NERTHUS
I run down the stairs hastily, bursting into Danny’s bedroom.
He lowers the cuffs off his ears annoyed, groaning, “Amber! You have to stop bursting in like this! What if I was chatting with a girl?”
“Oh, baby, I’m sorry. But don’t let them get you to take your clothes off in front of a camera! You don’t have to do things you are not ready for. You can take it slow. And scammers are everywhere!” I say as I walk to him and he scoffs, letting his arms slump.
“Why do you believe that girls are just interested in me because they want to scam me?”
Bending down, I grab his chin. “Oh, no! I didn’t say that! I’m sure you are a popular guy, but I just want you to be careful, because nobody cared enough for me to tell me that when I was your age. So…”
“Sorry. I promise that I will be careful,” he scrunches up his face and I kiss his cheek.
“Thank you,” I say, letting him go as I straighten up to finish putting on my earring. “So, what do you think?”
He looks at me with a smile as I turn in front of him. “You look stunning.”
“Ah, I know,” I giggle, kissing the top of his head. “I’ll be going now. Are you sure you are fine staying all by yourself until Arawn comes home?”
He nods, groaning. “Yeah! I’m not a baby anymore.”
“That’s not true! You are my baby,” I say jokingly, making him roll his eyes.
“Be good! Jenna and I will go for drinks afterward, so don’t wait up for me. And have fun you two,” I shout as I leave his room.
“You too,” he says, just as I close the door behind me. “Love you!”
My heart squeezes and I pop my head back into the room, seeing him already back scribbling on his notebook with his headphones on. “Love you, too.”
A small smile appears on his face, and I know that he can hear me even if he acts like the tough teen who couldn’t hear me.
Walking down the stairs, Elia is already ready to open the door for me. Like how does he train these guys?
“It’s alright, Elia,” I say as I take my bag and walk out past him. “I will be walking to the restaurant. It’s not far from here. Please enjoy the evening with the boys. I guess they will be watching the game.”
He nods, his face the usual unmoved mask. “Alright. Have a nice evening, ma’am.”
“And stop ma’am me,” I laugh as I walk down the stairs to the boardwalk.
I walk to a beautiful chic tavern and get welcomed by Jenna, who is smiling brightly. “Look at her, walking from her upper-class place facing the Central Park on foot.”
“It’s not facing the Central Park,” I laugh as I kiss her cheek to greet her.
She hugs me tightly, sighing happily. “I missed you, babes. How was your holiday?”
“It was amazing,” I say, pushing her into the Restaurant. “But let me tell you everything while we eat, I am starving.”
***
“I can’t believe this,” Jenna shakes her head while she swings the glass with her colored drink. “How was it possible for him to find you?”
I shrug, playing with my straw. “We haven’t found out yet. Arawn thinks that it might have been his old business partner who stirred the waters and got this Goldman onto the right track, exposing me.”
“This is insane!” she sighs, stabbing her drink agitatedly. “It feels like you were trapped in an insanely badly written movie.”
Laughing, I shift in my seat, switching the leg I had crossed over the other. “I swear. I think I will have to start going to church.”
She splutters as she cracks up as she just had taken a sip of her drink. “Oh, my God, are you trying to kill me.”
“I know,” I chuckle, squeezing her knee. “I will probably combust in a holy fire the moment I cross the door.”
We laugh loudly, bending as we try to catch our breaths before she leans back in her lounge chair, pushing out a deep breath.
“Aaaah, man,” she sighs with another short giggle. “Don’t you want to marry in a church, then?”
I risk losing my life right then and there as I nearly choke on the sip I just took. “I beg your fucking pardon?”
“I mean,” she shrugs, scrunching up her nose. “You just got a house together and a puppy. And you practically have a son!”
She spreads her hand to me as if she needed that gesture to underline her case. “Didn’t you think about the possibility that he would pop the question soon?”
I look at her with a shocked expression as she purses her lips. “Don’t you want him to pop the question?”
“Pop the question?” I gasp, gulping to reactivate the function of my blocked lungs. “You mean… Oh, my God… I didn’t… I might have thought about it.”
