Not Looking for Love: Episode 6 (A New Adult Contemporary Romance Novel) by Lena Bourne Read Free Book Online

I'm about to see Scott sleeping next to me, because my dream that he'd come back was that real. If I concentrate I can still feel them now.
    "It's not dating if you just call him and talk about those complicated legal issues you're both so interested in," Phillipa says.
    I shrug and wrap up the rest of my taco up. I can eat it later, once my stomach settles.
    I can't sleep when we get back to the house, and I can't really study, but I try anyway, because burying myself in a pile of work is probably the best cure right now. Phillipa would call it avoidance, but she's not, most likely because she's afraid I might lose it at any moment.

    I get the call I've been dreading on Tuesday. Until then I could blissfully pretend I'm not doing anything wrong, not working for a lunatic Serbian mob boss called Vlado. Pretend that Gail and me just had a little argument. A misunderstanding.
    "It's on for tomorrow night," Mike tells me. "Someone'll pick you up at six then they'll tell you what to do."
    I don't really remember what I did for the rest of Tuesday, or on Wednesday before six.
    But at five forty five PM I'm down in the street. The wind's blowing at like 100 miles per hour, and all I can think of is Gail. How her hair would look flapping in this wind, soft and silky, her cheeks red from the cold.  
    "You coming in or what?" a guy asks, leaning across the inside his car and pushing open the passenger door. It's the guy I asked whether he was hitting on me, and I see it as just another example of how things always go wrong for me.
    I climb in and slam the door shut with too much force, making him wince. "You wanna watch that?"
    "I've never broken a car door yet," I snap, because people who are oversensitive about slamming car doors too hard really annoy me.  
    Something starts beeping like crazy as we drive off, and the guy's eyeing me pointedly now like I'm doing it.
    "Put your seat belt on," he finally says. I shrug and do it. The beeping stops immediately.  
    "Where are we going?" I ask, after we pass the exit Mike took when he drove me to the warehouse.  
    "Jersey," the guy says, extending his right hand to me. "I'm Greg, by the way."
    I shake hands. "Scott."
    "I know."
    "It was the thing to say, Greg." I turn and stare out the window. Twilight is falling, and everything looks two-dimensional like I'm just watching it on screen. Like it's not actually my life.
    "So what's the job?" I ask, barely recognizing my own voice. Maybe if I looked in the mirror, I wouldn't recognize my face either.  
    "It's more of a collection tonight, really. Getting an Audi off some impound lot. I'm coming with you for back-up."
    "I'm gonna need back-up?" I don't like doing any job without obsessing over it for at least a week in advance. But this will work too. Whatever.
    "It's an in and out thing," Greg explains. "I'll get you into the lot, you take the car and follow me."
    "How do you expect me to follow after this slow ass ride?" I ask. It's a nice car, a black Mustang, but the way he's driving, it might as well belong to some old lady. "We'll just get caught."
    He chuckles, pulling a pack of cigarettes from him pocket. "We got some time." He offers me one, but I shake my head and he doesn't press it this time. "You just make sure to keep up once it's on."
    The hard ball of nerves starts forming in my stomach as soon as we get off the expressway. It's full dark now, and we're somewhere the fuck out in Jersey. But it's only just past eight, it can't be time yet.
    Greg pulls into the parking lot of a diner. "We have a few hours to kill."  
    "How many?" I ask, getting out of the car. My hands are shaking, nerves over knowing next to nothing about this job catching up.
    "Two, maybe three," Greg says and locks the car.
    "I hope you'll at least tell me which car to take," I mutter at his back as he starts walking towards the diner.  
    He laughs outright. "You are funny. Don't worry about any of that. This one is simple."
    I'm dreading the wait more