She laughed at something the other person said, and then pressed a hand to her chest like she was feeling for her own heartbeat.
“I miss you, too.”
For a moment, that natural light that seemed to accompany her everywhere dimmed. I thought that if I were to try to draw her now, I’d finally be able to capture her. It was the longing in her face. That’s what I’d been missing.
“Oh, you know me. I like to be the life of the party. Speaking of which, I should get back to it. Sorry I woke you up. Yeah. Yeah, I’ll call again soon.” She nodded, her bottom lip tucked between her teeth. She choked on a laugh that sounded closer to a sob. “Yeah, all the juicy stories. I promise. Yeah, good luck with the move. Everything is going to be great. I know it.”
She hung up, and stood staring at the phone for a few seconds. She looked as if all the energy had been siphoned out of her and she was running on empty.
She closed her eyes and tilted her head up toward the sky, letting her hand with the phone drop down to her side. She sucked in a few quick breaths like she was trying not to cry, and then abruptly dropped into a crouch.
In her short dress and heels, she looked as if she were trying to curl into a ball right there on the street. She rested her elbows on her knees and threaded her fingers through her hair, and I very nearly went to her.
I’d suspected something was wrong. Known it even. But could it be that simple? If she missed someone back home, why was she here? Why keep putting herself through all this?
I was dying to know.
Just when I was about to step out from the bus stop’s shadow, she stood, that empty expression gone from her face. She took a deep breath, shook her head, and pasted on a smile as if stepping onto a stage.
Then she turned and began walking again. I did what I always did. I followed.
When she approached the river and began walking down a ramp toward a giant boat, I sped up my walk. I was halfway down the ramp when she met who I assumed were bouncers, based on their dress and size. She opened a little black bag for them to inspect, and I joined the line behind her. There were two people between us, and by the time I walked onto the barge to discover a massive floating club, I’d lost her in the crowd.
Out on the river, it seemed about ten degrees cooler, but I took one look at the thicket of bodies and knew that coolness wasn’t going to last.
I donned a scowl, and began squeezing my way through the throngs of people. My little GPS app did jack shit in a place like this. It wasn’t exactly conducive to helping me find Kelsey in a sea of outrageously tall Serbians.
If I could just catch a glimpse of her . . . She should be easy to spot, but there were too many people.
After an hour of squeezing through nonexistent gaps on the dance floor, I started to worry. That phone call had done something to her. Made her emotional. And if I knew anything, it was that partying and emotions could be a combustible pair.
I checked my phone again, and as best as I could tell, Kelsey was still on the barge.
There were bar tables set up around the perimeters with waiters, and it was tempting to park myself there and wait. I edged closer to one of them, but by the look of it, you had to order drinks to keep the table. I didn’t trust myself to order a drink just for show.
But being on the perimeter, I caught a glimpse of one of the waitresses opening up a heavy velvet curtain to what I assumed was a VIP room. She pushed the curtain behind a hook to keep it open while she entered the room with a tray of drinks.
I caught my first glimpse of Kelsey.
She was dancing alone in front of a muscular guy with a permanent scowl. Her hands drifted through her hair, pulling it up and off her neck, and she carried on dancing as though she weren’t the only person in the room doing so. She crooked a finger at the angry dude, and though he leaned forward on his knees to look at her, he didn’t stand to dance.
Kelsey moved closer, walking two fingers across his wide shoulders to coax him into standing. He ran his hands up the back of her legs, gripping her thighs just below the short hem of her glittering dress.
I already hated him.
Eventually, Kelsey managed to charm him up from his seat, and she pulled him past the curtain toward the main dance floor.
She tugged on his hand, smiled, and then faced forward.
That was when her eyes locked on mine.
7
SHIT.
Her head tilted to the side, and her eyes squinted. I froze. She recognized me. That’s what that expression had to mean. Maybe she hadn’t been as trashed that night in the hostel showers as I thought.
She released the VIP guy’s hand and started down the small set of steps that led to the dance floor.
My heart didn’t hammer. It beat in slow, heavy beats like a bass drum. It had the same kind of echo, too. I could have turned away. It wouldn’t have been hard to melt into the sea of buzz cuts and slip off the boat. She’d be confused for a little while, but eventually she’d assume it was the alcohol or that she’d been imagining it.
That’s what I should have done.
Instead, I kept my feet planted. I pulled my hands from my pockets, flicking my fingers with anticipation. I wanted her to see me. If she saw me, I could talk to her. I wasn’t sure what I would say—what I could say that wouldn’t give away who I was and how much I knew about her. But I could finally get some answers. And maybe help give her some comfort, too.
She walked toward me slowly, one heeled foot in front of the other.
When she was a few feet away, she smiled and my heart abandoned it’s slow and steady beat.
This was stupid and crazy and ridiculous.
My body didn’t seem to care about those things.
I sucked in a breath as she stepped up to me and held it in . . . as she slid past me and leaned up to place a kiss on the cheek of an impossibly tall guy with short dark hair.
“Здраво!” The word she said sounded like zdrah-voh, and based on his reaction, I’d say it was a greeting.
I was positive when he returned, “Hello again, Kelsey.”
I stumbled back, trying to put a bit of distance between us, and tried to place the guy. I didn’t recognize him from the club the night before, so that meant she’d met him when I wasn’t around. Maybe at her hostel. Or earlier in the night when I’d lost her.
The two began talking, but I didn’t hear them over my own berating thoughts about my supreme idiocy.
She laughed, and the guy from VIP grabbed her elbow, tugging her away from the taller guy. I watched her introduce them, calm and cool as though VIP guy wasn’t squeezing her elbow so tightly that it looked painful.