Chapter 24 It's Your Boyfriend's Fault
I blink up at Marcus. His words don’t make sense to me. What he is saying doesn’t make sense.
“Nora?” Marcus says, after I just stare at him for a minute.
“Sorry…” I mumble, also putting my mug down. “I don’t think I heard you right. Cause it… it sounded like you just said that David fucking fired me?”
“No, no, he definitely hasn’t done that.” Marcus rushes to say, his hands coming up defensively. “He just… thinks that you shouldn’t come to work for a bit.”
“ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!” I yell, his face turning into a grimace at my outburst. “That motherf–” I mutter to myself before running out of the kitchen. Heading to the bedroom, I scramble for my phone on the bedside table, rushing to unlock it and find David’s number.
It rings.
Then it clicks to voicemail.
I try again, but the same thing happens.
“MOTHERFUCKER!” I scream into the empty room, just as Marcus appears in my doorway.
“I said don’t be mad.” He points out. I whip round and point at him.
“Fuck off!” I spit. “What is he doing?”
“I assume it’s to do with your extracurricular activities.” He retorts.
My hand drops. Silence quickly fills the space as I realise that David must have told Marcus, before promoting him from my bodyguard to my babysitter.
Breathing in, I unsuccessfully reign in my anger, but I act as though I manage it. Then I turn to my closet and start pulling clothes out.
“What are you doing?” He asks.
“What does it look like? I need to speak to him.”
“You can’t–”
“He can’t fucking fire me over this.”
“I told you, he isn’t firing you.”
“You think I’m just having a week off, then going back into the office like nothing happened?” I ask pointedly, with my eyebrows raised at him.
His silence tells me that I’m right, so I just start pulling my clothes on.
Almost sniggering as Marcus’s hands fly to cover his eyes when I rip my T-shirt off, I calmly pull on the rest of my outfit, then slip past him to head to the door.
But he catches up to me once he realises I’ve walked off.
“Nora!” He calls down the hallway at me as I start pulling my shoes on. He takes one of them out of my hands. “You can’t go.”
“If he won’t answer my phone, how else am I supposed to talk to him?”
“He’s just upset right now. He needs time to cool off.”
“Well he can cool off after I tear him a new one for firing me over this. And then, he can cool off while I’m moving back to my own place.”
“You’re being ridiculous, it’s not safe–”
“I’m being ridiculous?! ME?! He’s got you keeping me in here, he’s taken away both of my incomes, and now he won’t even answer the phone to talk to me about it? I don’t think I’m the ridiculous one here.” I snap, snatching my shoe out of his hands and tugging it on.
Marcus doesn’t have a rebuttal, and he knows it.
So he just lets me storm to the door, pulling on my jacket as he dials a number. I wrench the door open before he calls my name again, and I turn round to see him holding the phone out to me. He pointedly looks down at it, and I step forward to take it from his hand.
David’s name is on the screen.
I hold it to my ear.
“You're a fucking asshole.” I say into the phone, my voice shaking with anger.
“Stay in the house.” His voice sounds from the other end, completely ignoring me.
It makes me mad.
“So you answer Marcus’s calls, but not mine?”
“I’m not asking. Stay in the house.” He repeats.
“What the fuck makes you think I’m going to listen to you?” I spit, marching away from the door, which Marcus gently closes. “You drag me out of my house, cancel my work at the club, now you won’t even let me work at the office. You really think you have any more ownership over me?”
“You think you have the right to be angry right now?!” He counters. “After you lied to me for weeks?”
I stay silent.
“The only reason I’m not letting you leave is because Trent’s boss is still looking for you. So stay in the fucking house.”
With that, the line clicks, as he hangs up.
Inhaling deeply, I put Marcus’s phone gently on the hallway table, then storm off to my room. Once I close the bedroom door behind me, I call Sel.
Thirty minutes later, an incredibly sleep deprived, incredibly pissed off Selena is pounding on the door to David’s apartment.
