This was so far out of character for her, I was speechless for several seconds. I could see she was trying to put on her cool-as-a-cucumber face for me, but I wasn’t buying it. For Cyn to look so upset, someone must have died. A feeling of dread came over me.
“What’s going on?”
“I need to leave. I’m not sure how long I’ll be gone, but don’t worry about rent. I arranged for a money transfer to deposit funds into your account. I hope you don’t mind, but I needed to act on this quickly, so I got the number off your checkbook.”
“Cynthia, it’s all fine, but what happened? Why are you upset? Why do you need to leave?”
“My brother went missing.”
“Missing? What do you mean? Like abduction, or gone walkabout?”
“He’s been studying a section of land out in the desert by Las Vegas and hasn’t reported in for a couple of weeks.”
“Is that what Adonis came to tell you?”
“Adonis?” She gave me a look of confusion and continued moving between her closet and her suitcase, folding items in a somewhat haphazard fashion, which was also strange for her. She was usually totally anal about clothes, more so than I am, and I can be pretty anal.
“The blond guy from last night.”
“Adonis,” she muttered through tight lips. She shook her head, seeming to reject the tag I’d given him. “His name’s Nick. He found my brother’s campsite still with all his stuff there, but no trace of him. I told him my brother would probably turn up soon. He’s gone off on his own before, sometimes for longer than two weeks, without telling anyone.”
I relaxed a bit. “Then what else is going on? You look wrecked.”
“Thanks a lot.” She scowled at me and continued packing. “I’m fine. Nothing’s going on. Just tired.” Total blow-off response. I gave a mental eye roll.
“Okay. So what do you plan to do?”
“I don’t know, but I’m meeting the rest of my family in Vegas. We’ll figure it out then.”
“Is there anything I can do? Do you need me to call work, help you pack, or anything?”
“Not right now,” came her sharp reply, “but I’ll let you know if something comes up.”
Figuring I knew what was really pushing her buttons and because I was totally worried about her emotional health and not at all nosy, I asked, “Hey, is there something going on with you and Nick? You guys seemed pretty intense yesterday at the club. Almost like you were fighting?”
“Me and Nick?” There was a look of alarm on her face (bingo!) that she quickly wiped into an innocently neutral don’t-know-what-you’re-talking-about look. Damn. “Not at all. He’s just been a friend of my brother’s since they were kids. That’s a funny question to ask me.” Though she wasn’t smiling when she said it, and again, she swept by me without making eye contact. Like I was some kind of annoyance!
Okay, then. There was more going on here than she was telling me, and I had to admit, that kinda hurt. It was like she didn’t trust me with her secrets, when the good lord knew she’d heard all, and I mean all, of mine. And it wasn’t like she had to tell me anything at all. If she didn’t feel like talking, then she could say that. I mean really. I come in here, she’s frantically packing, she’s obviously been crying, her brother’s missing and I saw her arguing in a seemingly intimate tone with the blond guy last night. Don’t tell me everything’s fine.