“Oh, shut up!” I laugh when his grin expands. “Thank you. I should have been paying more attention. That has never happened to me before…my mind is somewhere else today.”
Ever since last night, my mind has been wandering to places it’s never been. Nothing makes sense, but I need to put on a brave face today. Not for Giulio, but to spend my last days working with Kayla and keeping my mind occupied. My last day is next Friday and I plan to keep my head high and focus on my job, not the man.
McCarson and I cross when the lights indicate it’s our turn. He has this pep in his step that has a few women glance his way with beaming smiles and an extra sway in their hips.
“I never thought I’d see the day where ya voluntarily walked alongside me.”
“And yet the day has come!”
“Yeah, I’m going to note this in my dear diary.”
I smile through the agony because letting completely go of myself would be equal to losing myself. I meant what I said to Giulio last night. From now on, I need to focus on myself.
“I’m sure that would be a good look for you.”
“Hell, yeah. Feather pen and all. It’ll be a hit in the office, but Giulio would probably kill me.”
“No! He wouldn’t do that!”
My heart seizes. Jesus. I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did over the killing comment.
That’s what happens when you witness a man shot dead and all of a sudden everything’s literal.
We come to a halt in front of Notti Designs and Bryce’s face screws up. He observes the scene around us for a second before honing in on me. “Aye…everything alright, Valencia?”
I nod.
Bryce raises a brow, far from convinced. His cockney accent softens. “I’ve gotten the pleasure of knowing you for over a month now and I know something’s off when you don’t speak.”
“I’m okay.” I force a smile that most likely doesn’t look genuine. “It’s just that Giulio and I are not on good terms. We’re not together and so there have been a few things crossing my mind.”
“Oh? I thought everything was back to normal. It would be tough, especially with kids.”
“Exactly, it makes it much more difficult. We were good, but something happened, and now…”
“You don’t need to say more than you want to,” Bryce offers. “Just give it time, it’s all you can do. See this tattoo on me hand? I got this rose, because ya know the saying; to truly love a rose, you’ve got to accept its thorns. I got it for my mother, but the same goes with relationships. Whatever happened I’m sure it’ll cool down. It’ll all be alright.”
To truly love a rose, you’ve got to accept its thorns.
“Thank you. I really do appreciate it.”
“See? I’m not that bad to hang around.”
We make it through the lobby and up to the twelfth floor. When we come to a stop in front of Kayla’s empty desk, he turns to me. “You know the best way to get out of a rut? B.M Keller.”
My smirk lightens the dark. “Oh, is that your stripper name?”
“What? How did you guess?” He gasps dramatically and laughs it off. “Joking. In my opinion B.M. Keller is one of the best country meets contemporary singers out there. Listen to one of his songs, have a cry and you’ll feel like a new person after.”
Bryce McCarson shedding a tear? I find that very hard to imagine, but I suppose everybody has their breaking point. Giulio and I are the perfect example.
“I’ve never heard of him, but I’ll listen to him now. Thanks!”
“Anytime.” McCarson’s mouth meets my ear in a low murmur. “And by the way, you’ll never know the stripper name I go by.” I gape at his words. So, he really does strip? Bryce rushes a hand through his dark brown hair, winking with that signature smirk of his. I laugh as that same hand descends down his torso. “Never, babe, never.” And then he’s striding away.
Well….that was certainly something else.
The last person I expect to see when I turn around is Giulio.
His somber eyes are lasers towards the space Bryce occupied seconds ago. In one single glance, I am transported to last night and everything it means. To all the feelings of uncertainty that lay between the echoes of gunfire and the unofficial countdown the intruder stated before dying.
Soon it will happen and without me, you cannot stop it.
When is soon? Today? This weekend? Next week on my twenty-eighth birthday?
How can we be prepared if the police are not involved?
My paranoia peaks at the thought of somebody watching us this very minute. I haven’t slept a wink and I know it shows. The darkness underneath Giulio’s eyes suggests the same.
My stomach churns at our locked gazes when the moments leading up to the death repeat in my mind, along with the fleeting trust. We continue to stare until a phone begins ringing and Giulio steps inside of his office, shutting the door and our past seven years behind him.
“Just know I’m here when you do want to talk.” Kayla smiles, handing over my coffee. “And even if you don’t want to talk and it’s just silence, that’s cool too. I just hope that they find who attacked Giulio sooner rather than later. Do you believe it has to do with Addilyn?”
I give her hand a final squeeze and step inside the hair salon. “SPD suspects it does and so I would have to say yes. I will take any chance of seeing her again at this point.”
“I would be the same, honey. It’s the only thing we can do.”
I took both Bryce and Helena’s advice during my lunch break. What is the best way to get out of a break-up kidnapping rut? B.M. Keller and a killer blowout. So when Kayla mentioned
