Page 106 of Shattered Veil

Cassie 9:43 A.M.: Did you get a ticket when you got pulled over?

An ellipsis insinuating that he was typing appeared below my message immediately, and it was replaced with:

James 9:43 A.M.: No.

My fingers danced across the screen.

Cassie 9:44 A.M.: Good. Have a good day. x.

Zoey’s inquiries from before suddenly came forth in my mind, and with my phone still secured in my hand, I looked back to her and scoffed.

“Wait…were you asking me if I’m currently sexually active?”

Zoey shrugged. “Before you looked like someone kicked your puppy, I was—you good?”

“Fine,” I replied. “Was just expecting someone.”

“Baby?” she asked with a large smile, and I sucked on the inside of my cheek to withhold my smirk. Her green eyes glowed. “So, it’s a secret, then?”

“Maybe.”

Zoey chipperly replied, “I won’t make ya tell me, I won’t…wait, is it Garrett?”

I chortled at her reference to the bartender. “No, it’s not Garrett. The poor guy smiles at me one time, and you all think that he’s ready to jump my bones. I wasn’t into him anyway.”

She laughed. “Ah, you were into baby, instead?”

“Something like that,” I uttered.

My phone vibrated in my hand, and I looked to it to see the preview of his message:

A single thumbs up emoji.

I unlocked my phone once more to see our text message exchange, and once I truly took in his responses, I felt my insides twist because it just felt…off. I reminded myself that I really didn’t know his style of text communication. In fact, it seemed more likely for him to respond to a text message with a quickly returned phone call…and I assumed that this was the case because of how verbose the man is.

Therefore, he could simply be a bad texter.

I won’t lie, it was amusing to liken him to an older individual who didn’t understand how to appropriately respond to someone via text. Hilarious to place the future joke of me calling him a boomer in my back pocket. However, the more that I read over the messages, the more I felt an intuitive nervousness.

There was no text or call after he was sent on his way by the cop.

No returned x in his replies.

No further explanation.

Just blunt, to-the-point information.

And that was fine. That aside, the urge to confirm what I already knew was biting at my heels.

Cassie 9:46 A.M.: You’re leaving work around 5?

I followed it up quickly with:

Cassie 9:46 A.M.: Should I cook for you tonight, instead?

Cassie 9:47 A.M.: I hate to brag, but I’m great at following the instructions to boxed mac and cheese…and there’s a brand new box sitting in your pantry.

The ellipsis that I had anticipated was flashing the moment that I had sent the first message, and by the time the last was sent, his responses came through:

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