazy woman. It drove Evie to abandon me in the living room and go wake her fiancé.
I stared out the enormous glass wall. We were forty-four stories up, facing North Beach. The view was to die for. Dom’s view. I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to hold myself together. When were these emotions going to wear off? Maybe I should have tried to sleep.
“Payton.” Logan’s deep voice made me turn.
He looked like hell. His eyes were bloodshot and his nose red. Logan had on a pair of sleep pants and no shirt, his brown hair askew. Sick as a dog, but still hot. It amused me to no end that Evie had been oblivious to him until her night at the club. Of course, he was her boss and she thought he was off-limits, but seriously? That wouldn’t have stopped someone like me. Evie had been such a good girl, but was recovering nicely.
“Do you realize what you did?” I said to him.
“He’s still pretty wacked out on NyQuil,” Evie warned. “Can you please start making sense and tell us what happened?”
“I don’t know what happened. He came in, agreed to thirty thousand and said he wanted to talk–”
“Who?” she asked.
“Dominic,” Logan answered, burying the heel of his hand in an eye to scrub the sleep away. “I told him about the club when we bailed last night.”