Page 23 of Dramatic AF
At least now I knew why the rhythm of the beeps had sounded so familiar to me. They had been the tones from my previous entrance code.
“I can’t drunk dial you. You blocked my number.” An undercurrent of bitterness tinged his voice, but he recovered quickly with an apologetic smile. “I’m really sorry. I thought I dreamed it at first, but the more I thought about it…”
He trailed off, his eyes soft and his smile a little sad. I had been taken in by that puppy dog look too many times to fall for it now.
“Come on, Jay,” he insisted. His hand twitched as if to reach out to me. Another warning growl from Trick, however, made him think twice, and he let his arm fall back to his side. “Would I really be here admitting to it if it hadn’t been a drunken accident?”
He made a valid point, but I wasn’t exactly in a forgiving mood, not when it came to him. “Is that all?”
“Wait!” He held his hand out to stop me when I tried to walk around him. “I have proof. I took pictures at the club last night.”
He slid his phone out of his pocket and held it up, the motion illuminating the lock screen—and a picture of my face.
I resisted the urge to close my eyes and glanced at Trick instead to gauge his reaction. He looked still, but not in an indifferent way. Rather it was the kind of quiet that made my stomach clench and my pulse leap. He didn’t growl or snap. His eyes didn’t flash with crimson.
He just stared, unblinking, as if memorizing every pixel of my face on Elijah’s screen.
“I don’t care,” I forced out, my gaze going to my ex again. “Just stay away from me.”
Then I shoved past him without waiting for a response, pulling my mate with me by the hand. We made it to the top of the stairs before Elijah called out to me again.
He always did need to have the last word.
“Good luck tonight! I can’t wait to see your performance!”
I gritted my teeth and punched in the building code, jabbing the buttons with more force than strictly necessary. While grateful the mystery had been solved, a small part of me felt like it would have been better to go on not knowing.
Thankfully, I only had three more months left on my lease. Then I’d make sure Elijah Tally never found me again.
Trick remained suspiciously quiet as we rode the elevator to the sixteenth floor. Rather than angry, however, he looked thoughtful, as if trying to put together a puzzle with missing pieces.
“You’re not going to ask?” I said when we finally reached my unit, unable to take the silence any longer.
“Clingy ex. Messy breakup. Does that about cover it?”
I flopped down on the sofa with a heavy sigh. “Yeah, that about covers it.”
“I feel like I’ve seen him somewhere before. Something about that weaselly little smile of his.”
His description eased some of the tension and made me grin. Honestly, I had been expecting the insult sooner.
“He works at a cafe a couple of blocks from the theater. You might have seen him there.”
Trick stared at the floor, his gaze unfocused and his brow furrowed. Then he snapped his head up, his eyes bright with recognition. “That’s it. The barista that tried to flirt with me the same morning I met you.”
“Yeah, that sounds like him.”
Elijah might be clingy, but he’d never exactly been loyal. Sadly, it had taken me too long to realize he’d liked my popularity—and my money—far more than he’d ever liked me.
Still standing in the entryway, Trick tilted his head, his expression thoughtful again. “That picture of you on his phone. Where did that come from?”
“He took it opening night of my last production.” Back when things had been good between us, or so I’d thought. “Why do you ask?”
Trick didn’t answer right away. Instead, he pulled out his phone, his eyes narrowing at the corners as he swiped his finger across the screen.
“So, it’s not a publicly available picture?” he asked eventually, a hardness in his voice that hadn’t been there before.
“No.” I sat up straighter, anxiety spiking. “Trick, what’s going on?”
