Chapter 85
“Serious? You come banging on my door first thing in the morning only to ask me that?”
Moving was a hassle and a half, and Leanne was a neat freak. She didn’t have a wink of sleep until she tucked away everything. She’d been at it until dawn, and at the moment, roused from a measly four hours of shut-eye by his relentless knocking, she was not in
the mood.
Leanne grumbled with a groggy voice tinged with a soft, sleepy nasal quality, “I was up all night cleaning up, for heaven’s sake.”
The news hit Curtis like a punch to the chest. He’d bolted from his place the second he got. off the phone with Joy, racing to the hospital where he heard Leanne hadn’t shown up for her shift. His heart sank to his boots as he imagined the worst during the drive over. And there she was, just “cleaning up”.
“And you couldn’t answer a phone call? Would that have killed you?”
Leanne’s brow furrowed in confusion at his sudden outburst. “Since when is ignoring calls your special privilege? Do as I say, not as I do, huh?”
“I had an emergency yesterday, okay?” Curtis explained, “Alan had a fender bender with Suzan, and I had to take her to the ER. I left my phone in the car.”
“No need to explain, Curtis. I don’t care. And it’s not like you’re always on point with calls yourself.” Leanne said coldly.
He was speechless.
Just then, the elevator door opened, and Joy burst out, tears streaming down her face as she made a beeline for Leanne, grabbing and shaking her in a frenzy.
“You freaked me out! I thought something awful happened. I’ve been worried sick!”
Leanne wrapped her arms around Joy, patting her back and using her sleeve to dab at her friend’s tears with the gentlest reassurance. “I’m okay. I’m fine. Stop crying, will you?”
“You could have picked up your phone! Or at least kept it on! Do you know how freaked
people get when her friend’s phone goes dead?”
“I’m sorry. I was moving last night and didn’t finish until five in the morning. I dropped my phone somewhere in the chaos and couldn’t replace it anywhere. I think it died on me.”
She had forgotten to switch her phone from silent mode in her night-shift haze. Lost amidst a sea of boxes and clutter, it might as well have been on another planet. Exhausted, she gave up the search for sleep.
“I tried to let you know I was okay. I couldn’t log into WhatsApp on my laptop, so I emailed you and left you a message on Facebook, too. Didn’t you check?”
Chapter 85
Curtis watched from the sidelines. The disparity between her concern for Joy versus her casual dismissal of his worry was painfully obvious.
“You didn’t think I’d worry?” he managed in a tight voice.
Leanne gave him a look that could only be interpreted one way. “You? Please.”
Curtis felt that familiar ache start up again in his chest.
Joy’s anxiety on the way over condensed into an exasperated exclamation. “Damn it!”
Who would have thought it would be such a mess?
“I just got to the office and didn’t even have time to check my email. And my Facebook’s been hacked. I haven’t been able to log in for ages!”
“You could’ve dropped by. I told you I was moving back here, remember?”
For a second, Joy felt a hint of guilt at the misunderstanding that had unfolded, as if she’d single-handedly kickstarted a missing person’s drama.
“So, it’s my fault now?”
“No, no, it’s on me,” Leanne admitted, sensing it was her fault, especially seeing her friend so worked up. “You got here just in time. Help me replace my phone, will you?”
Still cross, Joy huffed, “When I replace that thing, I’m smashing it to bits!”
“Sure, you can smash it,” Leanne soothed, then turned to the man who had followed Joy
over.
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