“Then what?” Jenner asked.
“I got on a bus, but it was the wrong one. I got confused by the schedule.”
Maybe she was an idiot. So stupid.
“Hey,” Cat said sharply. “Stop it.”
“Stop what?” she asked.
“Getting down on yourself. I can tell what you’re thinking. Not cool.”
There was a knock on the door and Jenner walked out. He came back a few seconds later. “Eric is going to wait until we’re finished.”
Awesome.
“What did you do?” Sampson asked.
“I, uh, ended up in Portland. I got a motel room and fell asleep. I slept for longer than I meant to. When I woke up, I got some cash out and bought a phone so I could access the internet.”
“Why didn’t you come here?” Cat asked.
“Or try to contact us,” Alejandro said. “You could have looked up the phone number of one of my businesses.”
“I didn’t think anyone would believe me if they told me I was your friend.” Maeve licked her dry lips. “I did send an email through Jenner’s fan page.”
“Shoot,” Immy said with a frown. “Penny should be checking that daily.”
“She’s probably overwhelmed,” Maeve said.
“I’ll check the account. Penny isn’t on top of things like James was. I miss his efficiency.”
“Don’t miss his creepiness,” Abe said.
Maeve shared a look with Abe, on that they agreed. Maeve didn’t like to say bad things about people. But yep, James had been odd. He’d watched them all like he wanted to become one of them.
“He wasn’t creepy,” Immy protested.
“Maybe not to you,” Abe said. “But he looked at me like he wanted to rip off my skin and become me.”
“Abe!” Immy said. “That’s gross.”
“Keep going, Maeve,” Sampson told her.
“Right, well, I took out all the cash I had and it was enough to get here. It was a cheaper ticket than to New York, that’s the only reason I came here, Cat.”
Cat gave a disgruntled look. She likely knew it wasn’t the only reason. “Wait. Why didn’t you use the bank account I set up for you? That had plenty of money in it.”
She picked at the bedspread. This was something she didn’t want to admit. “I couldn’t remember the pin number for the account.”
“Oh, Maeve,” Cat said on a sigh.
“You rode on a bus alone and injured for hours?” Alejandro snapped.
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“This cannot happen again,” Alejandro stated.
Everyone else nodded. Crap.