Page 57 of Submissive Lies

“Hello, Loren speaking.”

“Loren. It’s Jen.”

“Jen! Oh my God, how are you doing!” Loren’s voice was bright with happiness, and then it pulled up short. “Wait, is everything okay? Is something wrong there?”

“No!” I gave her a polite chuckle, grinning. “Everything’s fine. Jeez, Loren. I call and the first thing out of your mouth is ‘Oh God! What have you done? What’s the problem!’ Thanks!”

“Well…” she drew the word out. “You are pretty new at this, so I’ve been worried. I’ve been waiting for your call to tell me how bad you’ve screw things up.”

“Thanks. Dick.”

Loren laughed, and my mouth curved up into a full-blown smile. A second later it slipped away as I remembered why I had called.

“Things here are fine. I’ve got a great crew, and we’re ahead of schedule.”

“Pfft. ‘Ahead of schedule.’ You’re always ahead of schedule, Jen.”

“Well, this time I’m ahead of schedule of my normal ahead of schedule.”

“Awesome!”

“Hey, I have a question for you…” I tried to keep my voice casual, conceal any inflection of worry or irritation out of it. “Have you seen Thomas today by any chance?”

There was a brief pause, and the butterflies in my stomach took flight.

“Oh, yeah. I saw him and Thom Paul in the atrium this morning, actually. I didn’t say hi ‘cause they looked like they were busy with something, but far as I know he’s here.” Loren gave another brief pause. “Why?”

“Oh, it’s nothing.” I waved my hand as if she could see it, a nervous attempt to brush further questioning aside. “I haven’t heard from him… today, so I was just curious.”

“You want me to give him a buzz?”

“No!” Dammit. I caught the strident sound of my voice, grimaced at the almost angry tone of it. “No, no, it’s fine. He’s probably busy with something. I’ll call his office later.”

“Okay. If I see him, I’ll let him know to pull his head out of his ass and give the woman he loves the attention she deserves.”

Laugh, Jen. Laugh and let her know that nothing is wrong, and that everything is hunky-dory and that things are just fine and that there is no reason to tell Thomas Kiernan to go fuck himself.

“Ha! Yeah, do that for me, okay?” I tried to fake as convincing a laugh as I could as my fingers gripped the phone so tight I thought I might break it in two. “Okay, listen, I have to get back to work. You know, to try and clean up the mess I’ve made here.”

Loren giggled. “Yeah, sure, you do that.”

“Thanks, Loren. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Okay, Jen. Take care! Have a good show!”

“I’ll try. Bye!”

I ended the call, and stood there, gripping the phone with fingers that ached.

You son of a bitch. You goddamn sonofabitch. You got my call. You got my texts. What the fuck is your problem!

I lowered the phone where I could see the screen. I started to tab to the Messages screen. To type another text to Thomas.

I stopped myself. No. No, fuck you. I’m calling. And you better fucking answer.

I dialed his cell phone. Not his office, because that would probably go right to voicemail. On his cell I knew he’d know exactly who was calling.

Five rings, and straight to voicemail.

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