22. Chapter Twenty-Two
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
EZRA
E zra had been pacing in his office. What was going on? Why wasn’t she responding? He checked his phone once again and there were still no new text messages from her.
Shit.
Where was she? Why wasn’t she responding? It never took her this long to respond, and if she did, she always told him before she had something where she wouldn’t be able to respond.
He was starting to panic a little. This was so unlike her. Could something bad have happened? Was she in danger? Why wasn’t she responding? It had been over twelve hours.
They hadn’t been able to meet for lunch yesterday because Liv was back in town. He wanted her to have time with Liv. Maylee probably had several things she wanted to discuss with Liv and he wasn’t going to get in the way of that.
But that had been more than twelve hours ago. She had messaged to say she’d arrived home, and that was the last time he heard from her. He had messaged her later that night, but she hadn’t responded. His first thought was that she’d been sleeping, and so he’d let it be, but now it was lunchtime and she still hadn’t responded.
Had she fallen and hit her head in her house? Had she suffered a heart attack?
Ezra shook his head. She was young and healthy. There was no way she could have a heart attack unless she was under so much stress. But he had seen her several days in a row and she hadn’t looked that stressed. She’d even said work had been better than normal. That was off the table.
“What’s got you pacing around so much?” Justin asked as he entered Ezra’s office.
He didn’t even pay any attention to his boss. His whole mind was on Maylee and whether she was okay. Something was wrong, but he couldn’t leave right now. He had a job to do. Though, he wasn’t getting much done since he was worried about her.
“Ezra,” Justin called out his name. “Stop fucking pacing.”
Ezra glared at him but stopped. “What do you want?”
“Are you okay? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I’m fine.” He checked his phone again and there were still no messages. He groaned and closed his eyes.
“That doesn’t sound like nothing to me. What’s going on?” Justin asked.
Hassan entered but halted when he looked at Ezra. “Are you okay?”
He sighed and shook his head.
“I was just about to leave for a job, but I can stay if you need me to. Is it another job that’s stressing you out?” Hassan asked.
“No. It’s not another job. Maylee hasn’t answered her phone in over twelve hours, and I’m worried about her.”
“Did you do anything? Is she mad at you?” Justin asked.
“No, she’s not mad at me. The only thing we did was play over the weekend.”
“Well, she looked fine when I saw her yesterday at the coffee shop. Maybe when she got home after work she hit subdrop? Did you explain what that was to her? She may not know and doesn’t know what to do.”
“I did explain it to her, and I told her several times to call me if anything happens. She knows what to do, and I trust her. There’s something else. She left work early yesterday, which is unusual.”
“Well, maybe she left work early yesterday but had to go in early today. She could be really busy, and can’t get to her phone,” Hassan said. I think they’re adding a new exhibit or something.”
“I already called her boss, and he said she didn’t show up for work today. That’s unlike her, and all of us know that. She takes her job very seriously, and she wouldn’t have skipped without telling him anything. She won’t reply to my texts, and my phone calls go straight to voicemail,” Ezra replied.
Unease filled his stomach as he listed everything he had done. Something was wrong here. Had she been kidnapped or broken into? Was she knocked out in her home, on the brink of death?
But that didn’t make any sense if she had been broken into and knocked out. Everyone would have heard about it in the town.
“You got to stop thinking like that,” Justin said. “I can see it written all over your face. Nothing major has happened to her. Nothing like her lying unconscious somewhere. I know you were just thinking about that.”
Ezra started to pace again, checking his phone every few seconds. He had bombarded her phone with text after text and call after call, hoping she would answer one of them.
“Well, maybe wait a couple more hours. She may be in the middle of something. Didn’t you say she was meeting up with Liv yesterday?” Hassan asked.
“Yes, but Liv is currently at work. They’ve got some group coming into the club, and she was needed there to get drinks for them,” Ezra replied.
Justin’s jaw clenched at the mention of Liv’s name. Ezra had seen him react to her name several times, but he hadn’t thought anything of it. Not until today. He had seen them interact in person a few times, and Ezra honestly thought they disliked each other a lot.
Maylee probably knew, though. They had lunch together, and Justin had mentioned seeing them both. No doubt they had interacted, and Liv had said something. He was going to have to ask Maylee about that, whenever he saw her.
“They weren’t supposed to hang out together today, and I’ve already contacted Liv about it. She said she hasn’t heard anything from Maylee since yesterday either. No one has heard from her, which is unlike her. Something is definitely wrong.”
This was so unlike Maylee. Maybe he should just take a personal day for the rest of the day so he could check on her. He would never forgive himself if something bad happened to her and he hadn’t ensured she was okay.
“Maybe she got caught up doing something. Maybe something unexpectedly came up, and she wasn’t able to text you that she was busy,” Hassan said.
“Even if that did happen, she’s good about sending a text to me when she has little time to let me know if she wouldn’t be able to respond. Normally it’s as simple as her saying she’s busy. Just the word ‘busy,’ but she hasn’t yet, and it’s been over twelve hours.”
Ezra needed Hassan to know something was wrong.
“I know Maylee the best. She wouldn’t go this long without something being wrong.” He didn’t like pulling the card of him knowing her best, but this was important.
“So go check on her,” Justin said. “You’re not going to get any work done if you’re worried about her this much.”
“Put it down as a personal day. I was going to ask anyway,” Ezra replied.
“No need. We’ll call it a family emergency, and it won’t go towards any of your PTO, sick days, or personal days.”
“Thank you.”
Ezra grabbed his keys and left his office.