Page 84 of Resting Grump Face
Ryker
When I return to the office in the afternoon, Sienna is nowhere to be found. My call goes directly to voice mail and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little disappointed by not being able to stare at her working. It’s become my favorite thing to do around the office. It’ almost too good to be true.
When she is still not here twenty minutes later, I am about to call her again just as Barb’s name appears on my screen.
“Sienna told me to let you know she had to leave real quick.” She waits for an answer. When I don’t say anything, shecontinues, “I don’t know why or whether she’ll be back today. Seemed like she was in a rush. Do you want me to check her calendar for you?”
“That’s alright,” I say and walk over to her computer. “I can just check myself.”
“Okay, don’t forget about your meeting later. Miles will take you there at 7 PM.”
Sienna’s computer comes to life when I move the mouse. “I won’t. Thank you,” I say, hang up and drop my phone altogether when I look at the screen.
Sienna
I try to send Ryker a message but of course my phone dies right before I can get it out. The thing has not been working properly ever since I shattered its screen.
It has been a couple of hours, and it’s slowly getting dark. So far, we have learned nothing about him other than the fact that, unsurprisingly, being a billionaire looks like a lot of fun. Around 8 PM, his driver takes him to some kind of private club where he is scheduled to have dinner with a business partner of his. Guy and Paige unpack a little picnic for all of us, while Earnest and Robyn argue over the best way to extract information from a prisoner.
“So,” I try to sort through my own thoughts, “what is our plan then? Same as last time? Does he have a second mistress?”
Earnest clears his throat. “If he does, he’s a lot smarter about hiding it than he was last time. I couldn’t find anything tangible on his two phones, but he might have a third phone that I haven’t found yet.” He accepts the sandwich that Guy hands himwith an appreciative grunt. “We might have to consider other options if we can’t catch him cheating, murdering, or at least kicking some puppies.”
Baby lions,I think.
“If all fails, there’s always this little guy.” Robyn pulls her toy gun from what appears to be a garter she’s wearing underneath her coat. She notices my disapproving look. “Paige made it for me,” she explains and shrugs her shoulders.
“I was done knitting beanies during our Knitwit meeting.” Paige shrugs innocently as well.
“No,” I say and grab the gun from her hands. “We cannot kidnap an actual person. That’s not an activity a bunch of amateurs should engage in. We can hold a protest, inform the media, sue the company, talk to the?—”
“Did she just call us amateurs?” Guy interrupts, tapping his hearing aid.
A long sigh emanates from deep within myself. How did I get pulled into the same thing again? How is it possible that we can’t figure out a better way to deal with our problems? And how the hell did those four grow this old without getting themselves killed?
Ryker
‘The Mysterious Double Life of Ryker F. Grayson’appears in bold letters on her screen.
The reason I am shocked is not the article itself, but the fact that it’s not a published article on Ryker Rumors… yet.
The headline, and its corresponding text, are still in the editor. At the bottom right, the mouse hovers over a button that says‘Publish’.
It takes a moment for me to process what I’m looking at.
It can’t be.
She wouldn’t.
I sink down in her desk chair.
I move the mouse, highlight some of the text, and punch a few random letters. It’s real. I just need to click the small grey button to publish another probably scathing, pseudo-psychoanalytic essay about myself.
I try to focus my eyes on the first line of the text, but they refuse to read a single word. My vision goes blurry, and it feels like my skin is burning up. But it’s not panic that strikes within, it’s more like a sudden emptiness that numbs me, makes me feel dizzy. It’s as if the universe just slapped me in the face with an unexpected pop quiz I know I will not pass.
‘You really thought you could trust her?’is the only question on it.
I try to take a deep breath, but my lungs rebel against the air.
