Page 6 of Blurred Lines

“Please, just tell me.”

“He broke up with her via WhatsApp, that’s all. Said he’d met someone else—I guess he meant you—and it was over.”

“Are you sure?” I’d been on the receiving end of a WhatsApp breakup, and it sucked. “I mean, are you sure it was the same guy? Theo?”

“Like, ninety percent sure? And at least he broke up with her rather than cheating, so maybe it was a good thing, huh?” A group of customers walked in, and Macie’s relief was palpable. “I should go serve these folks.”

She tripped as she hurried away, and I lurched forward to grab her, but I couldn’t move fast enough. Her head hit the corner of a table as she fell, and she landed with a sickening thud. The entire café fell silent for several long seconds before one of the new arrivals leapt forward.

“I’m a nurse. Somebody call an ambulance.”

An hour later, Macie had regained consciousness, thank goodness, and two EMTs had loaded her into the back of an ambulance. Just a precaution, they said, but she had a freaking head injury. Joey, Macie’s colleague, had spoken to Café au LA’s owner, and he’d said to close the place for the rest of the day, so now I was standing on the sidewalk holding a complimentary takeout coffee and Mr. Hotly’s wallet. He hadn’t returned to look for it, so maybe he hadn’t noticed it was missing yet? Should I hand it over to the police? Or try visiting the gym he was a member of? I’d heard of Planet Health—it was the place for celebs to train, at least those not rich enough to have a home gym, and the waiting list was over a year long. How did I know that? Because I’d checked several months back when I was searching for the motivation to shed a few pounds. No, I hadn’t found any. Vi did have fitness equipment at Mulberry Cottage, but with only my music playlist for company while she and Dawson were away filming, I’d struggled to force myself onto the treadmill.

Planet Health would have a number for Mr. Hotly, wouldn’t they? He might even be there right now—with the amount of muscle he had, the place was probably his second home.

But if I went to the gym, what would happen to Macie? She’d moved to California from Idaho, and I’d never heard her mention a boyfriend or girlfriend. Who would visit her in the hospital? What if she needed more clothes or a toothbrush? Joey had taken my number and promised to call if he heard any news, but I hated the thought of her lying in the emergency room alone.

A quick internet search told me the nearest branch of Planet Health was twenty minutes away in Redondo Beach, so I figured I’d take a quick drive over there. If nobody could help, then I’d turn the wallet in to the LAPD and hope they managed to reunite it with its owner. And after that, I’d head to the hospital to check Macie was all right.

What a crazy freaking day this had been.

My phone pinged.

Theo

I have to work next Friday. Dinner tonight?

Well, that was disappointing. Not the dinner invite, but Theo’s Friday-night plans. After Macie’s comment about Tera, I might have wondered if he was avoiding me, but he’d already invited me to Thanksgiving dinner at his apartment next month, and he’d even offered to cook. Perhaps I was being paranoid? I mean, if he’d broken up with Tera to date me, he must have feelings, right? The concert tickets had come at short notice, that was all. I was overthinking this.

I’d just find someone else to take to the concert. Hell, I’d go on my own if I had to, because no way would I pass up a chance to see Rush Moder in the flesh.

CHAPTER 3

CRISTIAN

“Cris, there’s a woman downstairs to see you. She says she found your wallet.”

Was it her? The blonde?

“Tell her I’ll be right there.”

Cristian Garza checked the security camera feed from the lobby, and there she was. The curvy beauty he’d considered delaying this afternoon’s meeting to talk to, only to back away when she didn’t look up from the notebook she was frantically writing in. That was when he’d removed the credit cards from his wallet and tossed it under her chair. He’d figured the odds of winning the game were twenty-five percent. Fifty-fifty that she’d find the wallet, and if she did, half a chance that she’d bother to return it. Call it fate, call it a test… If the barista or another customer picked it up, then the spark he’d felt wasn’t destined to become a flame. And if the blonde kept the cash, then he’d had a lucky escape.

Twenty-five percent… He wouldn’t have played those odds in Vegas, but today, he’d taken the risk, and the gamble had paid off. Cris rarely got distracted—in his old job, losing focus had meant risking death—but this woman had the face of a fucking angel.

As for the meeting, it had gone reasonably well. Terms had been agreed upon with a potential partner for the Planet Health nutrition products he wanted to produce, with just one sticking point: they wanted him to be the male face and body of the range. But he hated the idea of having his picture splashed across billboards all over the city. Models were a dime a dozen in LA—let the marketing team pick someone hungry for the job while Cris stayed in the background. He’d spent his whole life in the shadows, and that was where he wished to remain.

He wasn’t budging on that issue.

When he first started Planet Health in the derelict former furniture showroom he’d purchased from a father he’d barely known, he’d never imagined that the brand would take off in the way it did. But online influencers had been attracted by the stripped-back industrial chic—necessary because Cris hadn’t been able to afford a proper fit-out—and then the juice bar he’d started because he didn’t have time to go elsewhere for lunch had turned into another money spinner. Now there were four branches of Planet Health in California with plans for two more, and Cris could eat wherever he damn well pleased.

Apart from today. Today, he’d been running late, so he’d dashed into a café to grab a sandwich instead of skipping lunch altogether. And that was where he’d caught the angel staring at him, presumably for longer than she’d intended seeing as she’d turned red and quickly pretended to be looking elsewhere when she realised he’d noticed.

And now she was here in his gym, her cheeks still flushed, her smile hesitant. Big blue eyes half-hidden behind thick-rimmed glasses watched his progress across the lobby, and when he got closer, she bit her lip. Hot damn. He should have blown off the meeting altogether. She would have been worth it.

“Hi.” Yeah, she was definitely nervous. Why? Unless she’d stolen the cash from the wallet, there was no need to be. “I found this. Uh, it was in a café. Sorry I didn’t bring it back sooner, but there was an accident, and… Never mind.”

“An accident? What kind of accident? Are you okay?”

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