Chapter 2
ONE MONTH AGO
DARCY
I had found my stride, singing my heart out and shaking my ass, when the music suddenly stopped. I was jerked out of my zone and back into the clutter of boxes and packing peanuts that had become my version of hell on earth lately.
I spun around, ready to snap at my sister, only to find two women standing in the doorway of the stockroom. One was holding up her phone, obviously videoing my performance, while the other was holding up her hands, one with five fingers out and the other with three.
“I would have given you a nine, but you were offbeat for a second,” my next-door neighbor, Reina Vance, explained.
I gathered my hair in some semblance of order before I twisted it and used the band around my wrist to secure a messy bun in place. I then stuck my ass out as I slapped it and said, “Smooch me near my coochie, hoebag. I’m better than any backup dancer you’ve ever seen.”
“You weren’t bad,” Rosie Cardenas, another friend I’d made recently, who also lived nearby, announced as she stared down at her phone. She typed for a few seconds before she looked up and grinned. “We’ll see what the judges say.”
“You didn’t post that online, did you?” I asked in horror.
“No, but I put it in the group chat,” Rosie hurried to answer.
“That’s a relief. I’ve gotta be careful now that I’m a . . . well, about to be a business owner.”
“This place looks great!” Reina said excitedly. “You’ve been working non-stop. It’s time to take a break.”
“I’ve got too much to do.”
“Your sister is at home getting showered and ready to go out, but you’re still here. Come on! You haven’t been out with us in ages,” Rosie complained.
“We went to dinner last weekend!” I argued.
“I want to go dancing,” Reina explained. “From the looks of you, you might be able to keep up with me. You should come.”
“I can’t tonight,” I said as I shook my head. “I just have too much to do.”
“Okay, girlfriend,” Reina said as she hopped up on the counter. She crossed her arms and said, “Spill it. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I’m just busy.”
“Bullshit. When you first got this property, you were busy, but you still made time to hang out,” Reina argued. “Did we do something?”
“Of course not! I just . . . I had a revelation a while back and decided to make some changes.”
“What kind of revelation?” Rosie asked as she leaned against the counter and set her phone down. “What’s going on?”
I looked down at the box I’d been unpacking and the items strewn around that I fully intended on getting sorted before I left tonight and sighed.
“I asked Tansy if she knew what was up, and she said she’s been worried about you too,” Reina admitted. “I know that I haven’t known you for long, so you might not want to confide in me, but if something’s bothering you, then I think you should talk to someone. Anyone.”
“Reina’s right. You’ve been different for the last few weeks.”
“There’s no reason to worry about me, guys,” I assured them as I dropped the dog collar I’d been holding onto the correct pile.
“Something happened that opened my eyes, and I decided to make some changes in my life.” When I looked up, both women were studying my face, and the looks on theirs told me that they were thinking the worst. “I’m not sick or anything.
I just woke up one morning and realized I needed to calm my shit and tweak some things. ”
“You haven’t been out with us since . . . It was that night when we all ended up at The Glass Slipper!” Reina exclaimed. “We had so much fun! What gives?”
“You left early,” I reminded her.
“So did I, but you stayed with Fallon and Tansy.”
I nodded at Rosie and said, “Yeah, Tansy and Fallon found rides home, but I was there until the bar closed.”
“What happened?” Reina asked as she began to scowl. She stood up straight with fire in her eyes. “Did someone hurt you?”
“I don’t think so.”
“You don’t know?” Reina whispered.
“It took a few days for me to piece it together, and I’m still not sure I’ve remembered it all.
There was this guy. I don’t remember his name, but his teeth were really straight and his hair .
. .” I shook my head before I said, “Anyway, he pushed me - or maybe I tripped, but I bumped my head. Then I remember sitting in his car when this other man opened the door and made me get out.”
“Oh, honey,” Rosie said as she slid off the counter. She reached out and took my hand before she asked, “Did he hurt you?”
“Not at all! He actually helped me walk, and then the guy who made me hit my head was suddenly on the ground, but he didn’t seem to notice,” I said as I looked at the floor, still trying to piece it all together.
“He helped me into this huge truck and even buckled my seatbelt for me. I remember he made a joke about Pretty Woman and —”
Reina gasped. “He thought you were a prostitute?”
“No, but he said he’d known a lot of pretty women.
