Slide (Black Addiction #1) (26 page)

“Now?” I laughed, wondering if that meant I had the job. I didn’t want to assume but surely that was a good indication.

“How about we start you off on Monday?” She laughed, either impressed by my enthusiasm or the tragedy I had nothing better to do. “I’ll email a contract for you to have a look at and we can discuss any issues Monday morning. I’ll forward your salary details as well.” Her smile slipped slightly. “There’s just one last question I need to ask you.”

“What is it?” I asked, eager to get out the door and celebrate.

“You know we represent Black Addiction and that includes Rusty Crawford. Your personal life is none of my business except when it will interfere with your work. You don’t have a problem with that, do you?”

Of course, I knew Rusty and the band were represented by Metamorphous, which meant by virtue at some point I’d be working with him. I mean, I guessed I would be or at very least seeing him.

“We broke up but neither of us hate each other.” At least I hoped we didn’t. I could really only speak for myself seeing as I really hadn’t asked, but I guess it was entirely plausible he wasn’t my biggest fan. “It’s fine, we can work together with no issues,” I said for my benefit as much as hers.

“Great, then there should be no problems. We’ll be launching their new album soon, lots of work that will need to be done.” She rose to her feet and adjusted her jacket. Code for the interview is over and you can leave now.

“Thanks, I’m looking forward to it.” I followed suit and lifted myself out of my chair, extending my hand to say goodbye. “I really appreciate this.”

“Let’s be clear about something, Alison. You got this job all by yourself. No one did you any favors. It was all you, so be proud of that.”

I nodded as I made my way to the door scared that if I spoke I might burst into tears. I was proud. Proud that despite the odds, I wasn’t out for the count. And with a wordless goodbye, I closed the door behind me and let out a slow and steady breath. I was slowly clawing my way back.

“That’s fantastic!” Renee pulled
me into her arms as I told her my good news. Not sure if her joy was over my newly acquired employment or the fact my days on her couch were numbered. “We should celebrate. Crap. Um. I have a date tonight. Can we rain check?” Her scattered thoughts verbalized themselves as words as her brows furrowed in concern.

“Yeah, of course we can rain check. I don’t start until Monday so we have plenty of time.” I smiled, a little disappointed that my night of celebrating would be spent solo. “It can wait until tomorrow.”

“Great, now tell me about your mom. How did that go?” She winced, assuming that because I hadn’t mentioned it, it probably hadn’t gone well.

“You know what? It was fine.” I toed off my high heels and tossed my purse onto the coffee table. “I got what I needed and that’s all that matters.” A long breath pushed out from my lips. It had been a really long and emotional day.

“Do you need me to cancel?” Renee’s face lit up in panic. “I can, if you need me. Do you need me? I can stay.” The words rushed out without a pause.

“No, I don’t need you to stay. Go on your hot date. I’m done talking about my mother and we can celebrate my new job another time.” I sunk into the armchair where I’d probably be spending most of my night.

“Alison. I can stay.”

“Renee. I’m fine.” I gave her my best smile. “Don’t make me get up to push you out the door. My feet are killing me.”

“I’m going to have my phone on the entire time. I don’t even care if it’s rude. If you need me, just message me.” She nodded before looking at her aforementioned phone. “He’s downstairs, I’d better go. Love ya. Message me.” The tail end of her sentence hung in the air as she disappeared through the doorway.

Renee was my best friend but I really didn’t want her sitting home holding my hand. She also sucked at when it came to
friend
behavior. It wasn’t malicious; she just lacked that gene that most people had. It was part of the reason why we were such good friends in the first place. Neither of us needed to be with each other every single moment of the day and no one’s feelings were hurt. It worked.

Not calling Rusty the minute I’d left Ashlyn’s office had been my biggest challenge. I scrolled through my phone contacts at least fifty times and hovered over his name. Each time I’d stopped myself from hitting the call button.

As much as I wanted to speak to him, I felt I’d trapped us in a weird kind of limbo. It had been me who’d walked out and said I needed space. It wasn’t fair for me to call just to spread my good news. It was selfish and one-sided. What if he didn’t want to hear from me? What if he was with someone else? What if he wished me luck on the new job but then told me never to call him again?

