Free Web NovelChapter 86: MISSED CALLS
KEISHA’S POV
I was halfway through making dinner when Lyra called.
I wedged the phone between my ear and shoulder and kept stirring. "Hey."
"Hey." Her voice was familiar and immediately made me feel good. "Am I interrupting?"
"Cooking." I laughed. "Talk to me."
"What are you making?" She asked.
"Pasta." I said. "Your recipe."
A pause followed. "You never make my recipe." She said. "You say the garlic is too much."
"The garlic is too much." I admitted. "I reduced it."
"Then it’s not my recipe." She said. "It’s your version of my recipe."
"It’s an improvement." I laughed a bit.
"It’s a betrayal." She chuckled. "How are you?"
"Good." I said. "Work has been busy. My supervisor is retiring."
"The stern one?" She yawned slightly. "The one who looked at you like you were not supposed to be there when you first arrived?"
"She grew on me." I smiled slightly even though she couldn’t see me. "We’re planning a send off."
"That’s nice." She said. "How’s everything else?"
"Fine." I nodded.
She was quiet for a moment. "You sound tired." She said. "Not normal kinda tired. If you’re carrying anything, you can tell me."
"I’m not carrying anything." I whispered.
"Okay." She caved, but her tone was glaringly just one of defeat to not push.
"Lyra." I started.
"I’m not saying anything." She said. "I’m just noting what I noticed." freewebnovёl.ƈom
"I’m fine." I assured her.
Lyra laughed, the sound low and soft. "Completely fine." She huffed. "I believe you entirely."
"Thank you." I said.
"Without reservation." She teased.
"Lyra." I let out a laugh.
"I’m being supportive." She said. "This is what that sounds like."
"It sounds like sarcasm." I almost rolled my eyes again.
"They’re related." She said. "How’s Nadia?"
"Currently in a fight with her father about money she transferred from his account." I sighed.
A pause followed again as she seemed to think about that. "She transferred money from the Alpha’s account?" She asked.
"Her allowance." I said. "Apparently."
"And he’s angry about his daughter taking her own allowance." She guessed.
"It’s complicated." I straightened.
"Those two." She said, with a fondness that was so specifically Lyra. "Do you remember your birthday? When she convinced him to let us stay out until midnight and then fell asleep at half ten in the car?"
I laughed properly. "He drove us around for two hours." I said. "Just so she could sleep."
"Without saying a single word about it." She laughed also.
"Just drove." I agreed.
We talked for another twenty minutes about her work, a trip she was considering, a book she had read twice and was still undecided about.
By the time we said goodbye I was smiling. "Call me more." She whispered.
"You call me." I said. "You’re the older one."
"Barely." She chuckled.
"Three years." I reminded her.
"Barely." She said again. "I mean it. Call me."
"I’ll call." I assured.
She hung up after that.
I stood in my kitchen with the phone in my hand and the pasta on the stove. She could sense that I was thinking about something.
She always knew.
I went back to stirring.
When the pasta was done, I plated it and took it to the sitting room and reached for my phone to put something on in the background.
Seven missed calls from Nadia.
Oh.
I stared at them.
All within the last forty minutes while I was on with Lyra.
I called back immediately.
She answered on the first ring. "Finally." She groaned.
"I was on with Lyra." I said. "What happened?"
"Can I come over?" She asked.
I looked at my plate. "Now?"
"Yes now." She huffed. "I’ve had a whole entire day and I need to be somewhere that isn’t this house."
"What happened?" I asked.
"I transferred my allowance." She said.
"I know. From his account. I heard from the accountant." I deadpanned.
"It’s my allowance." She said. "That’s the point of an allowance. It’s mine."
"How much?" I asked.
Silence.
"Nadia." I called out her name.
"A reasonable amount." She finally said. "For my needs."
"How much." I asked again.
She told me and I blinked at the wall. "Nadia that’s—"
"My needs are considerable." She hissed. "Can I come over?"
"Come over." I sighed.
She arrived twenty minutes later with her overnight bag and the look of someone who had been genuinely wronged and needed a witness.
She sat at my kitchen table and I heated up another portion of pasta and put it in front of her and she ate it and started talking before she had finished the first bite.
"He said I don’t have a job of my own." She said. "Those exact words. Like it’s my fault that being his daughter is a full time occupation."
"To be fair—" I started.
"Don’t." She said. "Not tonight."
"Okay." I raised a hand in surrender.
"I told him I’d leave." She said. "And I left." She pointed her fork at me. "I stand by it."
"You came to another building on his estate." I raised a brow. "You didn’t exactly leave."
"Your house." She looked betrayed at my words.
"On his land." I smiled slightly .
"Details." She ate more pasta. "This is good. Did you reduce the garlic?"
"It’s my version of Lyra’s recipe." I nodded.
"Tell her I prefer it." She said.
"She’ll be devastated." I laughed.
"She’ll live." She shrugged and sat back. "Can I stay tonight?" ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
"Yes." I nodded.
"And maybe—"
"One night at a time." I wagged a finger at her.
She smiled. "Fair." She picked up her fork again. "What do you make at the communications office? Salary wise."
I looked at her. "Why?"
"I was thinking." She paused. "About what Dad said. About having a job." She tilted her head. "Is the pay good?"
I told her.
She stared at me. "A month?" She asked.
"Yes." I nodded.
"Keisha." She said. "That’s meager. For the work you do?" She shook her head. "When the new supervisor comes in you should ask for a raise."
"I’ve barely been there a year." I laughed at her suggestion.
"So?" She said. "Value doesn’t have a time requirement. You’re good at what you do. You fixed that report nobody could find in five minutes. You should be paid like someone who does that." She pointed at me. "Ask for a raise."
"I’ll think about it." I told her.
"You’ll think and talk yourself out of it." She said, "Don’t think. Just ask."
I looked at her quietly. "The send off party for Mrs Velaris." I said. "Do you want to come?"
Her whole face shifted. "Yes." She said immediately. "Obviously yes." She pointed at me again. "Is Evelyn going to be there?"
"She works there." I tilted my head. "Obviously."
"Good." She said, "I want to meet her."
"Why?" I said.
"She sounds like someone I’d like." She said simply. "You talk about her a lot."
I looked at her as she went back to her pasta.
We cleaned up together after and she changed into sleep clothes she had brought in her bag because she had clearly been planning to stay before she even called me but I didn’t point that out because it wasn’t worth it and also because it made me smile.
We got into bed and she talked for another ten minutes about her father and the allowance before her words started droning off.
I lay there and looked at her sleeping face in the dark.
This girl who showed up at my door with her overnight bag and her dramatic exit from her father’s house.
Who had brought a smile to my face again tonight.
I smiled at her.
Then I closed my eyes.
