Revenge(20)
“This little cafe is great,” Amanda says. “Just three more blocks. So, tell me about yourself, Jess. What’s your biggest fear?”
“The dark.”
She laughs. “Weirdo. Okay. What would you buy if you won a million dollars?”
“A new house for Nan. That’s my grandma.”
“What about your parents?”
I try to stuff my hands in my pockets, but the skirt of this suit doesn’t have any. I’m carrying my wallet in the laptop bag on my shoulder. My laptop is at the house, and all I have in here besides my wallet is a sandwich for lunch.
Amanda doesn’t wait for my answer. She’s babbling about buying a bar and renovating it to be perfect. Then all her friends can hang out at her bar.
“Sounds cool,” I say.
We reach the end of the block and turn the corner.
I stop in my tracks.
Amanda stops beside me. “What’s up?”
How can he be here? It’s early on a Tuesday morning. Are my eyes playing tricks on me?
I blink a few times and squint. My eyesight is almost perfect. It’s definitely him.
Standing with his guitar, only half a block away from me, is Dylan Wolf.
“I know that guy,” I whisper to Amanda.
She shrugs. “Great. Let’s go say hi. Maybe he wants to come to breakfast.”
“No.”
She gets a knowing look. “Ex boyfriend? I’ve got a lot of those. They’re always popping up when you don’t want them.”
“No. Actually, I don’t really know him. Ugh. This is so embarrassing. Remember how I got mugged on Sunday?”
“Yeah. Hey, your eye is hardly swollen today.”
“When I got mugged, I was listening to that guy up there playing. And then yesterday, I found out there’s a video of the whole thing.”
Amanda pries her phone out of her tight jeans pocket. “A video? I need to see this! What’s the name of the video?”
“Do a search for Dylan Wolf.”
She laughs. “That name is so fake.”
We haven’t moved any closer to him, but I think he sees us. He keeps looking over.
Amanda finds the video and watches it. Her face gets really serious. Finally, she looks up and says, “This video is getting popular. It’s not viral yet, but there are a lot of comments.”
“Don’t read the comments. Those people are crazy.”
She holds the phone up to her face, smiling. “He’s cute. That smile. Wow. Come on, you’ve got to introduce me to him.”
I glare at Amanda. “What about your friend? Caleb?”
She rolls her eyes. “I’m not going to jump this Dylan guy. Roommate rules. You just have to call dibs.”
“Dibs?”
She gets a devious grin. “Just say it. Say you call dibs on him, and he’s all yours.”
“I don’t even know the guy. And I don’t know if I even want to know him. He’s definitely cute, but when I told him where I worked, he seemed mad at me.”
Amanda shakes her head, her messy blonde hair whipping around. “Why would he be mad at you?”
“I don’t know. After the whole mugging thing, he got really weird.” I bite my lower lip. I don’t want to tell her about the money thing, but I feel like the mystery is driving me crazy. “Amanda, something weird happened with my wallet.”
Her eyes grow wide and interested. “Besides getting it stolen?”
“When he gave it back, he said the money was gone. But it wasn’t. And there was extra money in there.”
She turns her head, whipping her bleached blonde hair. She stares at Dylan for a long time. He’s finished tuning his guitar, and he’s playing a song now. I can’t quite hear it over the street noise, but some of the notes reach my ears. A shiver runs through my body.
Amanda whips her head back. Her blue eyes are now bright and alert. “He gave you his own money? He must have felt bad about you getting mugged. How much money?”
“A lot.”
“We have to go thank him. And you should give him your number.” She winks at me. “Or call in sick to work today.”
“No, I can’t talk to him. I can’t explain it, but there’s something going on with him and Morris Music. My boss accused me of being part of some setup. If I get seen talking to him, something might happen. I could get fired.”
Amanda shakes her head again, her blue eyes wide. “You are so paranoid.”
I let out a nervous chuckle. “It does sound crazy.”
“He’s just a wannabe rock star. I don’t think there’s a big conspiracy.”
As we’re talking, two really big guys walk by slowly. Both of them look right at me and Amanda, looking us up and down with suspicion.