I’m not sure if that meant . . . But that doesn’t matter anyway.
The next thing I knew, we were walking into my house.
” I squeezed my eyes shut before I admitted, “I thought he was hot, and I dragged him to my bedroom.” When I opened my eyes again, Rosie had tears threatening to overflow, and Reina looked resigned, sure she knew what the rest of the story would entail.
I chuckled before I said, “It’s not what you’re thinking. I promise.”
“Then what happened?”
“I lay down, and the room started spinning. You know that feeling when you’ve had too much to drink, and the floor starts to slip out from under you?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s the last thing I remember, but I woke up the next morning and —”
“You should have . . .”
I squeezed Rosie’s hand as I continued. “I was still dressed except for my shoes. I found them on the floor next to the bed, side by side as if someone had set them down there, not like I’d kicked them off. Nothing happened, I’m sure, but I did wonder at first.”
“We should take you to a doctor to get tested for . . . whatever . . . just in case, Darcy,” Reina insisted.
I chuckled as I shook my head. “It wasn’t like that, I promise. When I woke up, my phone was charging on the nightstand, and my keys were next to it with a glass of water and a bottle of Tylenol, as if he knew I’d need that when I woke up.”
Rosie looked confused and asked, “And he didn’t tell you his name or anything? What did he look like?”
“A tattooed bad boy version of Prince Charming.” I laughed at their expressions before I explained, “I’ve tried really hard to remember his face, but that’s all I can come up with.
He had a lot of tattoos, he was really built, and his hands were rough but still soft somehow.
His voice . . . I can hear him laughing in my head - not like a villain or something.
Just a chuckle, like he overheard something funny. ”
“How did he find out where you live? Do you remember telling him?” Reina asked. She looked alarmed at the thought before she said, “We should change the locks at your house just in case he made a copy of your key.”
I shook my head as I explained, “I installed video doorbells on the front and back doors the next day.” I laughed at myself before I added, “Not because I was afraid he’d break in, but so I could catch him on video if he came back to make sure he was real.”
“So, you want to see him again?” Rosie said with obvious disbelief.
“Yes, and no. I’m mortified that I was in such a condition the first time I met him because I know how I feel when I see someone that hammered. I’d just like to thank him for being such a gentleman.”
“So, you can’t remember anything about him other than he has a big ass truck, a lot of tattoos, nice teeth, and a sexy laugh?” Reina asked. When I nodded, she looked at Rosie and sarcastically said, “That narrows it down.”
“This is Texas. Everyone has a big ass truck. What color was it?” Rosie asked.
I replied, “Um, the interior was dark, I think.” It came out as more of a question than an answer.
“Can you picture his tattoos? Were his arms covered? Did he have any on his hands?”
“What did his eyes look like? Do you remember anything about his hair?”
I followed Reina’s order and tried to picture something . . . anything. The details were there, but they weren’t clear. His hair was . . . right there on the edge of my vision. I could see him, but I couldn’t see him. What the hell was that about?
I finally gave up and sighed heavily. “Nothing. I just don’t know.”
“So, we’ve got no clues about who he might be other than the little you remember,” Reina mused.
“Oh, and he left a note on the table by the front door.”
“What did it say? How did he sign it?” Rosie rushed to ask.
“It said, ‘Sleeping Beauty, you won’t find the answers to the questions you have at the bottom of a shot glass. Whatever you're trying to forget isn’t worth more than your safety. Please be careful.’ He signed it. ‘Prince Charming.’”
“Wow,” they whispered in unison.
“At the bottom, he put a P.S. that said, ‘Chris Janson - Drunk Girl.’”
“Chris Janson?” Reina squealed as she snatched her phone off the counter. “I don’t know anyone by that name, but I bet —”
“Google informed me that he’s a music artist and that’s one of his songs.
There’s a video that’s . . . It sort of .
. .” Tears filled my eyes as I fumbled my words, trying to explain what the video had made me feel and how many of the scenarios in it had mirrored times in my life.
“It really helped me gain a new understanding.”
The first notes of the song started on Reina’s phone, and Rosie went over to watch the video with her. I gave up what I’d been doing and sat down on the step stool I’d been using earlier. As I listened to the lyrics, I could envision the music video perfectly because I’d watched it so many times.
As the song wound down, the part that always hit me the hardest played. I had to use both hands to wipe the tears off my cheeks.