Vampiric: Chapter Seven, Part 11

Purposely taking up more time, I wrote a note and pinned it to his door, insisting we needed to talk, even if he had to wake me up. Then, walking at nearly a maddeningly slow pace, I made my way outside and slipped into the passenger seat.

“Take long enough?” Ian asked jovially, speeding off.

“Sorry if I’m not Little Miss Sunshine;” I stared out the window.

“Something wrong already?”

“You obviously wouldn’t understand.” Although he tried to make small talk—possibly an attempt to cheer me up before we met Caroline—I ignored him, adding another thing on my list why I wished I had never met her.

The meeting was to finalize our employee list—since she was adding a few more, but had interviewed probably 20 people—and for her to thank me for redoing the charts—finally finished and filed.

All I could think of doing was going back to the apartment and waiting up for Drei. I didn’t care if he didn’t return until the next day or if Caroline called a hundred times before then. I set up camp on the couch, my phone off and charging, the lights off, and my mind racing. I only wished we could work this out; unfortunately, I wasn’t sure anymore if he wanted the same thing.

Around midnight, there was a knock on the door, which I ignored. Drei had a key; he wouldn’t need me to let him in. He probably wouldn’t assume I’d be there to do so. I continued staring into space. A few hours later, another knock came, louder and more insistent. Around the time the sky began to lighten, Drei entered.

“We need to talk,” I said, rising to face him. Then I noticed Ian standing behind him.

“A shame work came calling.” Drei, not even seeming disappointed, went straight to his room and closed the door, letting the note hang there unnoticed.

“Have you been here all bloody night?” Ian cried, immediately on his phone.

With nothing else I could do, shy of breaking down his door and locking Ian out, I picked up the fully charged phone and turned it on, greeted by fifty messages; there were probably more missed calls than that.

“I’m with her now,” Ian said, pacing in the entranceway. “Yes. We’re going now,” he said, shooting me a tight-lipped look; I hadn’t thought it was possible to anger Ian.

Needless to say, Caroline was pissed because my phone was shut off and, according to her, she had been worried sick about me. I didn’t care. My relationship was falling apart; Drei was a complete stranger to me anymore. When I had first met him, we hadn’t been this foreign to each other. And what was worse, I didn’t know how to fix it. I wasn’t sure there was a way. So as Caroline droned on, berating me in between explaining why she had wanted us there, I was debating if I could even try anymore. If it was possible for me to take anymore.