Page 52 of Little Secrets
Which serves her right. This was never supposed to happen.
It’s really over this time, Derek’s text says.I’m sorry. Please don’t contact me anymore.
Chapter 18
From somewhere behind her, a twig snaps. Someone is following her.
Kenzie whips around, certain she’s going to come face-to-face with a bulky, dark-clad stranger with crazy eyes and large hands. But nobody’s there. The closest person is another woman, across the street and half a block down, waiting for the bus. But she can sense it, the presence of someone lurking in corners her eyes can’t find fast enough to expose. The body reacts to danger before the mind does, and it feels like someone’s breathing down the back of her neck, moving her hair aside to whisper in her ear. Only it’s nobody she knows, and nothing she wants to hear.
Five more blocks to go. Kenzie pulls out her phone, needing to hear a comforting voice as she makes her way home. It rings twice before J.R. answers.
“Hey,” he says. “You okay?” He’s concerned. She rarely calls. Usually she texts.
“I’m on my way home from work.” Kenzie pauses at the intersection, where the light turns red as she reaches the corner. “I think I’m being followed.”
“Did you see someone?”
“No, I sense it.”
There’s a small sigh on the other end. “M.K., listen to me. You’re fine. Walk fast, and stay where it’s lit. I’ll stay on the phone with you till you get home.”
“Do you want to come over tonight?” The Walk sign lights up and she starts crossing the street. “We could do takeout, maybe watch a movie—”
“Where’s your roomie?”
“Avoiding me,” she says. “But also working.”
There’s a pause, and it goes a second too long, which means his answer is no. “I can’t tonight,” J.R. says. “I’m… actually seeing someone.”
Kenzie is so surprised she nearly stops in the middle of the street. “Seeing someone?” she repeats. “What do you mean, ‘seeing someone’?”
It’s the strangest thing to hear him say those words. J.R. is almost always “seeing someone” in the literal sense—her mother had branded him a ladies’ man, and was thoroughly disapproving of him—but to label it as “seeing someone,” as in arelationship, is another thing entirely.
“Yeah. I should have told you when we last hung out, but I know you don’t always like hearing about other people.” There’s an awkward note in J.R.’s voice that she’s also not used to hearing. “I’m hoping it might turn into something, so… you know.”
He’shoping? “Really.” Kenzie forces herself to speak normally. “Um, since when? Who is she? What’s her name? How’d you meet?”
“Do you really want to know—”
“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” Her voice rises an octave as the full weight of what he just told her finally hits her. “Since when are you seeing someone? You don’t do relationships, J.R., remember?”
“M.K.—”
“You know what, forget it. I’m almost home. I’ll let you go.”
“Wait,” he says, and she waits. “I agree my timing could be better, but listen to me. You’re anxious because Derek’s been distant, and it’s making you hypersensitive to everything else. When he calls, everything will feel back to normal. Trust me. And then we can talk more about… my stuff.”
He always did love to explain to her how she was feeling, and why.
“Derek’s not going to call,” she says. “He sent me a text as I was leaving work. It’s over.”
“He’s said that before, though.”
“I’m pretty sure he means it this time. The text was… brief.”
She blinks back tears of frustration and disappointment. Dumped by Derek, and now abandoned by J.R., who’s gone and gotten himself an actualgirlfriend. It’s times like this when she’s reminded of how few people she has in her life who she can rely on. Fifty thousand followers on social media, and not one single friend who’ll come by when she’s having a rough night.
“I’ll call you tomorrow,” he says. “We’ll figure something out, find another way to close the deal.”