Damn, this was hard.

So pushing aside my disappointment, I settled on getting into my pajamas and catching up on
Netflix
. It was a good plan. There were a million episodes of something awesome I was sure to be able to binge watch, something so in-depth and distracting all thoughts of Rusty would fade away. Okay, so maybe that was a bit optimistic. I’d aim instead not being consumed by thoughts of Rusty for one evening. There, that was a better plan.

My television-fueled marathon was interrupted about an hour or so in, an unknown number lighting up my phone screen. Ordinarily I’d have ignored it. Let it go to voicemail but given the last unknown number had resulted in not only a job but turned around my outlook, I decided I’d take a chance and answer it. Maybe I’d unsuspectingly won the lottery. My luck had definitely changed.

“Hello, Alison speaking.” I introduced myself waiting for the confetti cannons and loud, whirly siren announcing I’d won ten million dollars. It was better than just throwing out a random hello. See, improvements all-round.

“Oh, hey. This is Jason, Angie’s husband.” The voice on the other end of the phone responded.

“Jason?” I pulled the phone away from my ear and looked around the room like he might suddenly appear. “Um . . . hey. What can I do for you?” I was able to ask when I returned the phone back to near my mouth.

“Don’t really need anything; this is more just an announcement call.” I heard the smile in his voice. “I hope you don’t mind that I got your number from Rusty, I wanted you to know Angie had the baby.”

“Oh my God. Thank you so much for calling me. No I don’t mind about the number, and I definitely wanted to know.” I tried not to squeal in excitement as my pulse raced as I waited for the information.

It had been a
really
intense few days. I had completely forgotten that just before I walked out the door and broken up with Rusty, Angie had called in labor. And unless she had been extremely unlucky, or had the gestation of an elephant, she would have had the baby by now. Rocking a new little son or daughter in her arms. It would have been totally unreasonable for Rusty to call and yet, I wished it had been him on the other end of the phone.

“Congratulations!” I squealed genuinely happy for them both, my mouth and my brain at odds as to what to ask next.

“We have a little boy. His name is Zack.” Jason filled the silence, following up by telling me when he was born and how much he weighed. He neglected to mention if Rusty had been there, and how he was doing. Something that I was ashamed to admit, was what I was thinking about the whole time he was talking.

“That’s amazing.” I found myself saying. “Please give Angie my best wishes. I’m so happy for both of you.”

“You can visit if you want. I’m sure Angie would love to see you and our little guy is pretty cute. Takes after his mother.” Jason laughed. With two gorgeous parents, the kid was not going to be short of good-looking genes.

“Um . . . so . . . Rusty and I aren’t really together anymore.” I bit my lip wondering what the protocol was. After all these were his friends, I had merely been a guest in their little circle so I assumed he would handle the news of our breakup. I guess our split was still relatively new, and he hadn’t gotten around to telling them. It’s not something you happily advertise—
guess what, I’m no longer dating.
There should be some kind of service to handle it. That was a million dollar idea in the making.

“Yeah, I heard. Doesn’t mean you aren’t welcome to visit.”

Oh, so he did know. Which begged the question why we were having the conversation? Angie and I were friendly but we were hardly besties. Maybe it was a test? Ashlyn employing Angie and Jase to get involved to see if I was over all the Rusty stuff? I guess in a weird way, Jason and the rest of his band were kind of my boss. Was it too much of a conspiracy theory? And was it strange if I went to see my ex-boyfriend’s best friend’s baby? Damn, there were too many rules.

“Angie and Zack were discharged so we’re back home. You should stop by.” Jase made it clear that it was more than just a subtle invitation.

“Umm. I don’t know.” My internal argument continued, my decision not even close to being made.

“Okay, so let me re-phrase that. You
need
to stop by.”

It was no longer a subtle hint. My presence, for whatever reason, was required. God, I hoped this didn’t suck.

***

Sleeping on Renee’s couch sucked ass. One rogue spring had seen fit to poke me right between the ribs. I was sure I’d be rocking some pretty nasty bruising, and my neck could no longer do a full one-eighty swivel. My range of movement was significantly less since waking up with my head hanging off the armrest.

