Chapter 16
Valencia
If I thought Sophia’s ignorance to the waitress was surprising, the way she left the food untouched was far more astonishing.
Sophia’s eyes continued to grow more and more wide as I explained, or failed to explain, how I let Ian in my home.
“He cooked for you?” She asked for what felt like the hundredth time.
“Yes, Sophia”
“And he also did the chores?”
I picked a sandwich and took a bite because now I was getting annoyed and food seemed to be the best way to distract me.
“Yes”
“And he showed up every night at your home without missing a day?”
“Yep”
Sophia pushed her chair away and got up because she had to pace through the cafe to get her shit together.
“Girl, how can you just hand over your home keys to some random stranger?” she huffed while grabbing a sandwich as well.
“You asked me to go there. You practically had me at gunpoint,” I frowned.
“Yeah, I asked you to go and meet someone. Not bring him home the very first night.”
The more she spoke, the stupider I felt. Had I really been that innocent and naïve?
“But he didn’t harm me. I am sitting in front of you all in one piece, right?”
She placed her hands on her hips and glared at me.
“What if this person is some serial killer or a psychopath?” She asked, and I stared at her in confusion.
“”Maybe you didn’t hear me the first time. I am alive and unharmed.” I reminded her, and she shook her head.
“So what? You work in the goddamn bureau and you let a random stranger in your house?”
“Hey, you don’t work at the bureau, but you also go on blind dates.”
She pulled the chair, apparently tired with the pacing and sat beside me.
“Yeah, there is a difference. I dont tell them about my pitiful, sad life in the first meeting itself.”
“I didn’t either,” I informed and finished my second sandwich.
Instead of worrying about how to find if Ian was in danger, now I was worrying if he was the person I thought him to be in the first place.
“Look, serial killers don’t go at random girls’ homes and cook and clean for them.”
1/3
his name?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but couldn’t come up with anything.
I struggled to give her a response.
“I…have his name and number. I know he works in some secret operation at the Bureau. And that I know I can trust him.”
Sophia almost spat the coffee out and gave me a disbelieving look.
“You trust him?”
I nodded.
Even if I had met him in the most bizarre circumstances, I know I trusted him. He had offered me not just my first orgasm but also listened to me grumble about my workplace, provided comfort when I needed the most, and also made me look up to returning home from work for the first time in years.
Sophia had nothing to worry about career and life choices because she belonged to a rich family and was only trying to experience what it felt to be independent.
She then slapped her hand on the table as if she had finally figured out the mystery.
“Fuck! How did I not notice this before?” she said to herself and nodded as if that was the answer she had been looking for.
“What do you mean?” I inquired.
“You told him about your job, about where you work, your boss and stuff, right?”
“Yes, and he told me a bit about his work situation as well.”
She then pulled me closer and lowered her voice as if she was revealing a big secret.
**Maybe he did want to build trust and kill you in cold blood, but then when you revealed that you work at the Bureau, he realized he had picked a wrong target. So he made up some lie of having to leave town and disappeared so that you wouldn’t trace him back and he can continue to kill innocent girls.”
“That is the craziest theory you have invented today,” I commented and glanced at my phone again.
There was no call or message from him yet. My earlier messages had not been delivered either.
That was strange.
“….and he wanted you to have a soft corner for him, not suspicion, so he made this whole act of having to go somewhere with no network or something.”
“You should really write some thriller scripts for a movie because that is wild,” I suggested, and she gave me a cheeky smile.
“As if I had not noticed the million times your gaze went to your phone already.”
I looked away, and she grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me.
“Wake up, Valencia. That was just a hookup. And it might have turned into a nightmare, but by the grace of the Goddess, you
are fine.”
2/3
Chapter 16
My mind and heart didn’t want to believe it.
“I heard the sounds, Soph. It did feel like he was in danger,” I argued, and she gave me a look my mother would when I did something wrong.
“There is only one way to make you come out of your high fever dream, Val,” Sophia gave me a pitiful look and added,
“You said you met him at Wolves and Whiskey, right?”
I nodded.
“Then maybe that is the place we can go look for him?” She offered and for the first time, I didn’t feel like involving her in my stupid plans wasn’t a good idea.
“We should?” I asked, my heart beating a bit faster.
I had not really thought about going there to check on him. My mind had been too occupied with worrying about his well being.
“Yes,” Sophia answered, but I had already gotten up from my seat and hugged her.
“You are the bestest friend ever”
She gave me a side eye.
“Yeah, say that when I prove it to you that your lovely Ian is a psychotic serial killer.”
She grabbed the car keys, and we both got into my car.
It was almost noon when we stepped out of the cafe.
And I was praying to the Goddess to not let Sophia be right.
