"Great. Now, all we have to worry about is devouring this glorious lunch you surprised me with."
"And it sounds like I came on the perfect day," she said.
"You did, Emma. You really did."
Just as I went to take a bite of my steak salad, my phone buzzed. I looked down, saw it was Mason calling, and I silenced my phone. If he was going to be this intent on trying to get in touch with me again, I was going to have to fucking shut off my phone. If Emma peaked over and saw his name scrolling across my screen, I'd be in a shit-ton of trouble.
We both sat there and ate our food in relative silence. It was the calm before the storm. Before Angie would descend on me and plaster me with makeup. I was interviewing some of the men from the Dallas fire department after the incredible save they'd made earlier this week. There had been a massive apartment complex that caught on fire because the electrical wiring wasn't up to date, and I was using them and their stories to bring awareness to the fact that business moguls in the area needed to put the appropriate funds into their buildings in order to ensure they were brought up to code.
Thankfully, no one died in this fire, but that wasn't always going to be guaranteed should there be another one. I felt the topic affected our area greatly, especially since the whole of downtown Dallas is nothing but studio apartments and apartment complexes.
The owners needed to invest in them. Otherwise, they'd lose their properties altogether.
And people would lose their lives.
Suddenly, my phone started to vibrate again. I silenced it without even looking down, knowing damn good and well who was calling.
"Everything all right?" Emma asked.
"Yeah. If they call again, I'll have to take it, but I'm hoping they'll get the gist and leave a voice message I can check after the show today."
"Who is it?" she asked.
"My doctor's office," I said, lying.
"Sarah, are you okay?"
"I had that pain in my lower back checked out," I said. "They told me they'd call if there was anything significant."
"Then you need to answer that call," she said.
And as if Mason could fucking hear us around the corner, he called again.
"Answer the fucking phone, Sarah. I know you hate doctors, but this is serious."
"Fine. All right. I'll be right back."
I felt like shit for lying to my best friend. Pure, utter shit. But what the hell was I going to tell her? I could only brush her off for so long before she'd start getting suspicious. I had to throw her something, and she'd been bugging me about getting my back checked out for months. Honestly, I hadn't had a problem with it the past few days.
And something in my gut told me to attribute it to the stress release Mason had been.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"Don't hang up. Look, I'm on my way to your studio to talk with you. Just please, would you fucking let me in when I get there?"
"No. No. Mason, you have shit timing, but right now is, like, pathetically shit timing," I said.
"I know you've got a show to do, but we really need to talk. Please, Sarah."
"No," I said.
"Then come over to my place tonight. I can pick you up and we can-"
"I said no, Mason. Get that through your head."
I hung up the phone on him and turned it off before he had a chance to call me back. I took a deep breath and walked back into the room where Emma was anxiously waiting for me to get back.
"Well, what did the doctor say?" she asked.
"You'd think with how they called me, it would've been life-threatening," I said. "Apparently, I've just got some deeply set knots that my regular massages won't work to get out. They're suggesting acupuncture or some shit."
"They blew up your phone for that?" Emma asked.
"Apparently."
"Sounds like they need to take one of your muscle relaxers," she said.
"No joke," I said as I sat down beside her.
The truth was, I hadn't taken one since my first date with Mason. Not a single one of them. My stress levels had been regulated, and my back wasn't as tense. Physically, I felt better than I had in a very long time. But Mason was no longer an option, and as I sat next to Emma while we finished up our lunches, I studied her. I could see the familial resemblance, the same green eyes, the same stoic expression, the same long necks. Her skin was paler and her hair was much lighter than his, but when she looked over at me and smiled, my breath caught in my throat.
She had his smile, and something inside of me ached a little at that revelation.
"You okay?" Emma asked.
"Yeah. Fuck, these firemen I'm interviewing are hot," I said.
"I don't know how you do it some days. Really," she said.
"Do you ever watch my show?" I asked.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, have you ever seen it?"
Surely, if she watched the show, she had seen Mason on it. How could she watch my show, see that I'd interviewed him, and not told me that was her half-brother? Was it possible they'd never met? Even if they hadn't, how could she at least not know that was him?
"I mean, not really. Don't get me wrong, I support you. I always have, but I'm not much into the whole talk show thing."
"What about social media? Anything on there?" I asked.
"Where is this coming from?" she asked, giggling.
"Just wondering, that's all."
It was her business if she didn't want to tell me who her brother was. Just like it was my business to not tell her who I had been fucking around with. And that was how I was justifying it. If she got angry at me because I had been screwing around with her brother, I could tell her I had no idea it was her brother because it wasn't like she talked about him anyway.
There. That's what I would do.
But something in the back of my mind kept gnawing at me, and I knew the moment I turned my phone on, the voices would dissipate.
Because after I got done interviewing the firemen, I turned my phone back on, and I was flooded with voice messages.
Chapter 14
Mason
She cut her phone off. I kept going straight to voicemail, so I did the only thing I could. I left her messages in the hopes she would call back. I didn't know what was drawing me to her or why in the world I couldn't put this all aside. So, it was a failed encounter. Every man had that. But technically, it wasn't. We'd enjoyed two very wonderful, fruitful, exotic nights with one another. The last thing all men would call that was a failed encounter.
Then why the hell was I still pursuing her?
The truth was, I didn't know. I only knew that I hadn't left things right between us. Sure, I ghosted women all the time, kind of like she was doing me right now. But we at least left things on a decent note. Some breakfast in the morning. Maybe a kiss goodbye. A fake promise to call in the morning. There were always smiles. Good vibes when I left the women I spoiled for a night.
I'd seen her three times already, and neither one of those times had been left under decent circumstances.
"Tony? You free tonight?"
"Of course I am," he said. "What were you thinking?"
"Some drinks. I need someone to talk to," I said.
"You botch another interview or something?" he asked.
"No, you asshat. Just meet me at that bar across the street from the hotel."
I walked out of the hotel and crossed the street. I sat down and ordered a scotch on the rocks before picking Tony out a beer. He was becoming more and more like the stereotype I found down here the longer we stayed, but I didn't care. As long as he gave me the advice I was looking for so I could stop fucking this up and get my groove back, I didn't care what he was guzzling.
"All right. What's going on?" he asked.
"Here's your beer, weirdo. And it's about Sarah."
"Who's Sarah?"
"This girl I've been seeing," I said.
"Holy hell, you still on her?" he asked. "What gives?"
"I don't know, that's the issue. There's something about her. Her confidence. Her swagger. Her emotions. The way she isn't afraid to say it like it is in her head. She's not like the other women I've had on my arm."
"I could've told you that shit. Sarah Williams is a fucking queen," he said.
"Our first date went perfectly. Fun time, as always. But she fucking got up and left without saying a word."
"Holy shit. She walked out on you?" he asked.
"Yeah. So, the second date I let her tell me what she wanted. Every single idea she laid out, I executed. Then, I walked out on her."
"You did not. That's some petty shit. I love it," he said.
"But I woke up, and I couldn't get her off my mind. I could smell her fucking everywhere."
"Did you change your sheets?" he asked, grinning.