Page 65 of Latte Girl
Can’t Live With Them, Can’t LiveWithoutThem
Jordan
“IsHaileyhere?”
I burst through the door of Dark Brown Coffee Co, sending the bell overhead into a whirling frenzy that earns me stares from the few other people in the store. I ignore them, repeating my question as I walk up to the wide-eyed girl behind thecounter.
She shakes her head, her eyebrows raised so high from the shock of my dramatic entrance that they’re in danger of colliding with herhairline.
“No. She left awhile ago. She said she felt sick, but she looked really upset. Did something happen? I texted her to ask if she was okay, but she won’tanswer.”
“Shit,” I hiss, whipping out my phone and sending yet another text off toHailey.
Her ex-boyfriend actually tried to punch me in the face when I went to follow her to the elevators, and by the time a few of my team members got up to pull him off me, she was already gone. I demanded to see whatever he’d shown her on his phone, and felt the sky come crashing down on me when I saw the messagefromLudo.
Glad to see you’re moving on from latte girls and hitting the bigleagues.
I lurched towards the computer screen they’d been looking at, and there were Nina Felina and I, sucking face on the front page of a celebrity news site. Now I know what Nina meant when she said she’d got what shewanted.
I rushed through the building, sending Hailey frantic texts all the while and even stopping to call her when I found her coffee cart sitting abandoned in a conference room. I should have just come to Dark Brownrightaway.
“Um, hello?” asks the girl at the counter, as I stare down at my phone. “Is shealright?”
I turn my attention back to her. “I think so. She’s just...she’s upsetwithme.”
The girl’s expression darkens, making her innocent little pixie features look suddenlyfierce.
“What did you do?” shedemands.
“We just— Look, there’s been a misunderstanding,” I explain. “Can you ask her where she is? I need to talktoher.”
The urgency I feel makes me speak louder than I meant to, and another woman pops her head out of the kitchen at the sound of my raisedvoice.
“Trisha, you okay? What’s going onouthere?”
“I’m looking for Hailey,” Iexplain.
The woman shares a look with the girl behind the counter and then narrows her eyes at me. “Hailey’snothere.”
“But I need to know where she is!” I shout, frustration getting the betterofme.
Angry pixie girl takes a step back and the two women look at one anotheragain.
“I think you need to leave now,” says the one in thekitchen.
I’m about ready to drop to my knees and start begging for information. “Please. I just need to talktoher.”
I sound like a deranged stalker boyfriend, and the two of them are clearly thinking along the same lines, because the woman in the kitchen steps out and threatens to call the authorities if I don’t leave right away. Figuring an encounter with the police is the last thing I need right now, I turn and walk out of thestore.
Back out on 19thStreet, I scan the sidewalks as if I’m hoping to see Hailey standing there, or at least a clue that will tell me where she went. I wander the few steps to the Knox Building and sit down on the front steps. Then I do the only thing I can do. I take my phone out and dial her numberagain.
After three rings her voice comes on the line and I jump, but it’s only the recording for her voicemail. I wait for the long beep and then draw in abreath.
“Hailey...”
Nothing else follows. All I can think of his her face after she read Ludo’s email. I try to summon up the concentration tospeak.
“Hailey, please, I need to talk to you,” I begin. “I’m not trying to excuse myself. I’m not even asking you to forgive me. I just want a chance to explain. This all started with one little rumour that got out of hand. I shouldn’t have let it get so far. I should have tried harder to stop it, I know that. It’s...my family,there’s—”
