Page 97 of Pure Silence

Several of the patrons at the gym had commented on his viral fame, and many confessed they hadn’t known who he was before. It was fun signing autographs for everyone even if he was sure they were going to end up on Ebay, and he could pretend he was famous again for a little while. Despite Florence’s incredible expectations, Goldie was certain that this wasn’t going to last.

It was snowing again, but even the cold weather couldn’t dampen Goldie’s good mood as he walked to his car.

Day would be waiting for him, smiling and happy, no doubt with a new sweater or maybe he’d finally finished his surprise scarf. Goldie was going to stop by his cell phone provider’s store so he could surprise Day with a new phone of his own.

Oh, shit. He still wanted to get Day a laptop too.

Mind buzzing with the errands he needed to run before he could go home, he didn’t notice the two men trying to flag him down as he opened his car door.

“Hey! Goldilocks! Is that you?” a tall man wearing an orange parka shouted.

“Pour some sugar! Hey!” hollered a shorter man in a navy coveralls.

Goldie stopped when he realized they were talking to him, and he offered a friendly smile. “Yeah, hey. Thanks.”

Acknowledging them apparently gave them the courage to run over, both of them grinning wide as they offered their gloved hands to shake Goldie’s.

“Wow! Holy shit, it really is you,” the tall man gushed. “Glorious Goldie!”

“Are you gonna go to the Ballroom Blitz?” the shorter one asked. “Come on. You’ve gotta go! We’re trying to save up for tickets and shit so we can fly out there to Vegas and see you!”

“Uh.” Goldie tried to keep smiling. “Well, GW hasn’t officially invited me yet, but hey, we’ll see, guys. Anything could happen.”

Nearly in perfect unison, they both asked, “Can we please have your autograph?”

“Sure thing.” Goldie glanced inside his car, but he didn’t have anything to sign or even a pen.

The tall man had a receipt from a fast food restaurant and the short one found a permanent marker in one of his coverall pockets.

Goldie signed both ends of the receipt, tore it half, and then presented each piece to them. “There you go, guys. You have a good night now!”

“You too!” the tall man said.

“Say hi to Day for us!” said the short man.

Goldie froze. “Excuse me?”

“I said, have a nice day!” the short man said with an unflinching smile.

Goldie got into his car and quickly left. He hadn’t even decided on a destination. He just wanted to get the hell away from whoever those men were. He knew what the hell he’d heard, and it stung and drove his adrenaline up as only a fucking threat could.

He had no idea who the men were, but they were making themselves very clear—they knew where Goldie worked, and they knew he was going home to Day.

It had to be because of Michael.

He quickly admonished himself for leaving so fast. He should have pressured those assholes to tell him what the fuck was going on and find out who sent them. He had his cell phone right there in his pocket. He could have taken pictures to send to Detective Alvarez to see if he knew who they were.

Fuck, fuck,fuck.

Stuck on autopilot, he found that he was already halfway home before remembering he’d wanted to make those stops for Day.

Fuck.

Now he just wanted to get home and make sure Day was okay.

There was also a lingering fear that Day may have had to do something to defend himself if anyone had tried to break into the apartment, and suddenly the very good week didn’t feel so good. Goldie had repaired the door and put a new chain and deadbolt on himself so as to not tip off his landlord to the damage, but he knew that wouldn’t be enough to stop someone if they really wanted to get in.

Even as his hips screamed in complaint, Goldie raced up the stairs when the elevator took too long. He sprinted down the hall to the door, knocking frantically with one hand while he struggled to get his key out with the other. “Day? Hey! Baby, you in there?”