Chapter 30 Calliope
CALLIOPE
Elijah doesn’t call.
He doesn’t text me back either, and after dropping Sam back home with his parents, I go to bed with a small knot twisting in my stomach.
That knot grows into one so large that I can’t stomach anything more than coffee the next morning as I get Nick ready for school.
After I drop him off, I text Elijah again, and it goes unanswered.
Not even on read.
Is he ignoring me? Was the weekend not as delightful for him as it was to me?
Maybe he hired his decorator friend as a way to let me down gently, since he seems to have vanished since then.
As I drive to work, I take a detour toward the ice rink to see if his car is still there as my mind floods with the fear that he got into an accident and no one knows.
His car is gone.
The detour makes me late for work, and I have to deal with Jimmy berating me for ten minutes for being a bad example and setting everyone’s day behind because of my own selfishness. I let him say what he wants because my thoughts are consumed by Elijah.
He sleeps with me, acts all sweet and caring, and then can’t even text me back?
I vow to give him a piece of my mind when I meet him in the hallway, but it turns out he didn’t turn up to work, either.
I spend an hour subtly calling some of the stores and the warehouse to see if he’s there, but no one has seen him.
His absence drives my worry back in the direction that something has happened to him. What if he was mugged? What if his taxi got into an accident and he’s in a hospital where no one knows his name? What if he’s in a ditch somewhere because that taxi driver wasn’t a real taxi?
“Oh my God.” I catch myself, hands flat on my desk and heart racing as I stare at my monitor with blurry eyes. “Stop. Stop. Stop.” Closing my eyes, I force several deep breaths to stop myself from spiraling.
This is ridiculous.
We’re not anything official. I don’t get to know his every move. So what if he doesn’t text me back? It’s his loss.
It is.
Not mine.
But… it feels like mine. As the hours crawl by, the knot in my gut gets larger and larger until it feels like it’s knocking against my heart with every beat. Despite the best of my ability, it’s like I’m back where I was six years ago where that wonderful night turned into a wall of silence.
I can’t believe I fell for it twice.
How stupid am I?
Dejected by my own thoughts, I drag myself away from the computer and trudge down to the breakroom.
“Calliope!” Victoria’s there, dressed in hot pink with a sweater decorated in Valentine’s emblems. “Just the girl I was looking for.”
“Hi.” I smile weakly. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, you mean why am I not at the store prancing around in this getup trying to persuade cheating men that the way to forgiveness is a bracelet and an expensive necklace?” She groans and rolls her eyes.
“The crowd was driving me crazy so I came up here for lunch to see you guys!” She follows me to the coffee machine as she talks, then sits an inch too close when I sit at the table. “And to see you!”
“If this is about the Valentine’s stock going back on the website, I wasn’t privy to that decision. Jimmy told me to take it off, then ordered me to put it back on again, so it’s not my fault the warehouse is having to split the orders.”
“What?” Her brow knits together and she shakes her head. “No, I’m not talking about that.”
“Oh.”
“I wanted to see you again…” She cranes upward to see who else is in the breakroom, and after evaluating that Davis is far too old and too engrossed in his crossword to care, sinks back down to my level and leans close. “About you and Elijah.”
The knot worsens and the terrible coffee in my mouth turns into acid as I swallow. “There is no me and Elijah.”
“Right.” She winks slowly. “But y’know… have you talked to him? Did you find out what all this secrecy is about? Because Jimmy looks worried and there were a bunch of lawyers here over the weekend. Amanda was telling me that they looked scary and important.”
“Amanda thinks everyone in a suit looks important.”
“True.” Victoria winces faintly. “But still… What did Elijah say?”
“Nothing. He hasn’t said anything.”
“Have you asked him?”
“Not… exactly.”
“Come on, Calliope,” Victoria groans, lightly grasping my forearm. “You’re literally the only hope we have. No one else has come close to a conversation with that guy so like… you have to find out something. Anything. Maybe ask him for coffee. Flirt a little. Do something.”
I want to tell her that I did all of that. I had the best time, and now it’s like I’m invisible, but the words don’t come. Instead, I stare at my lukewarm, bitter coffee and bite the inside of my cheek. “Sure. I’ll try that.”
“And hurry. I get the feeling we don’t have a lot of time, okay?” She pats my arm and stands. “You’re a star!” Victoria leans down and kisses the top of my head, then she rushes out of the breakroom and leaves behind a cloud of her overly sweet perfume.
A star.
At least someone appreciates me.
Abandoning my coffee, I trudge back to my office and open the door to find Jimmy in there leaning over my computer. “What are you doing?”
He stands abruptly. “These Valentine’s numbers. They’re not good enough.”
I narrow my eyes to a glare. “What do you mean?”
“They’re too low.” He steps away from my computer and sniffs repeatedly, each drag of air thinning what little patience I have left. “I expected more from you, Calliope. This isn’t good enough.”
“Are you kidding me?” I snap suddenly. “We’re already over what we made last year.”
“And in this climate, it’s as good as half,” he responds just as sharply. “I need you to do better if we’re to have any hope of saving this department. Compared to the stores, you’re really showing yourself up.”
