Page 104 of Best Served Cold

So usually it’s not hard to fully immerse myself in this place and my role here. But apparently I’m acting like a psychopath, because it only takes my buddy five minutes to ask, “What the fuck’s gotten into you? You’re acting like you just took five shots of espresso.”

I swipe my hair back from my face and glance out the window.

“I’m the one talking to you, Price, not the window.

I roll my eyes at him but admit, “t’s just…I’m a little worried about Sophie. She hasn’t answered my text.”

“Have you tried calling her, bro?” he asks, giving me a look that says he knows very well that I haven’t.

“I suppose I could.”

He laughs, shaking his head. “Speaking of. I got a crazy call last night.”

“From who?”

“This woman Lilah. We had a thing, like, nearly eight years ago, when I was on the road. I’m shocked she still has my number.”

“She wanted more of your Travis charm?”

“I don’t know what she wanted. It was pretty weird. She asked me if I still lived in Asheville, thenwhereI live in Asheville. I figured she was in town, you know, like she wanted to get together, but then she basically hung up on me.”

“Huh, that is weird. You think she’s going to send a flaming bag of shit to your doorstep?”

He laughs, but I can tell he’s still chewing on it. “Nah, man. She was a lot, but she’s the one who ended things.”

I shrug. “Keep one eye open, I guess.”

“Go call your girl. We gotta be fresh by the time the kids get here. There’s been some drama between Stephen and Grant.”

Stephen and Grant are brothers, and they get along about as well as Jonah and I do.

“Oh joy.”

I duck into the hallway and dial Sophie before remembering she’ll be at work, too. I leave a voicemail and then another text, feeling needy and not liking it. But she’ll get back to me eventually.

Unless Jonah got to her…

It’s a stupid impulse, but I check our social media profiles, breathing out a sigh of relief when I see they’re still linked, that photo of us front and center.

Reflexively, I trace my finger over Sophie’s face on the screen, and feel like a real idiot.

I tell myself what I’ve been repeating for a couple of days now.It’s just a rebound. Don’t get hung up.

But I am, obviously, and I don’t even know why or when it started. Maybe it started the moment I saw the video of her throwing that ring at Jonah’s face. It’s certainly been building ever since.

I remind myself that the important thing is for Sophie to show up next week for the meeting with Nelly. No matter what happens, she wouldn’t bow out before that. I know she wouldn’t.

Rubbing my temples, I head back inside, in a pretty awful mood, to be perfectly honest.

My mood doesn’t improve after the kids show up. Stephen and Grant keep bitching at each other, and it takes twenty minutes for us to settle on a movie to watch.School of Rock, which we’ve already seen about a dozen times.

After the last of the kids take off, we straighten up the room, both of us quiet.

“You want to go out for a bit?” Travis asks as we finish, but I can tellhedoesn’t want to go out for a bit.

It hits me that he’s not looking so great either, like maybe he didn’t sleep last night. His eyes are heavy, his hair a bit messy for him. Trav’s the only type A drummer I’ve ever met. It’s like all the chaos in his soul goes into his music, and he’s got nothing left. That, or he’s always setting the beat for his own life. Maintaining order helps with his anxiety, he says.

“You okay?” I ask.

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