Iwas shaking. I was so angry that I couldn’t see straight. The fact that Cam had been willing to bring me home was a blessing. Darius hadn’t been able to look at me and Adam was so busy waiting for the ‘you’re fired’ message to come up on his phone that he hadn’t even offered.
All of it had understandably made things awkward. Any sort of conversation that was started was strained. I didn’t want to mention that Kyle had been with Shay and that was likely how we were found out. Mostly because I didn’t want to expose my friend to her brother. I wasn’t going to give her the same treatment she had given me.
Ifthis was her fault. But it had to be. There was no other way for him to know.
I wasn’t surprised to find the apartment empty. She had to be at work. I did too. But since Kyle gave us such an early morning wake up call, I was going to take advantage of my frustrated sleep deprivation and find out how this happened.
I made sure to take a shower before I busted up in the bank that Shay worked at. I didn’t want to gain too much attentionfrom confronting her and I didn’t have a chance to do it any other time besides after I got off work. If I came in while she was working on the teller line, then there was no way she could dodge me.
It was a shitty way to confront someone, but it was solid.
I attempted to at least look like I was a customer. I had an account there, out of convenience, but I still mainly dealt with cash. The hazard of keeping late hours was I didn’t have the inclination to run errands until my day off.
As soon as I stepped into the lobby, Shay noticed me. Her brows drew together, but she still had a bright smile plastered on her face. I was familiar with that expression. It was something I wore to work too. It matched the business-professional white blouse and the blue slacks she wore. Her hair was combed back into a stylish bun I could never manage.
I waited pointedly in her line, trying to keep myself calm. I wanted to explode. I wanted to make a scene. I wanted to rip her a new one because she was the only person who could have ruined everything for me. But I just couldn’t understand why.
It was the one thing that had me picking up several bank slips, not looking if they were deposit slips or not. As soon as I walked up to her window, I put my driver’s license down on the faux marble and mirrored her fake smile through the bulletproof partition. I picked up the pen on the chain and tried my best to look friendly.
“What the fuck did you do?” I demanded in a whisper.
Shay blinked at me, then took my driver’s license. She took her time to pull up my bank account. “Hi, Ms. Grace Blake. How are you today?” Her expression didn’t twitch as she leaned forward to whisper back at me, “What are you talking about?”
“You told Kyle,” I hissed out, barely able to keep my cool. I clenched the pen, jerking on the chain. “Why would you do that to me?”
Shay’s hands went up, and she took a step back. That immediately got the attention of the woman that was in the window next to hers. “Everything okay?”
Shay took a breath, realizing what it looked like, and dropped her hands. “Yeah, we’re fine,” she said with a dismissive shrug. “Sorry, I dropped something. I didn’t mean to be dramatic about it.” She forced a laugh before she stepped back to her window and tried to appear unconcerned as she typed on the computer in front of her. She waited way too long to answer me, scribbling notes on a pad beside her.
“Shay,” I growled at her. I could only take this as a sign that she was drawing things out because she was guilty.
“It wasn’t me,” she hissed back. “I wouldn’t do that to you. I would think that you would know better.” Her voice raised a little, and she had to raise a hand to wave off her coworker. “If I told Kyle, then all you would do is turn around and tell Darius. How does that help me out, Grace?” Her eyes widened minutely, and she stared at me. “You didn’t tell Dee, did you?”
I deflated. I’d been so sure. Who else would know that they could tell Kyle what I had been up to? That’s when I felt the weight of Shay’s gaze on me. It took me a second to realize she had asked me a question. I shook my head. “I didn’t. Kyle didn’t either. It was just . . . It was a shit show.”
“And you thought I caused it?” she asked pointedly. She hadn’t whispered that part. There was no more low conversation between us. “I see how it is,” she murmured as she wrote something on the note. She pulled it off and handed it to me. “Despite the problems we have between us at the moment, I trust you not to air out my dirty laundry. I would hope you would know by now that I am not that type of person.”
“I’m sorry,” I said without thinking. This just added to the day. “I can’t figure out how else he would know.” It didn’t explain how this morning happened at all.
“I’m at work,” she said in a tone that suggested just how angry she was with me. “We can discuss this while you’re on your lunch break. I’ll do you the courtesy of not bringing drama to you while you’re on the clock.” She pushed the paper she had been writing on toward me. “There’s your balance.”
I nodded, taking the paper and my license from her. I didn’t know what else to do. Who else could’ve said something to my brother that would have him walking in on us?
There were only three other people that were aware of the situation I had gotten myself in. My only option now was to dig into the three of them to figure out what happened. I was just going to have to find the patience to last me through work.
Chapter 3
Grace
It was the day that would not end. No one was answering my texts, or if they did, it was short, one-word answers that were driving me nuts. I didn’t have the patience to wait until my day off to grill them. That would take way too long.
So I did the shitty thing. I showed up at Adam and Cam’s apartment after work. It was nearly two when I knocked on the door.
I waited two minutes before I tried knocking again. After five minutes, I barely resisted calling after I knocked, this time hitting my fist against the metal door. It made me a pretty awful person, being outside their apartment like this at a late hour.
I stepped away, pulling up the Uber app. It was clear no one was awake to hear me knocking on the door. The only thing that was left for me to do was wait. I couldn’t force myself on people if they shut me out.
I took a deep breath and my throat burned. Was this a sign that it was all over? I guessed it meant that any chance of exploration of an actual relationship was a bust. There was no chance of me getting anywhere.