Page 92 of Rise & Fall

“You can call me by my real name if you want, it’s DJ.” I offer her the choice to stick with Red or start over with a different nickname, which I then realize I should have just given her my full name.

“I like that, and I guess you can call me by mine too,” she says adjusting the strap of her purse.

But we both let a beat pass as her phone rings in her purse and she attempts to dig for it. When she finally digs it out, she looks at the caller ID then back up me.

“It’s Jessica.” Then she answers her phone and turns around, heading down the hall.

Jessica.

I stare at the pretty blonde sauntering down my hallway.

Jessica?

No. God, no.

It’s just a bombshell of a coincidence.

“Hey, baby.” Her voice echoes through the hall as it fades in a high pitch, sweetened tone, juggling her cellphone between her ear and the top of her shoulder.

No.

My grip on the door turns my knuckles white, not realizing how hard I’m squeezing my fingertips into the wood until sweat starts to percolate at my hairline, beading on my forehead and heat diffuses all over my body like a fire spreading in the wind.

If that’s Jessica, then…

No.

Nolan was just at dinner with Jessica tonight. His ex-wife.

Andsheconfirmed she had just gotten back from a date.

With someone she is trying to see.

But….

“There’s no fucking way,” I whisper to myself feeling nothing but confusion and utter shock.

And her phone call just now?

Could that be Aria?

No. No. No. No.

There’s no way this ishisJessica.

I shakily close the door, no longer seeing her in sight and not realizing I’d been standing there longer than necessary, and head back to my phone. I open it up to the message Nolan just sent and I read it, my grip sweaty as I hold my phone.

And even more panic spreads throughout my body, coursing through my veins and settling in my stomach like a boulder when I read the six words he sent. Six words that tell me everything I need to know.That was his Jessica. She was in my house. And they were together before she came over here. Where I invited her. Into the same space that I’ve also invited Nolan to.

Six words that sink arrows into my heart, because no one wants to see or hear these six words. Six words that tell me hisone thing.

I think we need to talk.

Yeah, and I think I’m going to be sick.

thirty

Nolan