Page 62 of Hesi-Dating
He leaned down and cupped the side of my face with his free hand. "You'll always be mine, Joley girl. Always. Don't forget that. Working for Isiah doesn't change things."
I craned away from his touch. "Do you plan to murder me in my car now?"
"Have a good night, baby." Nosh sauntered back to his car.
In the rearview mirror I watched his dark sedan drive to the parking lot exit and leave before I moved from my frozen state.
My lungs forced me to gasp for breath when I realized I hadn't breathed since he left, but I still had a sensation of choking. I was so lightheaded I thought I might pass out. Was he or one of his people going to follow me home?
How had he known I was here? Either he had someone tailing me or he tracked me. Maybe with my phone? How else would he know when I did or didn't text someone? He might've hacked into the new phone I'd gotten since he visited the house.
I needed another phone. Now. Maybe it had to do with the information I transferred from the old phone. I probably shouldn't have synced them.
I drove, not paying attention to direction. Vaguely, I realized my car was low on gas, but I didn't stop. In the middle lane of the I-5 I tossed my phone out the window. I didn't care about contacts or all the shit that was on the phone that had accumulated over the past two years, not even the pictures. I wanted to be free.
A mile later, I banged my hand on the steering wheel. That'd been a stupid mistake. An expensive fucking mistake. As if I could afford a new phone.
Damn it.
I wove through several neighborhoods that weren't mine while glued to the rearview mirror desperate to confirm no one followed me. I sat for well over a minute at a 4-way stop.
No cars moved nearby.
Maybe he used something other than the phone to track me. Could my car have some sort of device on it? Or maybe he could track the car's computer? I wished for my phone to search how to figure out if my car had something like that.
I got back on the interstate going north, pulling over at the next exit. Inside a drugstore I got a pay-as-you-go phone that allowed internet access. I'd never purchased one before but suspected I'd need to change numbers or get a new phone every so often to avoid being tracked by Nosh. I'd have to research it online to find out how quickly someone could hack my phone.
I searched online to figure out if my car had a tracking device and even looked under the car's body with a flashlight. This was out of my wheelhouse. Marino could help, but getting him in on this would mean admitting Nosh threatened me again.
Back on the highway, I didn't pay attention to where I drove as my mind spun. Nosh wasn't ever going to let me live my life. Was I going to have to get his approval for all my boyfriends? He might never allow me to have a relationship that lasted longer than a weekend.
I wanted something that lasted longer.
The yellow lines on the highway were my guide as I drove aimlessly. I couldn't go home where I'd have to admit I was a failure and that Nosh planned on exerting more control over my life. I feared going anywhere familiar where I might be watched by one of Nosh's people. The gas gauge hovered dangerously close to empty, but the orange "empty" light wasn't on yet.
I pulled down a familiar dirt road and sat in front of Seth's house. How had I ended up here? Some subconscious need to feel safe led me here.
His truck wasn't parked out front. Mixed feelings of relief and disappointment hit me. He might've been able to help me figure out if I had a tracking device on the car. If I asked him, though, then he'd want to know why, and I wasn't about to tell him.
I shouldn't be here. Nosh had specifically tested me about remaining no-contact with Seth.
Maybe I would just leave a note that I changed phone numbers in case Seth needed a future favor. How pitiful was I to want to be needed by a man I'd ditched? Needed by the man I couldn't be around?
This was self-destructive behavior on too many levels.
I sifted through the debris in my school backpack to find a piece of unused paper. Jotting my name and phone number I wrote, "Changed phones in case you needed it."
That sounded stupid. I crumpled the note and wrote on another scrap of paper: "Joley's new phone number."
Why was I even doing this? I could text him. I remembered his number.
Before I could chicken out, I rushed to the front door. I heard a hound bark twice from the inside. Henry didn't sound vicious. It was more of a "hello" bark.
Just when I decided this whole thing was idiotic, the door opened. My mind blanked as I stared up into a fathomless deep blue gaze. The air left my lungs. My heart thundered. I couldn't take my eyes off Seth. He seemed taller than I remembered. His hair had gotten even longer on top such that his bangs dipped to his eyebrows.
The danger of me being here crystallized in my stomach.
"Hey." He said the word like it didn't shock the hell out of him to have me on his front porch. Me, his sort of friend turned hookup turned woman-that-ghosted-him.
