Chapter 12 #2
“You too,” I called back, as he flashed a smile and sank away into the night.
I turned to Rory the second the door shut.
“Okay, you have got to start remembering to lock this door. If he’d been anyone else, we might have ended up on the ten o’clock news.
And not in the uplifting segment they have to add in. We’d be the headline.”
And I’d sure as shit had enough of being a headline.
Rory rounded the counter quicker than I’d ever seen her move.
“God, I’m sorry. My brain is a mess with regional rehearsals.
” After double checking the door was secure, she rested her back flat against it.
“Aspen’s got me training nonstop, I’m here practically all the time to save for my new blades, and I’ve got to squeeze in friend time and Finn time.
” She looked back at the door, then back to me. “I’m sorry.”
I tilted my head at her as I grabbed the till and began walking to the office, Rory’s footsteps following.
“It’s fine.” I angled my head over my shoulder.
“And FYI, your ‘friend time’ doesn’t count as friend time if all we do is just soundproof our rooms as best we can so we don’t hear your Finn time. ”
Stains of scarlet appeared on her cheeks. “Shut up, we are not that loud.”
I pushed open the door to the office, stopping in the doorway to face her. My face morphed into my best ‘I’m having the greatest sex of my life’ look, my voice high. “Oh, Finn! Right there. Don’t stop. Go—God, I can’t take it—”
“Shut up!”
Our giggles didn’t stop until we were back at the counter, taping up the last of the pastries for Flo to drop off at the shelters in the morning. The only thing we had left to do was wipe down the counters.
“Is Marcus taking us home tonight?” Rory asked, spraying the counters down.
My sigh said everything. “What do you think? If the man won’t let me wander ten feet from campus, he sure isn’t going to let us walk home through Manhattan at night.”
I’d never admit this to him, but that was one of the things I was grateful for. You know who used to do the same, but as we now know, his intentions were way beyond fucked up for me to look back at that gesture fondly. I suppose I had to be grateful that that wasn’t the case with Marcus.
And it had intrigued me why he was so hell-bent on protecting me.
Every time we touched the subject, he’d say it was his job, and that was that.
But I saw it even if he didn’t—the flicker of a memory I was sure he’d never share.
But then again, I hadn’t expected him to be so open about his paintings, what they meant to him.
Rory wiped down the counters next to me. “I get it. But I think we’re all a little grateful for him.” She snickered. “And his looks.”
I rolled my eyes as I let a laugh slip, so hard my back arched and my stomach ached.
“What is with you all?” My phone pinged, and I swapped the soggy cloth in my hand for the device, looking down at the screen as I kept talking.
“He’s just tall and has dark hair. He’s the bare minimum. The bar is literally in hell.”
She laughed. “The bare minimum who can smoulder like… Cora?”
Rory’s sweet voice had become muffled in my ear, as though the bakery had filled with water and I was drowning. My chest was thumping, so loud I was sure that’s what Rory noticed first, and not the look on my face.
That thump got quicker and quicker the more I read over the words burning into my screen.
Unknown Number
Today at 20:12pm
No crying behind the counter tonight? Shame. You look just as pretty crying as you do when you smile.
I dropped it onto the counter and backed away, like it would blow up any second.
I recognised the number. It was the same one as before—the message I got when I was talking to Rainie.
“Cora, what’s going on?” Rory asked, her body now by my side, her hand over my back. “Talk to me.”
I shook my head, my lips barely opening. “Look,” I whispered, nodding to the phone.
Rory leaned over and tapped the screen, her eyes frantically moving from left to right.
I stepped back, my shaky hands finding the counter and gripping onto it as though the ground was about to cave in. My knees were weak with adrenaline, buckling under the weight of my heaving breaths.
Rory turned back to me. “What does this mean?” She shook her head, lifting the phone. “Who is this?”
My head shook as my shoulders rustled in answer. But subconsciously, I knew. Or at least I think I did. After the first one there was only one person who came to mind when I tried to pull apart the mystery of who it was. If it was anyone.
And that name had been the thing keeping me awake at night for the past five months.
I took the phone from Rory and read it again.
Oh God.
Whoever was doing this was here. Somewhere.
My head snapped up, scanning the windows that had only the fading light of the sunset to show off the street outside. He could be behind a car. Or in one of the hundreds of windows in the apartment building across from the bakery. Or…
My head slowly turned to the security camera, right above the counter, its slow blinking light taunting me.
They could be watching every move I made. Without being near me at all.
That made my fight or flight kick in, and just like last time my body thought it best to fly. I gripped my phone in my hand and rounded the counter. “Can we go?” I pleaded to Rory, but as I turned my head, she was already grabbing our jackets and turning off the lights.
I sighed as I reached the door, the keys jangling in my hands as I found the right one to open it.
“I’ll tell Flo it was an emergency if she asks why the counters aren’t done.
I’m sorry, I just can’t be here.” I found the key and wedged it into the lock, twisting and pulling it open. “I need to tell Marcus about—”
As I pulled open the door, his body was there, filling up every inch of the doorframe. He was panting, like he’d run to get here. My frantic eyes ran all over his face, the stoic worry in his eyes glistening down on me.
“I know.”