My cheeks must turn incredibly red as I lift my gaze and she scoots closer. “Aaand?”
“Well,” I clear my throat, putting my hand on my chest. “I already have to cope with all that happiness I have now, so please let me do that until I start putting together a marriage binder.”
She gasps, slapping her thighs. “Don’t you have one already?”
“Really?” I ask with a lifted brow, making her chuckle. But then it dawns on me and I inhale teatralically. “Waaait a damn minute. Do you?”
She rolls her eyes with a grin as she closes her lips around her straw to win time. I laugh as my phone rings in my bag. “Don’t think you got away with this,” I threaten jokingly, squinting my eyes at her as I take the call.
“Nerthus,” Arawn says calmly, but I can sense that something must be wrong.
Why would he call me during a ladies’ night otherwise?
I scoot to the edge of my seat, signaling Jenna to give me a moment as I get up to leave the loud bar. Holding a hand to my ear, I ask him with my heart beating into my chest. “Arawn, is everything alright?”
“I don’t know,” he answers calmly and I look up and down the street as I wait for him to continue talking.
But he doesn’t.
“Arawn, please,” I breathe out, shaking as I hug myself. “This is not the moment to pull your mysterious character trait. What happened? Is Danny okay?”
He takes a deep breath and I hear a man tell him something as he talks to me again.
Is he in a car?
“I told Danny about his father,” he says, making my arms slump. “And about the fact that he is my half brother.”
“Oh, no! What happened?”
His sigh makes my heart beat harder against my rib cage as I try to keep calm by taking slow breaths. “He didn’t take it well, Nerthus. He ran away and we can’t find him.”
“Oh, shit. Let me take my bag and I will help look for him.”
He groans, and I hear him passing his hand over his face. “No, no. I’m sorry I called you. You should enjoy your evening. I… We got this.”
“Aaw,” I giggle as I halt in my tracks for a minute. “You needed to hear my voice.”
Clicking his tongue, he chuckles. “I guess… Just had the urge to call you. Sorry about that. We got this.”
“No way! My baby is somewhere sad and alone, and you are probably the last person he wants to see so let me go look for him. Tell me if you get to know anything.” I say decisively as I walk back into the bar.
“Sure,” he breathes out as I’m already back in, his voice nearly drowning by the loud voices around me. “Thank you, my love.”
***
It wasn’t actually hard to explain everything to Jenna and make her understand that we had to postpone our ladies’ night to another date.
And even if my heart was heavy, I got to joke about how she would have to show me her marriage binder the next time I would be seeing her.
We hugged for a long moment, and as we finally parted, I ran to catch the first cab that I could get hold of.
Which wasn’t really difficult in the dress I was wearing.
My fast heartbeat risks suffocating me as I take the elevator up to my old apartment building.
I don’t know what got me to look here first, but I remembered how he used to show up here, not knowing where to go otherwise.
Rummaging through my bag, I walk along the hallway, searching for my keys, and open my door with them.
With a deep sigh, I turn on the lights, finding Danny sitting in a chair in the middle of the living room, facing the door.
“Oh, my God! Sweety!” I gasp as I shout my thanks to the Lord out loud and hurry to him.
His eyes are red and completely puffy as he looks at me with a devastated expression. He just sits there watching me come closer as he sobs. “Baby! We were so worried! Are you okay?”
He shakes as he starts crying, rubbing his hands together. “I’m so sorry!”
“Oh, my love, you don’t have to be,” I say with a relieved breath as I crouch down to him.
Looking up at him, I want to comfort him as he starts shaking even more. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. It’s all good.” I lift my hand to caress a tear from his cheek as I notice that he has a bruise on his face.
My heart stills in my chest as I must have been so distracted by my joy of finding him and by his tears that I didn’t notice how he has a black eye. “What the fuck?”
His t-shirt is slightly ripped and his jeans seem to be tattered as if he had a bad fall. “Baby? Did you fall on the way here?”
He sobs louder as he shakes his head, and I don’t get in time to even turn my head as I’m grabbed from behind.