Page 42 of Composed at Randy's
So that's probably not a good sign.
“Please tell me you don't try to follow every stranger you meet home.”
“Oh no, I'm not that bad. It's only you and Bael so far.”
I get another sigh before Archie tells me, “Let’s just go inside. You sit down, and I'll get us something.”
The café is shiny and modern, and you’d think it wouldn’t suit Archie’s Canadian lumberjack vibe, but you’d be wrong. When he comes back with our food and sits down, he fits right in with the decor like he owns the place.
He’s a classy, French Canadian, silver daddy lumberjack. Dude must be fending off tits and ass everywhere he goes.
I spend at least five minutes convincing Archie that I'm not a sixteen-year-old runaway, and that I’m actually a grown-ass man who he could have gotten coffee for instead of the milk he bought me to go with my banana bread.
After I've explained the entire situation to him, he makes one phone call, yells at two people, and suddenly I'm on the phone with Shelly.
I am pretty sure people from two streets away can see the heart eyes I’m shooting at this giant lumberjack man. The heart eyes only last two seconds into my conversation with Shelly because she's suddenly screaming in my ear, and I nearly yeet Archie's phone across the café.
Archie intercepts my hand mid-yeet and takes his phone back. “Take it easy on him. He's had a rough couple of weeks, and the folks he trusted to keep him safe really let him down. He doesn’t need one of them yelling at him right now.”
Aaaand the heart eyes are back.
“Don't look at me like that, kid. I'm nobody's hero.” Archie hands me the phone again.
Shelly's voice is far less ear-piercing this time, so I'm able to understand her when she says, “Wren, honey, where have you been? Everyone in the agency has been freaking out. Marty hopped on a plane as soon as Kai realized you were missing.”
“Kai’s back?” There's a mixture of joy and trepidation in my voice as I ask.
On the one hand, Kai is going to fix everything for me perfectly because he always does, and that's exactly what I need right now. On the other hand, that’ll be a massive waste of his time because I'm pretty sure as soon as he's fixed all my problems, he's going to murder me and then perfectly hide my body.
“He got home early yesterday morning and went straight to your place to check on you. I'm pretty sure he lost a year off his life when he realized you were missing.” Shelly sounds pretty shaken up herself, so she’s probably not just talking about Kai for that last part.
My heart goes all warm and gooey because it's nice to have people who will miss you and worry about you. But… “Ummm, Shelly… do you think you could be the one to call Kai? I'm pretty sure if he yells at me right now, I will cry.”
I'm not just saying that to get out of being in trouble. I’m full-on emotionally fragile right now. I hate the fact that Bael and the band have surely realized I ditched them by now. Everyone's feelings are going to be hurt, and I absolutely cannot stand that thought.
Oh, for fucks sake. I should have left them a note.
Ahhhh! Why do I have to be so stupid???
Now Bael is going to be mad at me, he’s going to dump me, and he's never going to want to talk to me again. He might even throw fruit at me when I try to see him.
What have I done?
I should have gone for that goodbye-forever kiss after all.
They don't make a pill for stupid, but they really should, so people like me can have a boyfriend for more than a day.
“Are you okay, Wren? Did your agent make you cry?” Archie is holding out a tissue for me, and I touch my face. My cheeks are covered in tears.
“No… it wasn’t her.” I take the tissue and rub at my face. I’m going to need about nine more of these because these tears aren’t stopping.
“Wren, love, Kai is on his way to you now. He’ll be there in a few minutes. I promise you that we'll get this all sorted out and make sure nothing like this ever happens again.”
I sniff and nod at the phone and hang up, forgetting that she can't see me. I hand the phone back to Archie and tell him, “Thank you for helping. You don't need to stay anymore.”
“The hell I don’t.” Archie takes my hand in his large, work-roughened one and squeezes before stuffing more tissues into it. “I'm not letting you out of my sight until I know you're safe.”
That didn't help with the tears at all. “You don't even know me. Why are you being so nice?”
