As he was fixing the door, Jayden came out of Mia’s room.
“I think she’s going to be all right,” he said. “She just needs to sleep it off. I think I’ve learned my lesson about taking her to the bar, poor thing.”
“Thanks for taking care of her, Jayden,” Xander said reluctantly. “I’m not too sure what’s going on with her, I don’t think she’s always like that. I haven’t had a chance to tell you this yet, but Robert Jackson stopped by your office while you were gone. I was passing by and I happened to notice him talking to Sarah. I don’t know what exactly he said, but she was white as a sheet. He clearly was making her nervous.”
“Do you think this has something to do with that horrible deal he wants me to sign?” Jayden asked. “I’ve been trying to put him off as long as possible, but I think he’s starting to catch on to the fact that I’m not actually planning on signing it.”
“Sarah said that it had something to do with that, but she wouldn’t give me any details,” Xander said. “I think he might be threatening her or blackmailing her in some way. I don’t know if he knows about the nature of your relationship with her, but I think he believes that she can influence you to sign it.”
“I’ll have to ask her about it myself when she’s feeling better,” Jayden said. “If she tells me what’s really going on, we can fix this. She shouldn’t have to deal with it by herself.”
“I agree,” Xander said. “Just please watch out for her, okay? She seemed really scared. I don’t want her to get in over her head with this.”
“I will. But I think for now, we should probably both go home and get some sleep. It’s been a long night.”
“I’ll be right behind you, I just have to finish putting in this last screw, and then I’ll be right down. Do you want me to drive you home? I know you’ve been drinking, and I want you to stay safe.”
“Sure, that will be fine” Jayden said.
They took his car and Xander dropped Jayden off. After safely parking Jayden’s car in the garage of his building, he called his limo back and circled around to Mia’s apartment again.
***
Chapter 8
When Xander had been fixing the lock on Mia’s door, he found a spare key hanging on the wall next to the door inside the apartment. He had sneakily taken it without Jayden noticing, so he could get back into the apartment later. He snuck up the staircase of Mia’s walk-up and made his way inside as quietly as he possibly could. He wanted to stay the night with her and make sure she was okay. She’d been acting strangely all day, and he was very worried about her.
He opened the door to Mia’s bedroom to find her in a very deep sleep. She had washed her hair and was wearing an old, oversized UCLA sweatshirt. He gently lay down next to her on the bed and pulled her into his arms. She was sleeping very fretfully, and he tried to soothe her as much as he could, even though she was sleeping.
“I’m sorry!” Mia said, vehemently. Xander jumped, as he hadn’t expected the noise. He then realized that she was talking in her sleep. “I didn’t mean it!” she kept saying. “I didn’t mean to do it! I’m sorry!”
“Shh…” Xander said softly. “It’s okay, Sarah. It’s going to be alright,” he added worriedly. However, she was so deep into her dream that she didn’t hear him.
He was still extremely worried about her. What had Robert said to her yesterday that was making her so scared and tense? But he realized that he was no longer angry about her date with Jayden. Clearly, she was under a lot of stress, it was understandable that she didn’t want to break up with him right now. Everything would work itself out later, he hoped.
Mia work up with a start. She was instantly confused. Why was Xander here, in her apartment!? What had happened last night?
She remembered being with Jayden, and having a few drinks at a bar, but she couldn’t really remember anything that had happened after that. How had she gotten home, and when had Xander shown up? Her head was throbbing. She had to find out what was going on.
“Xander?” she said, gently tapping him awake. “What’s.. what’s going on?”
“Oh, Sarah, you’re awake!” Xander said brightly. “How are you feeling? You had quite the night last night!”
Mia groaned. “I don’t really remember what happened at all,” she said.
“You went out with Jayden last night, remember? I found you at a bar, completely out of control. You were all over him, Sarah! What happened to our plan of breaking things off? You’ve almost made the situation worse now.”