The minute I got my first paycheck, I was getting an apartment. I didn’t even care if it was a roach-infested closet in the shittiest part of town. As long as it was mine and I had my own bed that would be enough for me.

Renee had predictably not come home. When she received no 9-1-1 messages from me, her hot date had progressed into hot sex. Her night spent elsewhere. She’d texted around midnight to let me know not to wait up, a sigh of relief was breathed that the sexy time was happening somewhere else. Sure, I was more positive and less depressed, my mood a hundred times better than it had been. But even so, I didn’t want to wake up seeing some random man’s penis greeting me hello. Such a killjoy, I know.

I procrastinated for most of the morning. Yesterday’s debate on whether or not to follow through and go see Angie raged on. My decision fluctuated wildly depending on the hour. In the end, I decided I would go. Babies were a good equalizer; everyone would be too caught up with the new addition to worry about the awkward. At least that was what I’d hoped.

“Hi.” I tried to wave as Jason opened the door, the big teddy bear in my arms hampering my effort. “How’s Angie doing?” My eyes darted around the room to see if there was anyone else around as Jase led me through to the living room. And by anyone I meant Rusty.

“I’m doing fine,” she answered, sitting up alert on the couch, a little bundle swaddled in her arms with the tiniest tuft of black hair poking out the top. “It’s nice of you to stop by, I asked Jason to call.”

Sooooooo this wasn’t just a social call. I was being sandbagged. Nice touch using the baby as a decoy, I didn’t even suspect it. At least Rusty wasn’t here, I could deal with the third-degree from Angie.

“Angie, I know what you are trying to do.” I handed off the teddy bear to Jase as I sat down beside her. “But it’s really between the two of us.” I was proud of myself. Look at me being assertive.

“I’m not trying to do anything. I just wanted to talk to you.” She tried her best to look coy. She failed miserably.

“Is Rusty going to be here, is that why you asked me to come?” I imagined this is where their well-meaning efforts to get us back together would have them tell us both to turn up at the same time. Like a happy accident we would both know was orchestrated. Predictable and I should have seen it a mile away.

“Nope I can guarantee Rusty isn’t going to be walking through the door. Not today anyway.” Angie seemed pretty certain in that, her lack of smile as also concerning.

“Why, where is he?” I looked around despite being told he wasn’t here.

“At home.” She glanced over at Jase who shook his head. Whatever she was about to say, he wasn’t on board with the whole plan. “He spent yesterday in lock-up with Phil. Funny how the two of them ended up with a whole lot of bruises. Can you believe they
both
fell down the stairs? Even more interesting is that the house they were in didn’t have any stairs. It’s just crazy wouldn’t you say?”

“They were fighting?” My eyes peeled back in horror as my heart started to beat wildly out of control.

“I didn’t say that.” She shook her head. “Neither did they, which is why the police let them both go this morning.” The raised eyebrow told me she hadn’t bought it. The police might not have been able to hold them if neither made a statement but no one was fooled.

“I need to see him. Is he okay?” It leapt from my mouth before I had a chance to stop it. Not sure I would have stopped it even if I could have. It didn’t take much to work out why Rusty and Phil ended up in a fight. The common denominator—me.

“Yeah, I thought you might. From what Max said he has a black eye and some bruised ribs but it’s nothing like the condition Phil is in.” Angie sighed. “Look, I don’t know what you are going through. It’s got to be a total mind fuck. But Rusty—he’s one of the good guys, and regardless of whether or not you are together he’s going to be on your side.”

“I know.”

Ironically I didn’t get to see much of the baby or stay. The conversation with the new parents also ground to a halt, my body did a quick one-eighty and made for the door fairly soon after. My feet barely touched the ground as I hailed a cab and hightailed it to Rusty’s house, the place that I had been living at up until recently.

My pulse raced as the cab weaved through traffic, the thickness of the air making it harder to breathe, having nothing to do with the outside temperature. My mind was a muddle over what I was going to say, but even with the words not formulating in my head I knew I had to go see him. And if there was ever a moment in my life I was going to do something without question, this was going to be that time.