Page 21 of Grit & Glamour

“What was that about?” Theo asks.

“Nothing, don’t worry about it,” I brush him off.

The lift dings, and the doors roll open. For a moment, I pause, convinced for sure that we’re on the wrong floor. I glance around the empty, barren space, that used to be a busy office. The lights aren’t even on, so the only lighting is the natural, afternoon rays shining through the windows. I check the number showing above the door on the lift, and sure enough it says seven.

“Did we get the right floor?” Theo asks, placing his hand over the lift door to keep it open.

“I think so?” I muse unsurely. Cautiously, I step into the open-planned office, and look around. There’s not so much as an old, dusty printed left behind, the place is completely empty—almost.

I spot a door on the far end of the open-planned space and head towards it briskly, making Theo rush after me. I push open the door, happy to find it unlocked. We step into the large room, naturally well-lit from the huge window covering one of the walls. Only one piece of furniture remains in the office. A big, mahogany desk. Just the way my mother likes them.

After exchanging a glance with Theo, I approach the desk and take a good look at it, noticing the two deep drawers on it. I open them, and I’m disappointed to find them both completely empty. There’s nothing here at all.

“That was a waste of time,” I mutter, before sighing and turning back to look at Theo. He moves past me and perches on the desk, pulling out a cigarette, hand-rolled rather than a straight, and lights it. He takes a long drag and then sighs, shifting to sit on the desk properly.

“Smoking’s bad for you,” I tell him scoldingly, as I lean down and snatch it from him. I step back before adding, “Plus, you really shouldn’t smoke inside.”

“I’m stressed, okay? Give a guy a break,” he replies with a smirk. “Plus, I don’t think it matters in here.” He gestures at the barren space around us in the room. Nothing in here, but the damned desk he’s sitting on.

He thinks he’s stressed?

He reaches out as if to take it back from me, but before he can, I step back away from him and take a long drag of the cigarette myself. I need the stress relief more than he does.

As I breathe in, I realise my mistake. I cough, mostly from surprise, and Theo abruptly starts laughing at me. I sniff the air and groan. How didn’t I realise?

“That wasn’t tobacco, was it?” I ask him, already knowing the answer as I feel the slightest tinges of the effects beginning.

“It was not,” he answers, before another quick chuckle escapes him. “You just had to snatch it.”

“You’re saying this is my fault?” I ask him, raising an eyebrow in challenge as I stare him down. He holds his hands up in surrender, but I ignore them and continue. “You can’t really think this is a good time to be getting high?”

“Those guys just tried to kill us!” he pleads in an exaggerated tone. “I legitimately almost died, and you’re going to lecture me, a fucking drug dealer no less, for smoking the littlest amount of weed?” He gives me a look, like he’s just waiting for the penny to drop. It does.

“We could have died.” Saying the words aloud sends a shiver down my spine. An unpleasant chill replaces the buzz. “Fuck it,” I announce, as I take another drag, holding it in for a few, before breathing it out deliberately slow. Theo gives me an incredulous look.

“I legitimately almost died,” I parrot back at him sarcastically, before taking another hit. I take a smaller one this time, and then offer it back to him.

“There’s a lot of that going around today,” he jokes, and I laugh as he takes another hit too.

“We’re going to need to find the assassins,” I tell him seriously, before snatching the joint back from him.

“How do you suppose we’re going to do that? If they got set up before, maybe it isn’t safe to contact them how you did last time,” Theo muses, and then snags it back from me as soon as I’ve taken a hit.

“I don’t know,” I groan, despite the fact I’m actually beginning to feel more relaxed. It’s more of a reflex at this point.

“We’ll find Caleb and sort this mess out, okay?” Theo promises. “And then I’ll fix my mess, probably. Or I’ll buy a nice villa somewhere and disappear, what do you think?”

“If you take the villa option, can me and Caleb come with you?” I joke. “We could make a retreat for people hiding out for whatever reason. Although, advertising it may prove problematic.”

“Problematic?” he chokes on the smoke as he starts to laugh.

“I mean, just a little,” I pull a face at him, wishing I could pull my phone out and hide behind it like I’d usually do. This much talking to people other than my brother is a little draining. Although, it might be the assassins, the kidnap, and the car chase that have me feeling a little worn down. Not to mention, my feet also kill from running in bare feet to escape, after climbing out of a window, and shimmying down a damn tree.

“Say problematic again,” he asks, surprising me.

“What? Why?” I move to sit on the desk next to him.

“You say it differently. I smooth my voice out pretty well and try and adjust for who I’m with, but the naturalness, like the way you say it in that posh voice of yours, Scar, I can’t fake it.”

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