I end the call and decide to text her.
Call me, please!
I sit at my desk, watching the phone for the grey bubble with those three blinking dots, but they don’t appear. Nothing at all happens. The message isn’t even marked as read. I don’t know how long I stare at my phone willing her to call back or reply, but the next thing I know, Noah comes waltzing in. “Woah, dude, who killed your dog?” He throws himself into the chair in front of my desk.
“I fucked up,” I confess, looking back down at my phone.
“Nothing new there. What happened now?”
“I may have told Lauren that if she weren’t so uptight and she loosened up a little, that maybe her husband wouldn’t have left her and she would still be married.” I don’t even finish getting the words out before he’s pulling out his phone. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“I’m making sure I clear my schedule for your funeral,” he says, earning himself a glare from me.
“Fuck off, asshole.” It’s the only thing I can say right now. “Let’s go get my car, and then I’ll pass by her house. She has no choice but to answer the door, right?” I ask him as we walk out to the elevator.
I see Barbara come out of her office and head straight for me. Her mouth is pressed together in a tight line. I cut off whatever she’s going to say by holding up my hand and stating, “Not now, Barbara.” I press the elevator button.
“I think my balls just crawled back into my body, and that look wasn’t even directed at me,” Noah murmurs from beside me as we watch Barbara turn and storm away. “If I were you, I wouldn’t drink or eat anything that anyone else, especially someone who is a female or an employee here, offers you,” he advises as he follows me into the elevator.
We make it down to the impound lot, where I fill out all the forms and show all my documents in order to get my car out. It takes about forty-five minutes, and the whole time we’re there, I’ve got my phone in my hand. I’ve tried to call Lauren about fifteen times now, and each time, the call goes straight to voicemail.
Once I get my car out, I make my way over to Lauren’s, parking my car at the curb. I take a deep breath, but my door is whipped open. I look up and see Noah.
“As your friend, I’m going to try to talk you out of this.” I shake my head, ignoring him. I get out of the car and walk to her door. “This is a really, really bad idea. Women who are pissed can do evil things. I mean, she wasn't even that pissed at you when she almost made your balls explode.”
“I have to see her,” I say and then knock on the door. When I hear the locks click open, my heart literally skips a beat and a smile starts to creep across my face. It’s quickly replaced with a frown when I see that it’s Kaleigh who opens the door—with what appears to be a machete in her hand. Okay, so maybe not a real machete, but it sure as hell is a knife that looks like it can easily debone a chicken and probably take off a man’s—hopefully not this man’s—hand. She comes outside, closing the door behind her as the sound of Alanis Morissette is playing in the background.
“You have some nerve showing your face here,” she spits out at me.
“Is Lauren home?” I sound like a dork. Obviously, she’s there, her car is here.
“She is,” she confirms as she sways a little. I look a little closer and can tell that she is totally blitzed.
“Whoa, there, little lady.” Noah wraps an arm around her shoulders to avoid the knife to the dick.
“I need to talk to her,” I say.
“Not going to happen. Not now, not ever.” She continues, “You fucked up bad.” She is now pointing the knife at me and her voice is rising. “Really, really bad.”
“Babe, can we put the knife down?” Noah pleads with a smile, and she smiles at him while bashfully giggling.
“Can I please just talk to Lauren for two minutes? Then I’ll leave, I promise,” I practically beg.
“Nope,” she replies and then turns around, grabbing the door handle and talking to us over her shoulder. “If you’re not gone in two minutes, I’m calling the cops and telling them you’re stalking me.” I scoff at that, and she glares at me. “And show them the inappropriate dick pics you sent me.”
I turn to look at Noah, who says, “I may have showed them to her and she might have forwarded a couple of them to herself.”
“Can you please tell her that I was here and ask her to call me? Please, Kaleigh?” I beg as she slams the door in my face and flips the locks with loud clicking sounds.
I hang my head, while Noah pats me on the back. “She’ll call.” He assures me. “Or send someone to kill you. I mean, she did say Donkey Kong.”
I shrug his hand off me and walk back to my car, wishing I could just start this day over or at least go back to the moment when I walked back into the office after my meeting.
Noah gets in his car and goes home, while I head to my condo. I go straight into my bedroom and throw myself onto my bed. I scrub a hand down my face as my mind runs back over my day. Fuck! This is a such mess.
I get up, tossing my jacket onto the chair in the corner and pulling my shirt out and unbuttoning it. I shrug it off and see the red
