“You too.” I walked back over to the elevator and quickly got on. I opened up the top envelope and pulled out a handwritten note:
Stop calling him, Penny. He’s fine. Don’t you trust me?
-Rob
I laughed out loud and the other woman in the elevator gave me a weird look. I looked back down at the note. Despite the fact that he knew me so well, I didn’t trust Rob at all. But I wasn’t worried about his influence this time. I was worried about Mason’s. And who knew who else was even with them?
The other woman got off and I was alone again. Rob knew me so well. He knew I’d be worried. I’d just have to believe that James’ friends had his best interests in mind. I had spent so much time with Mason. He was a good guy. All the weird things about him suddenly made sense though. At first his gaze had always made me feel uncomfortable. He had probably been grading me or something. I laughed at the thought. Mason was certainly a man-whore before he met Bee. But he was completely different now.
Besides, I trusted James. That was what truly mattered.
I got off the elevator and unlocked our door. I kicked the door closed with my foot as I opened up the other envelope. The apartment was dark. Ellen would have left hours ago. I pulled out the papers from the envelope as I switched on the lights. When I looked down, my body froze.
It was a picture of James with his arms wrapped around another woman. They were standing outside a nice house, probably in some suburban neighborhood. There were at least a dozen pictures of the two of them. The first few were of them hugging. The woman looked so surprised to see him. She had stepped back and looked up at him with a huge smile on her face. And then it looked like she hugged him again. Her head was pressed against his chest. James’ chin rested on top of her head. His eyes were closed. He looked content. He looked happy. The last image was of her pulling him inside her house.
My whole body felt cold. I wouldn’t have known who it was if I hadn’t seen a picture of her just the other day. Rachel. She looked older, but it was definitely her. She was more sophisticated looking. She was even prettier than she had been in high school.
I felt my chest tighten. I turned over the images. They were dated from this Tuesday. Rachel had been his errand. That’s why he didn’t have any bags or anything when he had come home that night. That’s why he had wanted to watch T. V. He didn’t want to talk to me about what he had been doing. What had he been doing exactly? Clearly something that he wanted to hide from me. We had promised each other no more secrets.
I looked back inside the envelope. There was a post-it note stuck to the bottom. I quickly pulled it out and looked at the note scrawled across it:
I told you that you didn’t know him. He’ll never love you the way he loved her. Can you live with that?
Of course Isabella had sent these. She was just messing with my head. I’m sure James had a reason for visiting Rachel. Maybe they were still friends. But wouldn’t he have told me that? I looked back down at the picture of James resting his chin on the top of her head. Why did you lie? Withholding information was the same as lying. James and I knew that better than anyone. Was there still something going on between them? Was this why he didn’t cave in our game? Because he was sleeping with someone else?
“He’ll never love you the way he loved her.”
I picked up my phone and called Rob. He had to let me talk to James. I just needed to hear his voice. I needed to hear him say he loved me. The phone rang a few times and then Rob picked up.
“We’re kind of busy, Penny. Didn’t you get my message?”
“Yes, but I just need to talk to him for a second.”
“No can do, babe.”
“Rob, seriously, it’ll just take a second.”
“Geez, Penny, you keep him on a tight leash. You have to let him live a little. We’re just having fun, he’s fine.”
I pressed my lips together. “I know he’s fine. Please, Rob, it’s important.”
“Then why don’t you tell me about it? I’m a good listener.”
“It’s not…” I sighed. There was no way I was going to talk to James’ brother about this. “Can you at least tell me where you are?” Maybe I could call the hotel they were staying at and get in contact with James that way.
“I forget what it’s called. Mason booked it.”
“Are you still in New York?”
Rob laughed. “We’re not even in the country.”
Fuck. “So what country are you in?”
Rob laughed again. “What is this really about? Are you trying to get phone sex?”
I wanted to kill him. “Robert Hunter, put your brother on the phone this instant.”
“I like when you act all kinky.”
“Rob!”
“Penny!” There were some muffled voices after Rob’s voice.
“Is that him?”
“No!” Rob yelled. “Stop it!” He started laughing really loudly. “No! Mason, help!” Rob’s laughter completely filled the phone and then the line went dead.
I wanted to laugh at how ridiculous Rob was. Instead, I started crying. It suddenly felt like everything was slipping away from me. I had gotten so used to James being there to comfort me that the thought of him not being there made me cry even harder. I lay down on the couch and covered my face with my arms.
“He’ll never love you the way he loved her.”
I needed someone to calm me down and tell me everything was going to be okay. I needed my best friend back.
Saturday
It was a good thing that Ellen didn’t work on the weekends. It would give me time to clean up the mess I had made. I had somehow ended up in bed with all the pictures spread out, a bottle of wine, and a pint of Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey ice cream. And lots of tears. I had tried to find out Rachel’s last name, but I didn’t have much information to go on. I wanted to walk up to her house and tell her to stay away from James. But that was ridiculous anyway. He had gone to see her, not the other way around.
I stepped off the elevator.
“Penny!” The man at the front desk called as soon as he saw me.
I knew my eyes were still slightly red from crying all night. I walked over to Cliff, trying to avoid direct eye contact. “Good morning, Cliff.”