Page 24 of Final Serenade

“Did you at least have fun?” Levi asked. I heard him chewing.

“I’m never drinking again.” My laugh sounded more like the scream of a strangled cat. “Any word from Jay Brodie?”

Levi had cut Frankie’s interview last night after he got home. Then he sent it, along with the raw footage, over to Corey and Smith as instructed. Now we just had to wait.

“Nope. There haven’t been any other interviews released either. I don’t get it. Dude looked fine to me.”

Frankie Blade looked better than fine. He lookeddelicious.And I was no longer going to deny the fact that the man stimulated me sexually. Turning women on was his job, after all, and he did it well.

“Yes,” I agreed. “I don’t see why he shouldn’t be in video.” If Frankie and his management were worried about one barely visible scar, they were all mad.

My Douglas & Krueger Cancer Benefitrecap was like a pancake flip fail, sloppy and flat. I re-read the article twice before forwarding it to Levi, but the words still didn’t flow.

“Oh… To hell with this.” I hit Send and pushed my chair away from the desk. My back ached from sitting all day and I needed to stretch. The idea of not getting out until Wednesday now seemed pretty stupid.

I decided to go to the gym to blow off the steam I hadn’t been able to blow off last night.

When I got home at nine, exhausted, my desktop screen was littered with notifications.

I rid myself of my sweat-drenched clothes and parked my ass on the edge of the chair to quickly skim through my emails before my shower. One of the main reasons Levi and I were so good at what we did was because we always stayed on top of everything. Days off didn’t exist in our universe. We worked non-stop. We were online, connected, available, and ready to jump into action twenty-four seven.

Our lives didn’t belong to us. They belonged to the world of news. That was the price we paid for success.

Non-urgent messages and unimpressive headlines flashed at me from the screen as I scrolled through my inbox, my gaze stalling the moment it reached an unread email from [email protected].

I didn’t put two and two together until I clicked on the message.

How about a late-night dinner?

My heart stuttered. I checked the sender’s email again, then pulled up Frankie Blade’s Wikipedia page.

Frank Wallace(born June 3, 1981), known by his stage name,Frankie Blade, is an American songwriter, who is co-founder and lead singer of the rock band Hall Affinity.

I rubbed at my eyes to make sure. This made no sense whatsoever, but my fingers itched to respond. So I did.

FROM: [email protected]

TO: [email protected]

Are you serious?

I hit Send and rose to my feet. The shower was calling my name. I wasn’t going to sit around in my wet sports bra and panties and wait to find out if the person who was trying to prank me really thought I was this dumb. But an unread email alert stopped me when I was halfway across the living room. I don’t know why I returned to my computer to check my inbox. Maybe because this felt a lot like a challenge.

FROM: [email protected]

TO: [email protected]

Dead serious.

Was this guy for real?Game on, asshole, I thought to myself and typed another response.

FROM: [email protected]

TO: [email protected]

I don’t dine with strangers.

FROM: [email protected]

---