Erica gazed at Jake. Her lips stuck out in a pout. “You.”
Jake sighed. A server went past, and he lifted his hand in the air. “Drink, please.”
“You.” She started to get up, rising to stand where she sat in the booth. Her finger pointed across the table. “It’s your fault.”
Jake lowered his hand and shot me a look. “Told you my presence would be a bad idea.”
I waved that off and pulled Erica’s hand down. “Stop. Whatever’s going on has nothing to do with Jake.”
“Yes, it does!” She closed her eyes, lifted her head, and shouted, “I’m drunk, Jo! I’m drunk. Drunk. And you…you had a panic attack, and I didn’t know.” She patted my arm, still with her eyes closed. “I’m so sorry you had a panic attack. I didn’t know. Did I know?”
I caught her hand and held it. “You didn’t know.”
“Okay.” Her eyes opened, and when she saw Jake, they lit back up. “You!”
Her hand started to go up once again, but I caught it and snapped my fingers in front of her face.
I said, “Right here. Over here. I’m here.”
“You’re here. Oh, Jo! You’re here. Are you feeling better? I was worried, but I couldn’t leave, and you had a panic attack. Where did you go? I sent Dickhead to look for you.”
“Uh…” I remembered Bob had been in the lounge. “Oh, yes. We must’ve missed each other. I went home, or I was going home. I started to feel better, and then I went to Jake’s house. I thought he could…” What was I going to say here?
Jake lifted an eyebrow, a slight grin peeking at the corner of his mouth.
I rolled my eyes at him and said to my roommate, “I thought he might have special medicine for my anxiety.”
Jake lifted a hand in frustration and muttered, “Oh my God.”
Erica’s eyes got big again. “He does. He has drugs. I knew it!” She pointed at him again. “You’re the type to have those steroids and shit. Wait, does Susan know? I could use that against her. Does she take steroids, too?”
Jake’s hands spread out, palms upward. “I don’t have steroids. No one has steroids. Jo wanted booze. I had booze, but we left and went to your place instead.”
Erica sucked in her breath. “You brought steroids to our place?”
I started laughing. I couldn’t help it.
Jake shot me a look. “Thanks. This is probably the only thing she’s going to remember from this night.”
“You…” Erica rose from her seat. “You gave steroids to my roommate. Is she on steroids, too?”
“Oh, for God’s sake,” Wanker burst out, standing. He grabbed Erica’s hands and pushed her back down, and then he shot a look at Jake and me. His eyes were beady under his glasses. “You two are not helping. You were supposed to come and help her.”
Jake frowned. “She’s drunk. What else do you want us to do?”
“Five minutes before you arrived, she was planning murder. Said it’d be a double exposé since they just interviewed that killer guy.”
Jake’s frown deepened. “That killer guy? What killer guy?”
Erica grumbled, sliding down in the seat so that her feet were almost in Wanker’s lap, “That hot killer guy. You know who I’m talking about. I am sober enough to admit that I’m drunk enough not to remember his name. That guy.”
“Oh.” Jake nodded. “That guy. I remember.” His tone was sarcastic. His hand lifted in the air, and his fingers spread out. “It all makes perfect sense now.”
Erica glowered at him as she hunched down, and stuck her bottom lip out. “I don’t appreciate your tone. I don’t know what it is right now, but I don’t appreciate it.”
I wanted to hit my forehead. This was my roommate. This was Wanker, who was fine. And this was—I gazed at Jake—my friend and accountability partner. This was my team, whom I’d chosen to hide away with in my new life, and they were arguing over…I had no idea what they were arguing over. For some reason, I was fed up, and my patience was gone.
I started to stand up. I wanted to deliver some lecture, and again, I had no clue what I was going to deliver, but Wanker beat me to it.
He jerked forward in his seat and spread his hands in the air. His movement was dramatic, as was the look of disgust on his face. He looked from Jake to Erica and back again. “You two, shut the fuck up.”
Erica’s bottom lip popped back out in a pout.
