Bumped - Completed Novel

Bumped - Chapter Ten

"Whoa! Take it easy Slugger. What's wrong with you?"

"I thought you were trying to break in."

"I left you a message telling you I was I coming by on Monday to start packing. I brought some extra boxes for you."

I yawned. "Oh, right. I forgot."

"You alright?"

"I'm cool."

He looked down at me. Eyes traveling over my pillow matted hair and wrinkled shorts and shirt. Him with his Nike warm-up pants and tank top looking like he just came off the tennis courts at a private club.

"Right." He walked into his room and tossed down the boxes.

I hurried to my room and closed the door. Macy, one of Nikki's executive assistants from the office, called me while I was checking my voicemail messages.

"Girl, where have you been? I've been calling you like a fool! Where are you?"

"I'm home, where else would I be?"

"Meet me at Tony Roma's at Universal City."

"Now?"

"There's some stuff going down. Just meet me over there 'kay?"

Driving from Culver City to North Hollywood was not on the agenda, but the need to know what people were saying about me in the office overrode all else.

I threw on some yoga pants and a loose fitting tee and left. Battling my way up Overland took forever. I listened to my voicemail messages. A few editors and producers that I knew called asking for exclusives about Diego, wanting to trade our professional relationship for a scoop. I'd rather have my wisdom teeth extracted without any drugs before I sat down for any interviews. A driver in front of me slammed on their brakes and I punched the horn a few times to voice my displeasure. The road was filled with stupid drivers. Traffic. Potholes being repaired. After exhausting my vast supply of curse words, I finally pulled into the parking garage at Universal. I was out of breath by the time I reached the restaurant. I didn't see Macy in the lobby; I peeked in the dining area and saw her at a table. Her long braids were tied back in a ponytail. I sat down in front of her and watched as she sipped on a Blue Romarita with Blue Curacao. She wore her usual utilitarian uniform of jeans and a t-shirt. A half-eaten platter of baby back ribs sat in front of her.

"You hungry?" she asked.

"Does Weight Watchers even have enough points to cover the cow you just devoured? Where's the menu?"

Macy flagged a waitress and I ordered the gulf grilled shrimp skewers. My mouth was watering as I said the words. I sipped the glass of water she left on the table.

"Girl, how can you come to Tony Roma's and not order the ribs?"

"Easy. I just did. What's so important that I had to meet you all the way over here?" I stifled a yawn from a soul sucking exhaustion. I wanted to go home and crawl back into bed and just sleep.

Macy leaned in close, one hand clutched around a rib. She dropped her voice and I could barely hear her over the clatter of plates and glasses and lunchtime conversation.

"You will not believe what's been going on in the office!" Macy was such a drama queen. What could have happened? "The office is tripping! Cameron's masters for the new CD are missing."

"Seriously?"

"And the track is on the radio, with that rapper out of the ATL, Strykker, rapping on it."

I snapped my fingers. "I think I heard it on the radio, I just couldn't figure out why I knew it. That's Cameron's Missed You track right?"