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After we finished up official business, we stopped to eat at a roadside noodle hut. My phone rang and I checked it.
The first call came from Zoom.
I ignored it.
The last time she called it was to try talking me off my self-imposed ledge. But I didn’t want to hear how I was supposed to hear Taz out or that there was more to the story.
At that moment in time, I was angry.
I knew I had to get over it, but I wasn’t ready.
Taz didn’t trust me and there was nothing I could do to change that. All I could do, was allow the pain to terraform me, then move on.
The next call was Kaos, followed by their friend Trucker and then unlisted.
That one I answered—It could be no one else but John “Tex” Keegan.
“I know you’re angry.” Tex drawled. “But come on, brother.”
I sighed. “I feel like an idiot. Let me be angry for a while so my ego can heal.”
“But for how long?”
“How the hell should I know, P?” I demanded. “What did she think I was going to do? Did she think if she told me she was leaving I’d try and stop her? I’m well aware I’ll never mean anything to her other than what I am, but the least she could have done was tell me.”
“There was—”
“I know you love her, Tex.” I cleared my throat. “But she scared me. I thought she was tied up somewhere or hurt and I couldn’t get to her. When all the time she was—I don’t want to talk about it. And I’m at work right now.”
I hung up.
“You’re going to have to face her at some point.”
“Yeah.” I muttered. “If she wants to talk to me, she’s going to have to come here and do it.”
I shoved some noodles into my mouth.
Once the day was over, I went home, stopping only to get some food. Though there was groceries at house, I wasn’t in the mood to do anything but drink a beer—or three—stuff my face then get some sleep.
My friends tried calling me again, but I ignored them.
True to form, Tex tried, and I turned off my phone.
The next day, still with my phone off, I’d stopped to pick up Beam and we were heading into downtown Bangkok when Beam gasped.
“Um—P?”
“Mm?” I checked my blind spot and switched lanes.
“Did you know you were missing?”
“What?” I asked.
Beam pointed and when I looked up, I had to quickly pull to the shoulder and stop. Somehow, my face was on all the digital billboards atop the buildings in the center of the city.
Shoving from the vehicle, I stayed on the side away from the traffic and pulled out my cell. I called the only person who could have done something like that.
“Moshi Moooosh!”