Jake rolled his eyes.
“I mean it. The two of you are being horrible to each other. And why?” He indicated me, too.
Jake expelled a breath of air and leaned back.
Erica narrowed her eyes. She mumbled, “Wanker, whasss your poind?”
“Great. The slurring is upon us,” Jake grumbled.
Wanker started to turn on him.
I beat him this time. I hissed at Jake, “Stop it. Susan screwed her over, and she’s only mad at you because you screwed me over, remember?”
That shut him up.
Erica thrust a fist in the air. “Yeah!”
Wanker told her, “Drop that hand right now.”
She did. Her hand landed with a thud on the table, and she seemed mesmerized by Wanker’s take-charge attitude. I had to admit, I was impressed, too.
He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table, and he shoved his glasses up with one savage movement. He pointed at the table. “Now,”—he hit the table with his finger, like Erica had done when we approached—“I have no idea what happened. She still hasn’t explained it to me, but I vote we go home, and we all partake in a rather passionate round of Go Fish.”
“Yeah!” Erica’s fist went back in the air. She lowered it right away. “No, we can’t. Susan’s here. I’m spying on her.”
That got all our attention.
Jake sat upright.
I froze.
Wanker’s glasses slid down his nose, and he left them there.
“Wait.” Jake leaned across the table. “Susan’s here?”
“Yeah.” Erica pointed to the second level. “She came here with that killer guy and some others.”
“Where?” I was close to hyperventilating. Kian was here?
“In a private box up there. That guy was snuck inside through the back. He’s famous. People would go apeshit if they knew he was here.”
“Are you sure he’s here?” I had to make sure.
“I think so. I mean, he might’ve left already.”
If he did, a thought occurred to me, has he texted me?
I felt the outline of my phone in my bag. I wanted to pull it out and double check. Was Kian here? Or did he leave? I had no clue how I felt about either. I just wanted to know if he’d texted me.
Erica said, “Susan came in with a bunch of head honchos from the paper. They have a private box here. I’ve heard things at the paper, that they use it with their biggest sponsors or whoever. I thought it was just all talk at the office, but when I saw that she’d come here with all the editorial staff, I knew it had to be true.”
“But you didn’t see”—she’d called him killer guy—“killer guy with them?”
“No.” A long, drawn-out breath of air left her. “But I overheard his driver say that their next stop was here. He was talking to one of Kian’s lawyer guys.”
Jake scowled.
I chewed on my lip. My stomach was in knots.
“I know they’re up there.” Erica pointed above us. “Go, and make your presence known. I have no doubt that Susan will welcome you with open arms.”
Me? No. There was no reason. Wait. She was talking to Jake.
Jake fixed her with a dark look. “For the tenth and umpteenth time, I’m not with Susan. I’m not with Tara either.” He pointed to me. “I’m with her now.”
Erica’s head swiveled to me. Her eyebrows lifted.
Wanker’s head dropped to his hand, and he began shaking it back and forth. “Oh God, no.”
Jake continued, with an extra bite to his voice, “Get used to it, Erica. I’m not going anywhere.” He paused. “I’m her accountability partner. You know what that means?”
“You want to get into her pants.” Erica rolled her eyes. “Everyone knows that.”
“Wha—,” Jake’s mouth fell open, then closed. He tugged on his shirt collar, leaning forward over the table. “No. I mean, yes, but we’re holding each other accountable. That means we’re friends, and you can’t do anything about it. From here on out, I’m going to be around a whole lot more.” He looked so proud as he said that, until we heard someone else speak up from beside the table.
“Is that right?” A soft and feminine voice spoke up behind my shoulder.
I closed my eyes. This was the worst timing ever.
Jake tensed and cursed under his breath.
Wanker continued to shake his head.
And Erica sat rigid for one second, and then she launched herself in the air, going over me. “You!” she screeched. “You kicked me off the story!”
Susan stepped backward, and the person who spoke was standing right next to her. It was Tara. Her face was pale, and a flash of pain flared in her eyes.