“Tobias, I’m fine. Just let me go.”
He held his hands up in surrender. “All right. Fine. Just be careful. I’ll see you later.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Bye.” And with that, I headed back for the door, putting on an act of appearing much braver than I felt.
Fortunately, this time when I stepped out into the parking lot, I did not get the feeling of being watched.
He was gone.
No, he was never here in the first place, I corrected myself. I have nothing to worry about. It was all just my imagination.
I got into my car, Tobias’s car that he lent me, and got on the road, already envisioning taking a long and comforting bath to relax my mind.
CHAPTER 17
Anderson
“I’m so sorry, Anderson,” Lauren said.
I closed my eyes in exasperation for a moment and rubbed my temples. “Lauren, you’ve known this was coming for months,” I said, unable to believe she was bailing on me at the last minute. The agency’s gala was coming up, and each consecutive year, it became a bigger and more extravagant event. Lauren, a friend of mine, had agreed to be my date months ago. We did this for each other, went to the galas, the fancy dinners. We were a good date and it was strictly platonic. She was the best girl to take, but now, all of a sudden, she was claiming to have an obligation with her family that she couldn’t get out of.
“Anderson, my sister needs me to help out wi
th the kids. She’s going through a tough time right now and she needs me.”
“I understand that, but do you mean to tell me she honestly can’t spare to handle things on her own for one day, just for a few hours?”
“I wish it was that simple,” Lauren said.
“Well, what’s making it complicated?” I demanded.
Lauren pursed her lips and folded her arms as if I had somehow offended her. I didn’t care though, because I felt she was being ridiculous to cancel on me at the last minute like this. I had already paid for her ticket and our table was filled, so it was going to look exceptionally awkward for there to be an empty seat next to me. And at such short notice, I saw no way to remedy the situation.
“Anderson, don’t be a jerk,” Lauren said.
“I’m sorry, but I’m not the one being a jerk, Lauren. If you knew there was a chance you weren’t going to be able to go, you should have said something a long time ago.”
“Well, forgive me for not being able to predict the future,” she snapped.
I muttered under my breath, quickly losing my patience with her.
Lauren sighed. “Look—do you want me to give you your money back for the ticket?”
“Forget the damn ticket, Lauren. Just…whatever. Do what you gotta do.”
“I’ll make it up to you next year,” she said.
I laughed and rolled my eyes. She had another thing coming if she thought I was going to consider accepting her as my date the following year. I wanted to tell her to not hold her breath, but that seemed a little too harsh.
Lauren sighed and someone knocked on the door of my office.
“Come in,” I said, welcoming the interruption.
We both turned toward the door to see Tobias saunter in.
“Hi Tobias,” Lauren said, as she began making her way to the door.
Tobias nodded at her. “Hey Lauren. Nice job earlier today.”