Page 39 of (Un)Spoken

“How rude.” Alex smirked. “Can’t take him anywhere.”

“Wait a minute, how do you score an invite to these exclusive parties?” Calla asked. “Because I have a killer dress I’ve been dying to wear for a special occasion, and a tea party sounds like the best kind.”

Emilia’s eyes widened before she let out an excited giggle. “Mommy, is it okay if everyone comes for a tea party?”

“Of course,” Victoria said, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

“And can I get a new fancy dress?”

“We’ll talk about it later.”

Satisfied with the answer, Emilia jumped up to talk to Calla about all her clothing. I swear, the girl had more energy than most grown adults. Victoria had told us she was constantly on the go, but it had taken until now to truly believe it. But the strange thing? I didn’t mind it.

As I scarfed down the rest of my pizza, my phonevibrated in my pocket. Glancing at the message, I was surprised to see Victoria’s name on top.

VICTORIA

You don’t have to stick around if you don’t want to

ADAM

How many times do I have to tell you, trouble? I like being around you.

Three dots appeared, as if she was typing more, but before I could look, Theo caught my eye. He watched me like a hawk, smirking when, apparently, he saw something written on my expression. He leaned forward, untangling from his wife to speak with me.

“Did you look at that script I sent over?”

“The one about the murderous computer chip?” I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I’ll think about it.”

Theo’s eyes lit up, and I instantly realized my mistake. “But you did look at it?”

“I was curious about the title,” I shrugged. “No other reason.”

As Emilia slid off her lap, Calla joined our conversation. “Nothing has caught your eye? I thought that rom-com had a lot of potential.”

“He’s not doing a rom-com,” Theo added.

“And why is that?” his wife said, arching one of her brows. “I seem to remember someone wiping away tears when he read the third act break-up.”

“You weren’t supposed to tell anyone that, beautiful,” he said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “I just meant that project shouldn’t be his big comeback. We need something splashier, something with more box office potential.”

I held my hands up to silence them. “Okay, enough. I looked at one script. I didn’t say I was ready to jump back into any project.”

“How much longer is this little sabbatical going to take?” Theo said. His patience was wearing thin with me, especially because I’d been evading telling him the reason behind my absence. I knew he worried about me as a friend, but the man staring back at me was all agent.

“When he’s ready,” Victoria snapped from behind me. All eyes turned to her, shocked and surprised to hear the fierceness in her tone. As I glanced back at her, her cheeks flushed with color. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “But I don’t think putting pressure on Adam is going to help. He’ll tell you when he’s ready, not the other way around.”

“Thank you,” I mouthed, turning back to the rest of the group. “I’m getting there, Theo. And trust me, when I decide to jump into a project, you will be the first to know.”

He nodded, but I could see a look pass between him and Calla. I couldn’t blame them; they had seen me at the height of my panic earlier in the year, when the emails and letters were happening multiple times a day, and I couldn’t even sleep without thinking of someone busting into my apartment. They’d tried to help, but I shut them down, too scared to let anyone else in on my nightmare. After all, if the police didn’t take my concerns seriously, why would anyone else?

Alex shifted the group’s attention to the lodge’s stand at the upcoming Fall Fest, and luckily, that took the attention off me. As they talked about signage and what they wanted to include at the booth, my phone buzzed again in my hand, alerting me to the earlier text message.

VICTORIA

Even with the chaos?

I smiled to myself as I read her message. Little did she know that there was nowhere else I’d rather be.

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