Marcus looks at me with panic in his eyes as the sound echoes through the apartment, but I just lean on the doorframe of the kitchen with a very blasé expression, shrugging at him as I spoon some more cereal into my mouth.
Marcus turns to the door, his hand going to the gun on his belt, and he steps towards it, looking through the peephole. He shoots me a glare before opening the door.
“Marcus Hale you are going to tell me RIGHT now why you are keeping my best friend hostage!” Sel yells as she storms in, walking Marcus right up against the wall.
I narrow my eyes at her use of his middle name, because I’m not too sure when they have been alone long enough to find out that information, but my confusion quickly morphs into smugness as I watch the redhead barely come up to Marcus’s shoulders, and yet, Marcus is cowering under her wrath.
“Nora, pack your shit.” She says, directing it towards me, and I quickly grab the bag that I place just behind the bedroom door, having packed while I was waiting for her. When I come back to the hallway, Sel has her arms folded over her chest while Marcus is trying to reason with her.
“It’s just following orders, he’s upset and–”
“I don’t give a shit. I’ve let this weird situation go on long enough with no questions. I don’t want her to be kidnapped by some psycho either, but if he won’t even speak to her, then you can bet your ass that she has no need to stay here anymore.”
“She needs to be safe, he’d–”
“Do you know how much security I have at the club? She will be safe with me, this time without him being an awkward asshole, and without you hovering around her 24/7! She made a mistake, but she does not deserve to be holed away in some overindulgent, arrogant, shitty apartment! Nora, let’s go.”
Marcus doesn’t reply to Sel, he just stares down at her with wide eyes. Shocked that she is so fired up at him, but it doesn’t surprise me. This is relatively tame for her. I’ve seen Sel blow up completely, and she is holding it back right now.
I slip past them to the door, and Sel follows closely behind me.
The walk down to the car is silent. The doorman opens the door politely, even though I can hear the crackle of his radio, telling me that Marcus is already talking to him.
Once I’ve shut the car doors, and settled into the passenger seat of Sel’s car, she puts both her hands on the steering wheel and takes a deep breath in.
“So, you and Marcus, huh?” I ask, with a slight smirk as I look at her. Her cheeks instantly go pink. “The middle name gave it away.”
“Dammit.” She mutters, turning the car on and starting to drive. “We’ve been texting ever since he asked for my number a few weeks ago.”
“As part of the bodyguard duties, yeah yeah of course.” I smile. “I know it’s not his fault by the way.”
“Good. Cause it isn’t. It’s your boyfriend’s fault.”
“Ha! Hardly think that’s the right term to use at the moment.” I scoff.
“We’ll see.” She says coyly, turning down the street to the club. “Nico is coming to stay with you at the club, I really need to get home and sleep. Two hours. TWO HOURS NORA! That’s how long I was in bed before you called me!”
“I knowwwww!” I whine, putting on a dramatic pout. “I’m sorry!” She laughs. “I just didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t stay there after finding out he fired me.”
“I don’t think he has. Not yet anyway.”
“Either way, I have no job at the minute and he’s pissed at me. So what good would it have done to stay there?”
“True.” She agrees, pulling into the underground car park. “Reckon Marcus’s told him you’ve left yet?”
“I’m pretty sure he did before we even stepped foot out the building. I’m surprised he hasn’t already–” I stop talking when the buzz of my phone echoes through the car. “I stand corrected.”
I pull it out of my pocket and see David’s name on the screen. I press ignore.
“Not gonna talk to him? I thought that’s what you wanted,” She asks as I start getting out of the car.
“After all that? No thanks. If he can be an asshole, then I will be too.” I reply, seeing my phone buzz again with another call from him. I press ignore again. “This’ll be a fun day. I’ll see you later.” I smile down at her before shutting the door, and watching her drive off.
I put the code into the keypad for the lift that will take me directly to the office, and step in.
As the doors close, I wonder how long I can ignore David for. And how long I want to ignore him for.