White is for Virgins (49 page)

My lip was ready to bleed with all the biting I had done that day.

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” Fox said simply. I never knew three words would have such a profound effect on me.

“Habby Val’time’s Day!” Holly repeated, giggling. 

“Thank you,” I said quietly, trying to hide the grin that was spreading on my face. I exited the car.

‘Girl falls for boy.’ Those words played in my head once more as I jogged to my house through the snow, which was now falling in heavier flakes.

‘But what if the girl has already fallen for the boy?’ I thought.

She falls even harder.

Chapter 31

I awoke the next morning to the annoying ringing of my cellphone, which I immediately slapped off the table next to my bed in my haste to make it stop.

Growling, I forced my eyes open and reached down to where the phone had fallen. Of course, because God had to make life interesting, I overestimated the stretch and ended up tumbling out of bed and onto the icy hardwood floor. My phone lay under me, still vibrating and making commotion.

“Hello?” I rasped, wincing at the pain in my throat.

“Way to get me sick,” the equally raspy voice muttered on the other end of the line. Fox, I presumed.

I got back under my warm covers and placed my throbbing head on the pillow.

“
D’aww shit,” I whined, my voice breaking. “My bad.”

“Yeah, your bad,” he rasped.
Even when he’s sick he sounds hot.

“No, hold up,” I said, something clicking in my head, “
not
my bad. Y
our
bad, for deciding to share a drink with me at the movies yesterday. Blame your frugalness.”

“You didn’t complain,” he responded.

“Because you told me not to complain,” I insisted.

“No I didn’t, you could’ve told me you wanted your own
dri–” his voice broke and faded, at which point I cut in.

“I’m not about to argue with this sore throat. Bottom line: you wanted to share drinks and you thought I was getting sick. Way to not think, Fox.”

“Way to overrate your immune system, Emery,” he retaliated. “‘I don’t get sick’, huh?”

“You win, Fox. It’s all my fault. Can I go back to sleep now?” I sighed, wincing at the soreness in my throat.

“No, you can’t,” he stated matter-of-factly.

“And why not?” I challenged.

“’Cause it’s one in the afternoon already.”

I checked the time on my phone and groaned when it confirmed what he’d just said.

“But it’s February vacation,” I whined.

“But the center’s still open,” he said, mimicking my whiny tone.

“Can you come pick me up?” I asked, sitting up in bed and trying to make my head stop spinning.

“Already in route,” he coughed in reply.

“Good,” I said groggily. “We can go get some soup.”

I hung up the phone and slowly made my way to the bathroom. I did the usual teeth, face, hair fix-up settling for some mascara and a ponytail before finding my uniform.

Fox was already parked outside when I got downstairs.

I smiled at the sight of my living room, noticing my father wasn’t sleeping on the couch.
Must’ve had a good Valentine’s Day…

“You look like shit,” he commented between coughs as I got into the car. I looked him over, noting that he looked very pale and his eyes were kind of dull, but nonetheless
emeraldy. He looked gorgeous, as always.

“
Aww, thanks, pal,” I smiled, even though my voice was fluctuating in pitch, “likewise.”

He graciously accepted the insult and we stopped at the diner for some hot soup.

As we slurped the hot noodles and sipped the broth, Fox got a phone call. It was a brief one, and Fox confirmed some kind of address to the caller before thanking him or her and putting his phone away. I didn’t ask about it, even though he had a hint of a smile on his face.

We entered the center coughing and wincing, carrying more cups of soup for later.

“Oh, you poor babies,” Nina cooed, waddling over to us but keeping her distance. “You both got sick, huh?”

I could’ve sworn there was a little suggestion in her tone, but then again I was ready to knockout on the marble floor so I could have misjudged.

“I can’t have you here, then,” she said.

“But Nina, who’s
gonna hel–” I started.

“It’s a Monday, honey. It’s always slow on Mondays. The last thing I need is two contagiously-diseased teenagers around my health center, while I’m pregnant,” she reasoned, trying not to sound hurtful but insistent.

“Okay Nina, I’ll take her home then,” Fox nodded, hooking my arm with his and pulling me toward the door. I felt horrible for leaving her, but she was right. I didn’t want to get her sick, too.

“Rest up, my babies!” she called.

In Fox’s car I rested my head against the seat and closed my eyes, ready to get back home to bed and sleep the day away.

Fox cleared his throat painfully.

When I opened my eyes, we were on the highway.

“Um,” I started, clearing my throat as well, “where are we going?”

“I tracked down Carlos,” he said. As if it was a normal thing to say. 

Nuh
. Uh.
I stared at him open-mouthed, processing what he’d just said. He’d found Carlos, possibly Nina’s baby’s father… and we were going to see him.

“Don’t you think we could do this some other time? Maybe when we’re both in our right minds?” I said, feeling a fit of coughs coming on.

“When Emery? Nina will think we’re up to something and I have to finish my hours at the center anyway, you have the daycare to worry about – this is the perfect time.”

He was right. There was no way we were going to get such a great opportunity again in the near future.

“What if he’s at work or something?” I asked.

“I have his work address,” he responded easily.

“What’re you? The FBI? How’d you pull this off?” I questioned suddenly.

He smirked. “I know people, who know people.”

“Yeah, and those people know people,” I continued, “who stalk other people and kill everyone that knows about them. You just brought me into some kind of master plan that I have no desire to be in, buddy.”

“Emery, nobody’s killing anybody. The only master plan here involves convincing Carlos to talk to Nina,” he said, merging onto the fast lane and picking up speed.

“How long’s the ride?” I asked tiredly.

“Long.”

“Like 10 minutes long or an hour long?” I clarified, closing my eyes and resting the seat back.

“The latter.”

“Goodnight then, sir,” I yawned, massaging my throat and turning on my side.

***

When I was woken up, we had arrived to a large glass corporate building. I assumed this to be the place of Carlos’s new job.

“We’re not in Hartford anymore,” I mumbled, stretching out of the car.

Fox chuckled, taking hold of my elbow to steady me when things got dizzy. I coughed and thanked him quietly, following him inside the building.

“We’re borderline Massachusetts, actually,” he informed me.

“Wow.”

“Yeah. Quite the commute from his girlfriend.”

“Hey, I think they could make it work,” I insisted.

“It’d be expensive.”

“Yeah, well if they love each other it shouldn’t,” I coughed, “be a problem.” 

Approaching the secretary in the large marble lobby, I shivered. We asked for Carlos Menendez and were told to take the elevators to the twenty-first floor.

“Why do these people have the AC on in the middle of winter?” I wondered looking around the glass elevator and watching it take us incredibly high. I backed away from the seemingly thin, dangerous walls. “And how did this building pass inspection?”

Fox smiled at my paranoia and ushered me out of the elevator as we made it to Carlos’s floor. Alive.

“Hi, could you please direct me to Carlos Menendez’s office?” I asked while trying to withhold a cough. We got more directions and were off.

“Great, thank you.”

“I just realized,” I said, looking up at Fox as we walked down the hall, “we don’t have any kind of plan on how to approach him.”

“So?”

“So – we’re going to just walk in and say hi?” I smirked, getting nervous as we took the second left into a new, equally long marble hallway.

Fox pondered what I had said and, from my guess, agreed with me. We didn’t have any idea what to do from this point on.