Page 64 of Until

“No, but I’m sure I look and sound exactly like her,” Daniel says. “Guessing she’s why you’re not here yet.”

“Where?” I ask.

“The country club. We have a tee-off in twenty minutes. Usually you’re here by now.”

“Oh jeez, I’m sorry, man. Completely slipped my mind.”

“Everything alright? Or did she finally wise up and find someone new?”

“I’m not in the mood, Daniel.”

“My bad,” he says. “I shouldn’t ask this, but do you want to talk about it? I mean only if you really need to. But please don’t want to talk about it. You know that’s not my thing.”

“We had a fight, and I was hoping she was calling to apologize,” I say.

“Great, you want to talk about it,” he says with an exaggerated sigh. “Oh boy, what did you do?”

“Hey, you asked, and I need to vent.”

“Fine, proceed. I’ll just have to beat you at golf another day.”

“Funny, I just asked myself the same question. What did I do?”

“How about telling me why you’re expecting her to apologize?”

“I found her with Alex,” I say.

“Alex? Your brother? Found her how? What was she doing? Was she…”

“What are you, a detective now?”

“No, but based on your answers, I can tell you’re leaving a lot out.”

“I already told you I found her with Alex.”

“Yes, I know, you said that. But how did you find her? Were they having sex? Talking?”

“No, she was just there. At his place after leaving me.”

“So you followed her?” Daniel asks. “You went full stalker mode, didn’t you?”

I grunt, annoyed. “Don’t put it like that.”

“Don’t be an ass then. What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything. We had a great time at the cabin, and after we got back, she broke up with me for absolutely no reason. A little while after that, I got a text telling me to meet her at an address. I show up at this enormous house, and she opens the door. Ends up it’s Alex’s house.”

“So wait, who’d you get a text from?”

“Her.” I pause before speaking again. “At least I thought it was her.”

Daniel sighs. “It would’ve said it was from her,” he says. “Is this like you thought she was calling you now?”

“I’m not an idiot,” I say angrily. “I know it would say it was her, but since it said to meet her, I thought maybe she borrowed someone else’s phone.”

“So she was at Alex’s, but you didn’t catch her with him, right?”

“No, they weren’t even in the same room. She was just there.” I stop, thinking about my brother. “We haven’t spoken in five years.”

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