Page 24 of Hushed

“Exposure?” Evie asked, her eyes wide with curiosity.

Kenzie grinned. “Yeah. Have you been?”

“I dated the owner for a while,” she murmured. “There’s no place quite like Exposure. Gage knows what he’s doing.”

Suddenly, Kenzie was uncomfortable knowing she was talking to one of Gage’s exes. Small fucking world.

Chris came walking by, and winked at Kenzie as he pulled a blue wristband out of his pocket, but she shook her head. “I’m good, thanks.”

“God, that guy is pushy,” she muttered to Evie when he was out of earshot.

“Chris? He’s harmless. He likes what he sees in you, though. You should let him buy you a drink. What’s the harm?”

Before Kenzie could respond, someone called Evie’s name, and she excused herself, so Kenzie left the play space and found the restroom.

It was less than clean to say the least, but she put toilet paper down on the seat and prayed she didn’t catch a disease.

As she was about to exit to wash her hands, two people came in laughing, and she paused, waiting for them to enter the stalls before she left. Bathrooms at bars led to awkward social interactions with bubbly girls that made her uncomfortable.

“I bet she’ll be fun if she loosens up,” One voice said.

“Chris is really interested. He was hoping to help her loosen up, but she won’t order a drink, so he can’t.”

Kenzie froze. Were they talking about her? Was Chris planning to put something in her drink? Or did he just think alcohol would lower her inhibitions? One of the voices sounded oddly familiar. Evie maybe?

“She lives in a nicer part of town. I just want to know how she knows Gage.”

They were definitely talking about her.

Remembering they had her address on file made her sick to her stomach. She should have walked out of this place as soon as the first red flag appeared.

“You know what a whore Gage is,” the second person said. “She’s probably one of his dozens of one-night stands.”

Evie hummed. “Yeah. You’re probably right. She said he wouldn’t take her to Exposure, so she must not have been that good in bed.”

Face on fire, she sat on the toilet and waited since they didn’t appear to be going into the stalls. The sink turned on and offagain as they chattered about whether or not she looked like Gage’s type. The paper towel dispenser whirred a few times before they finally left.

Kenzie waited another minute to give them time to get away from the bathroom and then exited out into the hallway, not bothering to stop at the sink. There was bound to be a bottle of hand sanitizer in the bottom of her purse.

She felt like running, but she didn’t want to draw attention to herself, so she did her best to walk at a normal pace until she hit the lobby. Someone else was working the check-in, so she just said good night and bolted.

On the sidewalk, she looked around and pulled her phone out to call a ride share.

Putting in her destination made her think twice. They had her address. Going home didn’t seem safe.

So, she took off walking until she came to a diner. Inside, she sat in a booth and picked up a menu. Her foot tapped against the floor, and the menu shook in her hands.

“Can I get you something?”

She blinked at the server. “Sorry, what?”

“I said can I get you something?”

“Oh. Um. Just a coke zero and a plate of fries, please.”

“No zero only diet,” the server said.

“Fine. Diet then.”

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