Page 76 of Love Spell

“I keep telling you.”Spencer, most uncharacteristically, had a tone.“He left.”

“That doesn’t answer my question,” Timo snapped back.“Left for what?For where?Breakfast?Haircut?Dentist appointment?What do you mean he left?”

“He packed his things from his desk and walked out right after Nari got here.That was when I first told you.”

“What?”

The journalist answered him, clearly interested in the exchange.“Noah said the engagement is off.How do you feel about that?”

Timo looked between them.Someone wasn’t making sense.He’d got in a few morning trades for five minutes and now everyone was talking like the sky was falling?What had he missed?Why was everyone confused?

He strode past open offices to where the juniors sat.Noah’s screens were black, the computer off.The desk also was cleared, Noah’s personal laptop, notebooks, and potted cactus no bigger than a duck egg all gone.

Timo simply stood there, staring for so long Spencer arrived at his elbow, rather breathless.

“I kept trying to tell you —”

“What the fuck happened?”

“I have no idea!He met Nari, said the engagement was off, and he left.”

“What did she say to him?”Timo rounded on Spencer, who shrank back.

“It wasn’t her, Timo.We didn’t do anything.He was already on his way when she walked in, I think.Didn’t he say anything to you?”

“No.”Wait … had he?He’d said they needed to talk, but the market had been opening.Noah would have known Timo couldn’t pay attention just then.

Spencer was chewing on his own lip, having taken two steps back as if Timo might lunge at him.“He was really upset.I don’t know why.But he was stammering a bit, too.I’ve never heard him do that.”

“I have.”Timo only remembered the fact as he said it.Shit.

He ran past Spencer, back to his office, grabbed keys and wallet, dashed past the still attentive reporter, and raced for the Tube.

By the time he got there and had to pace up and down the underground platform after narrowly missing his train, he was furious.

If Noah had anything so important to say to Timo that he would tell areporterthat their engagement was off andclear his deskthen why the fuck didn’t he make a proper effort?He’d been in Timo’s office and mumbled a few words and left.That was it.Did he not think that Timo would be more interested in Noah’s spontaneous choice to cancel everything mere hours after it was settled than in the market opening?Did he really not give a damn?

He should have called for a car.No … a car would be slower.Unless the train never got here.

What he should have done was simply run home.It was only two stops plus a short walk away.Why hadn’t he run?Not too late.No, there was the train.

What if Noah wasn’t even home?What if he was home, but he really meant it?Told Spencer and Nari that it was over, not bothered to tell Timo, and already out the door?But he needed time to pack, and where the hell was he going to go?

He’d mentioned a hotel.Timo had said something about Christmas markets.He couldn’t remember how they got from A to B but he did remember it had come up.

All Noah had to do was communicate.All he had to do was make himself clear.No.That was too much to ask.Noah couldn’t be bothered, but he could be bothered to talk to everyone else and storm out for no reason.No fucking reason in the world.Just make Timo look like an idiot and slam the door.

Timo ran all the way from his stop, then pounded the button through another infuriating wait for a lift.He had to still be here.No one could vanish that fast.Yet Timo was stunned when a glance at his watch revealed the market had opened nearly two hours ago.How had that time slipped by?

Timo wasn’t accustomed to being embarrassed in front of others.He didn’t embarrass easily and, like regrets, rarely found anything to be embarrassed about.Perhaps this unaccustomed feeling was partly to blame for the fury that mixed with fear.

He’d announced to the world that he was giving his heart to someone who took that information and just as publicly gave it the finger.For no reason, no discussion, no explanation.Just “Fuck you, Timo,” and walk out in front of everyone.

Timo burst in at home to find no one, the place silent and empty, Noah’s books and tablet gone from the coffee table, his stainless-steel water bottle gone from the kitchen counter.

Timo couldn’t breathe.Something more than panic cut off his lungs, tingling his skin like a dunk in ice water.He gripped the doorway, needing to call out while unable even to swallow.

He somehow made it to the kitchen island, telling himself to calm down.Nothing had happened to Noah.He’d simply gone to get a hotel room; he was fine and Timo only had to ring him to find out what was happening.It was probably a misunderstanding.These things always were.At least, they were in the movies.The woman saw the man in another woman’s embrace at the coffee shop and she turned out to be his sister or whatever.

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