I didn’t respond to that. In fact, I didn’t utter another word for the remainder of the forty-five minutes we stayed there. We all had an early morning the following day and needed to get the hell out of dodge.
We beat the Wizards; laid them on their asses at their home. While everyone was wild and boisterous in the locker room, I was preoccupied. I pulled my phone from the locker and found there was still no word from Zoey, but as I searched my phone, I saw there was something in there from Paul. He left a voice memo. Not a voice message, but a memo using an app. He drove me fucking crazy with these and typically used it when he had quite a few things to share. He said I didn’t comprehend long written messages well, but responded to this better. I thought it irritated the fuck out of me to hear his elongated pronunciations, but rode with it.
I plugged my earbuds in and hit play. Paul started with updating me on scheduling and upcoming meetings. It wasn’t until he was almost done that he got me to stop in my tracks.
“So, as far as your little mission: I was able to find out where Miss Zoey stays on campus. I called her dorm, but got her roommate, Rebecca, who informed me that Zoey’s phone has been out of service for a few weeks and that she doesn’t have a new one. I didn’t say much from there because you only asked that I try to get a new number for her. So, that’s that.”
Hearing Zoey’s name brought me back to that empty feeling in the pit of my gut. How do you have sex with someone for the first time and not follow up with even a call. I would wonder if she enjoyed herself those few short days, but every time I thought about how tightly she wrapped those legs around me and how violently her body rocked when I sucked between her legs, I knew we’d connected. I just wasn’t expecting the sudden disconnect.
I toyed with my phone the entire ride back to Philly. Each time I picked it up to respond to Paul with another move, I put it back down fearing rejection. What if she’d changed her mind about all of this? She was young after all. Shit, she was entitled. I’d changed my mind on lots of relationships when I was her age. But I wasn’t Zo…smart, funny, sexy as sin and courageous.
Fuck it.
I picked up my phone and typed my next set of instructions to Paul. I had to see this shit through. If ole girl didn’t want to be friends anymore, she was going to have to be mature enough to tell me.
~~~~~~~~~~
“Are you sure she’s in here, P?” I asked as I trailed behind him nervous as fuck.
“Yes!” he jumped and whispered forcefully. He’s such a damn crab. “You asked me to get the intel then to get us here. We’re here and you don’t trust me? You’re unbelievable, Stent!” he shook his head as we entered the Lewis Library.
“When did the jawn say Zo would be here? Was that tonight?” I asked, towering behind him.
He abruptly spun around again, this time with his weak porcelain finger pointed at me. “Don’t do that! Don’t do this, Stent!” he attempted to whisper but turned red while doing it. “You asked me to take on this menial task that I don’t like, but I did it because of the broad parameters of my job description—a description that doesn’t include private investigation, by the way—but I did it. Now don’t get out here and challenge my snooping capabilities, Stent. Don’t do that!”
I tilted my head to the side, giving him a warning glare. Paul is so fucking dramatic that I have to remind him who’s the fucking boss around here. The last time he pushed me past my limits I had him flying out of the room crying. I was too goddamn nervous to be dealing with his queen persona. Shit, my stomach was in knots.