“Are you kidding me? If I had the stock I requested, if you didn’t keep making me take shit off the website and add it back, if I didn’t have to deal with your accusing this department of stealing sales and constantly having to cancel customer orders because you can’t work out how to balance in-store and online, we would be booming! ”
“Don’t you dare raise your voice to me, Cal,” Jimmy snaps, pointing at me with a pudgy finger. “And I make the hard business decisions you can’t.”
“I can’t, can I? Was it me who fucked up the onyx bracelets and over-ordered because you thought the in-store interest would be as high as online?
No, that was you. Was it me who couldn’t make up their mind about whether or not to even sell the Valentine’s stuff online?
No, that was you, and you changed your mind twice.
Twice! How you even make a decision to get dressed in the morning is beyond me. ”
“Caliope!” Jimmy yells, bringing my panting tirade to an abrupt halt. “How dare you!”
A sudden knock at the door brings our argument to a halt, and I turn around, finding a strange man in the doorway clad in a black suit with a white shirt that carries a hint of stain near the lapel. He clutches a shiny briefcase in one hand.
“Can I help you?” I ask tiredly.
“Calliope Locke?”
“Yes.”
“Could you come with me ,please?”
“I’m sorry, who are you?”
“Chris. I’m one of Amber Limited’s lawyers, and we need to have a discussion, if that’s alright with you.”
The knot in my stomach turns into a rock, one that increases in weight as, out of the corner of my eye, I glimpse Jimmy smirking.
What the fuck is going on?
Without a word, Chris leads the way toward the elevator and we glide down several floors. “Sorry about the…” He brushes his fingers over the subtle stain on his shirt. “Sushi.”
I don’t reply. My gut aches, my heart is pounding, and my mind is complete mush. Chris leads me down another corridor and into a room with a metal table in the middle, a single chair on either side.
“Please, take a seat,” he says, holding out his hand toward one chair.
I oblige but sit on the edge as if prepared to flee, one leg bouncing as I place my hands on the cold table. “Can you tell me what this is about?”
“Certainly.” Chris sits and draws a file out of his black briefcase. “We’re questioning a few people of interest in relation to some troubling errors that have come to light.”
“Errors?” My mind races, trying to recall every single thing I’ve ever done while working here.
“You’re a single mother, correct?” Chris clicks his pen and looks up at me.
“Uh… yes.”
“And you live with your mother?”
“Tem—temporarily, yes.”
“Your father passed away about seven months ago?”
“Yes. How is that relevant?”
“My condolences.”
“Thanks.”
“Have you taken out any loans in the past three years?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t see how that’s any of your business?”
Chris smiles tightly. “You’re in charge of orders for the company, correct?”
“For a part.”
“A part?”
“Well… I handle the majority of orders based on numbers from the stores and my own order form. And then Jimmy is the one who gets final say.”
Chris scribbles something down in such a scrawl that I can’t decipher it, not while it’s upside down. “How long have you been doing the bulk ordering?”
“I don’t know… a couple of years, maybe? I’m sorry, what is this about? If I’ve made a mistake, then I’m sure I’d be able to fix it.”
Chris sighs. “We suspect someone has been stealing from the company by means of ordering beyond their means and selling out of the company.”
My heart stalls in my chest. “I would never.”
“You, and a select few others, are being routinely questioned while we search for any discrepancies before this is passed on to the police.”
“The police?” I screech, catching myself a moment later. “Sorry.”
“If this holds weight, someone is defrauding the company, Miss Locke. Money and stock going missing and not being reported? Over orders that never make it to the warehouse?”
“That’s not, I mean I would never! You can check all of my orders for as far back as you need! And the deliveries!”
“We’re already doing that, thank you.” Chris smiles politely.
“Right. Of course. I… who even worked out that something was wrong?”
“Elijah Baird, of course,” Chris replies. “Did you think someone like that would make a deal without looking in-depth at the books?”
Elijah?
Suddenly, the light in the room is far too bright and the walls feel much too close. I swallow dryly, but the growing itch in my throat doesn’t shift. I swallow again.
Elijah’s been investigating the company for fraud. Did he know I was a suspect? Did he know when I invited him to come ice skating? Did he know when he slipped into my bed and fucked me?
When we had breakfast with Nick and me, was he looking at me with the knowledge that I was about to be thrown into the spotlight as a thief?
The rest of Chris’s questions pass me in a daze. He questions my finances, and time and time again, he offers me a deal, leniency if there’s anything I want to admit. He talks like he’s already convinced I’m the culprit.
By the time it’s over, it’s dark outside and every part of me hurts. My head throbs, my heart aches, and anger collides with betrayal in my chest, creating a tight storm that’s painful to breathe through.
I need to speak to Elijah and this time, I won’t let him ignore me.
As I stand in front of the elevator, scrolling through to his name in my contact list, a call suddenly rings through and his name flashes on the screen.
Oh, so now he wants to talk.
“Hello?” I answer flatly.
“Calliope, thank God. I didn’t know who else to call. It’s a little awkward but do you think you could pick me up from jail?”