I set our coffees on the table and take a seat across from her.
“Who was the hottie?” she asks, bringing the cup to her lips.
“Spencer.”
She raises her brows. “The guy from college.”
“Yeah.” I make a sour face as I reach for my cup. “That was super awkward.”
“What did he say to you?”
“Sorry I never called,” I mock, rolling my eyes and Heather laughs.
“So what’s new?” I lean with my forearms resting on the table. “How are things with Jesse?”
If someone had told Heather and me that night at the martini bar that two months later, she’d be dating and I’d be having sex with a stranger, we would’ve laughed our drunk faces off.
Heather hasn’t been back to Veil since the day she took me to meet Desiree, and now that Jesse is in the picture, she has no plans to go back, so she transferred her membership to me. Since I’m working and making good money, I offered to pay her, but she refused to take it.
An hour after my interview with Davis Corporation, I received a call from human resources with an offer, including a generous signing bonus. I’m very grateful for Heather. If she hadn’t come up to me that day after graduation, I’d probably be living in Sarasota with my parents, driving a beverage cart around the golf course.
“Everything was great until we ran into his ex-girlfriend last night,” she says with an eye roll. “Now he’s being weird.”
“Where? Weird how?”
She leans back in her chair and crosses her arms. “We went to that Happy Hour bar for a drink. We weren’t there five minutes before she came up to our table. She gave me the typical ex-girlfriend once-over and clearly wasn’t threatened.”
“She was jealous,” I interject.
“Then she asked if she could talk to him outside,” she continues.
“Please tell me he didn’t—”
“He did.” She nods. “I don’t know what pissed me off more: that he interrupted our date to talk to his ex or that his entire demeanor changed after talking to her.”
“Did you confront him about it?”
“No. I didn’t want to be that girl. Clearly, he was agitated after talking to her. I didn’t want to fight, so when I finished my drink, I told him I was ready to go home. He called for an Uber and when our ride came, he told me he was gonna head over to Inkubus and he’d see me later.”
I raise my brows. “Wow. That’s…rude. Have you heard from him?”
“Nope.” She sighs. “This is why I hate relationships.”
“I’m sorry, Heather. Give him some time. Maybe there’s some painful history between them and seeing her stirred-up emotions he wasn’t ready to deal with.”
“Listen to you,” she says with a laugh. “Is that how you feel about Victor?”
Ugh. “No.” My lip curls up in disgust. “I never want to see that man again.”
Heather’s phone chirps on the table and my gaze drops to the screen as a notification pops up. “I have someone interested in renting the apartment below you. A realtor is bringing her by to look at it this afternoon.”
“We should probably head back.” I stand and Heather follows. “I need to do laundry and get ready for the week.”
As we approach my Jeep, I pull the key fob from my pocket to unlock the doors.
“What’s on your windshield?” Heather asks as she picks up her pace. “Is that a flower?”
Just as the words leave her mouth, I realize it’s a blue rose. The fuck?
Heather moves to climb into the passenger seat as I pluck the flower from under the wiper blade. Just like the one before, the petals are slightly wilted from the heat. Tossing it on the ground, I open the driver door and climb behind the wheel.
“Why’d you toss it? Do you know how expensive those flowers are?”
“Because it’s fucking creepy. That’s the second time I’ve found one of those on my car.” I gesture to the other parked cars. “No one else got one.”
“They mean something. I can’t remember.” She pulls out her phone and types something. “Ooh. The blue rose represents mystery, or unattainable. Hmm. I think someone has a secret admirer,” she teases.
“Or a stalker,” I add, pulling out of the parking lot. “I have to tell you something and I feel bad for not saying anything sooner, but that first night I came home from Veil—the night you met me at the door—I saw someone on the street.”
“Seriously?” she practically shrieks.
I nod. “It was only that one night, though. I haven’t seen anything since.”
She pushes her head back. “Ugh, Makayla. I wish you would’ve told me sooner. I have cameras, but the recordings only go back seven days.”
When we arrive at the apartment, Heather asks me to show her where I’d seen the person standing that night, then she points out the cameras and tells me she’ll talk to her brother.
“Speaking of your brother, am I ever going to meet him?” I ask as we make our way through the courtyard.
“That’s my bad. I’ve been too wrapped in Jesse. I’ll make plans for us to have lunch or dinner next week.”
As if hearing his name, Jesse appears in the doorway wearing a blank expression, his eyes glued to Heather.
“Can we talk?” he asks.
She looks over at me and I smirk. “I’ll catch up with you later.”
Chapter Seventeen
Two weeks later…
Makayla
“What are the chances?” a familiar male voice says behind me.
I look over my shoulder to see Spencer standing behind me. He’s wearing a button-down dress shirt, dress pants, and a smirk. He’s still cute.
“Hey. What are you doing here?”
“Here you go, Makayla!” the barista says as she sets my latte on the counter.
“Thank you.” I smile, grabbing my cup and turning my attention back to Spencer.
“I work in this building.”
“Me too. I work in contracts on the fifteenth floor. You?”
“I work for the other Davis. Architect, eighth floor.”
I raise my brows. “I didn’t realize there were two different companies.” Heather only mentioned having one brother. “Are they related?”
“Cousins.”
“Oh.”
He
