Page 35 of Still Her

End of new voice messages, the nasally robotic idiot that lives in my phone informs me.

Jacks hand goes to his hair and his other clenches in a fist at his side. Then, a look of realization comes over him and he scrambles to my phone and punches the code to save the message.

“What the fuck…” Jack grumbles out, forgetting to whisper.

I slowly straighten up, my mouth open. This shithead sure has a knack for taking me by surprise. “What do we do? Should we answer when he calls back?” We don’t have time to debate, because my phone starts ringing again.

Jack grapples in his back pocket and produces his own phone. “Speakerphone,” he tells me as he brings up the voice memo app and starts recording. He places it on the bed while I sit down and answer Eli’s call on speaker.

“I was right about you,” Eli’s voice comes through, slimy and… icky. I’m sure he thinks he sounds smooth as caramel but the sound is seriously grinding away on my nerves. “You’re a smart girl. You make smart decisions.”

“How did you get my number, Eli?” hoping Jacks phone is picking up his voice, and my saying his name.

“From Jack’s client file of course,” he says in a tone that makes me surprised he didn’t addsillyat the end.

“And why are you calling?” I ask, trying to keep the nervous waver out of my voice.

“You know, it sounds an awful lot like I’m on speaker,” he observes, ignoring my question. I falter for something to say.

“I… I’m working on the blog, my hands are kind of full.” I look up to Jack who is standing in front of me with his hands on his hips. He’s keeping quiet so that we can hopefully get some incriminating words from Eli recorded, but on the inside, he’s absolutely raging.

“Well, I’ll wait until you’re able to take me off of it to start talking again. It makes it kind of awkward and hard to hear, you know? Or I can just call you again later, it’s up to you.” I can practically see the jackass shrugging as if he’s not toying with me his nonchalant tone.Such a sneaky, slithering, piece of… I close my eyes, as Jack mouthsfuckwith a heavy nod of his head. When I open my eyes again and look back up, he nods at me. He very carefully sits down on the bed next to me and leans in as I take the phone off of speaker and hold it to my ear. I angle the phone so that we can both listen in.

“Okay…” I start in, hoping I’m not overcompensating because I don’t want him to know he has me rattled. “So, you didn’t answer me. Why are you calling?”

“Before we start, is Jack there with you?”

I look at Jack and his gaze meets mine with intensity. We have to decide, fast. Fortunately he doesn’t take more than about a second to close his eyes and shake his head. Keeping Eli in the dark doesn’t necessarily mean we’d do the sting, but it leaves that door open.

“Nope,” I tell him, trying to sound casual. “They’re all in Matt’s room, working on the song for the film.” If I was alone, I’d be trembling like I was back in that bathroom lounge. Jack sitting beside me changes everything.

“I’ve been following you guys in the press. You seem happy. Looks to me like Jack doesn’t know about our friendly talk in Florida.”Friendly? Is this asshole fucking serious?

“No. He doesn’t,” I confirm. “Why are you calling Eli?” I ask for the third fucking time.

“See? I knew you were smart.” His tone is cocky. He clearly doesn’t realize I’m also impatient. It’s easy to see he’s trying to see how long he can go without answering my question; how long he can hold onto the upper hand in this conversation.

“Eli, somehow I doubt the reason you called was to tell me how smart I am. Get to the point.”

There’s a pause. I look at the screen to see that the call is still connected and then return it to my ear before Eli speaks.

“Little feisty… alright then,” he says, almost hesitantly, like he really did call just to toy around with me and not with an actual purpose. “I wanted to follow up on getting together; becoming more comfortable with each other. I think there are some things we could… smooth over.” He draws out the word ‘smooth’ and my stomach roils, threatening me with upcoming bile. I reach my hand out to Jack and he laces our fingers together. He’s showing remarkable restraint by not moving. Or yelling. Or reaching through the phone. Instead, he gives me a squeeze and I let it infuse me with another dose of courage.

“What do you mean, ‘get together’?” I ask, making sure he can hear the skepticism in my voice.

“I mean the two of us. I think once you and I are in a better place, I can better do my job for Turn it Up. It’s difficult to have a working relationship with a client that is full of friendship and trust when things aren’t right between you and someone close to them.”

I’m listening to his words and dissecting each one of them as I try to find something in the room to focus on so that I don’t lose my cool. Too bad my sights didn’t land on anything more interesting than an electrical outlet, but still, I stare at it as Eli continues.

“So,” the pitch of his voice rises to one that’s lighthearted, and I can envision him sitting back in his office, where I assume he is, and kicking his feet up. “I suggest we spend a little time together, get to know one another on a friendlier level, dissolve any discomfort. And who knows…” his voice gets lower, into what he probably thinks sounds seductive, “who knows where things might go.”

Jack still isn’t making any sudden movements, but I can see in my peripheral that he’s taking deep breaths in through his nose and letting them out the same way, unbelievably quiet.

“I can tell by your silence how tense you are, Kitten. We need to rectify that. Just one evening…” he pushes, trying to sound persuasive. “I’m thinking New York. I have the guy’s schedule and I know you’ll be there for a few days. And you know I’m there a lot so I think it’s the perfect time. The guys will be busy with the concerts and morning shows and what-not. That leaves you plenty of down time.” He puts the emphasis just slightly on the worddown. I want to throw up. All over him.

Jack gives my hand another squeeze, boosting the effects of the last one. I look up from the outlet and out the window, watching each little splat of rain make contact with the pane. I still say nothing. If I tell him no, he’ll take it out on the band somehow and we won’t be able to catch him doing it. And I’m sure as hell not going to respond withGee, Eli. I’d love to. That sounds just peachy. Besides, he could use my agreeing to it against me somehow. Hello rock, hard place… can I sit between you?

Fortunately, Eli spares me the deliberation.

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