It turns out there’s actually a fair bit of admin to do when you quit your job on the spot, but after spending an hour and a half in the HR office with Amy, of all people, I was finally free to go. They agreed to put me on a month’s garden leave with full pay, which should help with bridging the gap while I look for something else.
I know Mina works with a lot of our freelance writers, so I’m just thinking about asking her to put some feelers out when I swing open my front door, and… there she is. Sitting on my sofa. She has a key to my flat, so that in itself is not too strange, but I wasn’t expecting her today.
And I definitely wasn’t expecting Elias Moreno to be sitting next to her.
‘Lucy Lou,’ Mina singsongs, like everything about this is completely normal. ‘Thank God you’re here.’ She eases herself up from the sofa and gingerly embraces me. When she lets me go, there’s a deep groove of concern between her brows. ‘Whatthe hell happened? I called theGazettewhen you didn’t answer your phone five times in a row, and Lucas said you’d quit?’
I nod. ‘I had that meeting with Jon this morning.’
She winces as she pulls away from me. We’d spoken about it on Monday– about Jon and Amy, about the way he tried to push me to take the story in a different direction, and about how uncomfortable he’d made me feel the whole time, but particularly at the gig.
‘It went badly, I take it.’
I almost laugh. I definitely haven’t had the time to process all of this yet. ‘He said my article was bland and unprintable, then threw this trashy exposé on Bram in front of me and told me he was going to publish it in my name.’ I catch sight of Elias over Mina’s shoulder and lower my voice a little. ‘It was horrible, Meens. He kneweverything.’
Her eyes narrow. ‘Urgh, what a snake.’
‘The snakiest,’ I agree with a nod. ‘So I told him I was leaving, and that if he printed a single word in my name which I hadn’t actually written, I was going to set my lawyers on him.’ I grin. It is actually kind of funny now I think about it. ‘You know, those fictional lawyers I don’t have.’
Mina bursts out laughing before she winces again and clutches at her side. ‘Lou, you absolute legend,’ she says, gritting her teeth through the pain. ‘It’s about time someone called him on his shit.’
Behind her, Elias clears his throat pointedly, and Mina rolls her eyes. ‘Oh, yeah, also, Elias is here.’ She gestures to him without looking round and I hear him grumble quietly to himself as he straightens on my sofa. ‘I don’t know why he showed up at my door and not yours,’ she says, ‘but he wants to speak to you.’
I hear a deep sigh from my sofa. I don’t know how long these two have been here, but it seems like it’s long enough for themto be fed up with each other. Unless there’s another kind of dynamic going on here. Mina hasn’t mentioned anything.
‘I didn’t know where shelived, Mina,’ he mutters, stumbling on her name like it pains him to even say it. ‘I’m immortal, not psychic.’
‘Yeah, well I’mverymortal,’ she snaps back, ‘and I’m recovering from emergency surgery, so many thanks for dragging me out of my sick bed.’
I fight a smile. I’ve never heard Mina talk to anyone like that before. She can be a ball buster, granted, but even so, she’s normally as upbeat as me. Maybe it’s the painkillers the doctor has her on.
Elias mumbles a sorry that doesn’t feel even halfway genuine before he stands, gesturing to the sofa like he’s summoning us. ‘Can we talk?’
I nod. It’s all I can manage. As if this day couldn’t get any stranger, now an actual celebrity– and alleged ancient vampire– is standing in my flat while my usually amiable and cheerful best friend glares at him.
I’m expecting to wake up from this weird-as-hell dream at any moment. But as that has yet to happen, I nod towards the sofa, and we all sit down.
I sneak a look at Elias before he starts to speak. He looks different up close, or maybe in real life. Other than the other night, from across a dim, crowded bar, I’ve only ever seen him on the covers of magazines, dramatically lit in all kinds of extravagant poses. The man sitting on my sofa doesn’t particularly look like a rockstar or a creature of the night. His low-slung jeans and threadbare T-shirt are a far cry from his flamboyant stage outfits, and those trademark dark curls are messier– more lived in.
But now that I know how old he is, I can kind of see it. Beneath all his millennial trappings, he’s classically handsome–the kind of man that a Renaissance artist might have carved out of marble.
‘I’ve come on a mercy mission,’ he says, light brown eyes serious and fixed on me.
My brows pull into a frown. ‘For Bram? Did he send you?’
I’m annoyed by how much I want that to be true. But Elias shakes his head.
‘No,’ he says seriously. ‘For me.’
My frown deepens. I’m not following.
‘He’s miserable,’ Elias continues, ‘and it’s driving me up the wall. I’ve been trying to cheer him up, but it’s been two full days now, and if it carries on I’ll be sorely tempted to eat a bulb of garlic and then go lie in the midday sun.’
A surprised laugh hoots out of me, but when I look back at Elias, it’s clear he’s not joking.
‘I don’t fly back out to rejoin the tour until Saturday morning.’ He reaches up to smooth his hair, though it has absolutely no effect on the wild curls. ‘Saturday morning, Lucy. That’s three more days of this hell.’
He leans back against the overstuffed cushions on the back of the sofa and shoots me a mournful look. ‘I tried to talk to him, but he’s convinced that he’s doing the rightthing. Saving you from him, or whatever grand, chivalrous thing he thinks he’s doing.’