“This is Dave.” His voice came through the speaker, making my heart rate skyrocket.
I looked at Jessa; she stared at me, and in that brief moment of eye contact, I felt her unwavering support. Either that or it was when she placed her hand over mine. Either way, I had no doubt that she had my back a hundred and ten percent.
“Hello?” he asked again. I’d clearly spent too long composing myself.
“Uh, yeah…hi. Is this Dave?”
“Yes.” He slowly dragged out that word, the way you would when insinuating that the person you were speaking to was not very bright. Then again, I think I’d proven how not bright I was when it came to Tasha. “What can I do for you?”
“I’m sorry…what I meant to ask was, is this Dave, Tasha Lewis’s best friend?”
There was a long beat of silence—which did nothing to help my racing heart. Then he softly cleared his throat and said, “Yes, that’s me. Who am I speaking with?”
I was terrified that as soon as he knew it was me, I’d lose my chance of getting ahold of Tasha, but I didn’t have a realistic lie lined up, so my only choice was to tell him the truth. “Jacoby Abbott, I live—”
“I know who you are. What do you want?” At least he didn’t hang up. I’d never been more relieved.
I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and just went for it. “I’m trying to get ahold of Tasha, but her phone is turned off.”
“No, it’s not,” he argued, but then he sang the familiar ah-ha tune. “I’m assuming you were calling the number she used while pretending to be Tiffany? Yeah, that’s not her phone number. She left that behind when she came home. Why do you suddenly want to talk to her now? Why didn’t you do that before she left?”
Part of me hated the interrogation, but a bigger part of me was beyond happy to know that she had someone who loved her and protected her as much as he did. “Listen, Dave…I didn’t know she was leaving. I assumed she’d stay until filming wrapped, so I thought I still had time to figure things out with her. I was just waiting until the smoke cleared.”
“So you thought you could call me, and I’d just hand her over?”
“No, nothing like that at all.” I released a rush of air and fought the desire to drop my forehead to the table. “You’re kind of like my last-ditch effort. I’ve called almost every gaming store in Glenndale looking for her.”
“That was a waste of time,” he said before I could get that far. “She doesn’t work there anymore.”
“That’s what I was told, but they wouldn’t tell me why.”
“Can you hold on for just a second?” He barely waited for me to agree before putting the call on hold. Music played for about a minute before he came back on the line. “Sorry about that. The kids were about to come inside from the basketball court, and I didn’t want to get interrupted. I’m in the office now, so I have a couple more minutes.”
Oddly enough, he didn’t sound angry with me. If anything, he spoke to me the same way he always had—like a friend. Or at the very least, like someone who was important to his best friend.
“So, about Tasha’s job…” He told me about how they had to replace her because her boss couldn’t manage the store alone—apparently, something Tasha was able to do without a problem. And that when she returned, they didn’t have room on their payroll for two assistant managers, so rather than kick out the guy who’d replaced her, they gave her a choice: transfer to another location or stay where she was but as a part-time, hourly associate.
Jessa must’ve noticed that my blood was boiling because she got up from the table to get me something to drink. Unfortunately, she returned with a glass of water, not a bottle of liquor. If I were Tasha, I’d have asked for a hot chocolate with a shot of whiskey and a large pizza.
The only thing that eased my mind was knowing that she at least had some money after being here for over a month. From what she’d told me, it would be enough to hold her over for a bit. Without that, I didn’t know if she’d be able to afford to live. She’d given everything in her savings to Dave to