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Chapter 3

Three

“Evelicious, I came as soon as Robstar called!” Her voice is high, but not annoying. I can’t place the accent, but the formal tone accompanying the bizarre nicknames is completely at odds with the tiny woman who stops in front of my mum, gathering up her hands in both her own. What I expected to see was an older lady in a twin set, blue rinse, clutching her pearls. I blink, and try to school my face, but seriously I could not have been more shocked when the woman—no girl, really—rushed in. She can’t be that much older than me, sporting platform knee-high goth boots, black fishnet stockings, and a black skater dress, with half-blue, half-green hair up in pigtails. Is she wearing a bondage harness and suspenders?

“Oh, Abigail, it’s just dreadful!” Mum breaks down, clearly relieved by this strange person’s presence.

Abigail wraps my mother up in her arms, though she has to get up on her tippy toes, and her arms barely make it to Mum’s back to start soothing strokes. “Everything will be okay,” she croons.

I glance at Robert, who is still standing in the doorway, watching on. He can see this, too, right? Did he spike my coffee?

“Forgive me, Ari darling, I just breezed on in and took over without even so much as a ‘How do you do?’”

Turning back, I’m met with Abigail’s huge blue eyes looking up at me. I’m sitting on a stool and still a good head taller than her. Seriously, she has to be a hallucination.

I look back in my coffee cup, picking it up and sniffing at the empty mug. Not that I would know what drugs would smell like. There wouldn’t be a smell anyway, right? That’s why drug cartels transport their gear in crates with coffee beans—to mask the smell.

I am about to accuse Robstar of roofieing me, when my mum interrupts my spiral. “Aria, this is my boss, Abigail. She is responsible for organising our move, the house...”

“Sure... hi,” I say slowly, still not sure this is entirely real or if I am hallucinating.

“After all you’ve endured today, maybe we should let you both rest.”

“No, I’m fine, really,” I insist, wanting to get to the bottom of all this.

“Nonsense. Why don’t you take a seat in the dining room, and I’ll order some food, so neither of you have to worry about cooking. There’s a wonderful restaurant not far from here that does a simply divine wonton soup. That’s your favourite, right? Evie told me.”

Evie? My very prim and proper mother has never been called Evie, let alone Evelicious . I look over at my mum—who seems completely calm now that this little whirlwind weirdo has arrived, although she is still looking quite pale and drawn—and try to take my queues from her. “Sure, that sounds great. Thank you.”

“Robstar, why don’t you take Ari to the front window so she can confirm that none of the team out there were responsible for today’s events, then settle her into the dining room, while I speak with Evie and order the food.” It wasn’t really a question.

Robert bows his head slightly before gesturing for me to follow him out.

“Did you drug me, Robstar ?” I ask as we walk out of the kitchen.

He stops and laughs at me. Not exactly the reaction I was expecting. “Abigail has that effect on people. But, no, I did not drug you.”

He leads me to the large front bay window and pulls the curtain back. “Do you see him out there?”

I carefully run my eyes over the team out the front of my house, packing up equipment with military precision. They are all male, young, and extremely fit. My creep is not amongst them.

“No. He’s not one of them,” I confirm.

Letting the curtain drop closed, Robert again gestures to follow him to the dining room. He pulls out a chair for me and then sits opposite once I am settled.

“Rough day?”

“You could say that,” I reply. Understatement of the century.

“Wanna talk about it?”

“Nope,” I say, popping the p.

“You will both be safe now that the security system is up and running. I can get the live feed of all the cameras set up on your phone, and turn on the alerts, as well as the panic button.” He holds out his hand expectantly.

“I left my phone up in my room,” I say, starting to rise.

“No, stay. I will go and get it for you. Abigail told you to rest. If that’s okay with you?”

“Thank you for asking,” I reply. “It’s on my desk, just inside the door.”

Robert leaves, and I just take a moment. What a day indeed.

He returns a few minutes later, with a stormy look on his face, but holds my phone out to me as soon as he is close enough. “If you could put in your code?”

“It’s—” I start.

“You should know better than to tell anyone the security code to unlock your phone,” he admonishes, but the twinkle in his eye tells me he isn’t really mad.

I take the phone, putting in my super-secret code—Mum’s birthday—and hand the phone back. “Pretty sure you could hack it in about five minutes, if you wanted to,” I say.

“Two, if I am having an off day.” He winks whilst his fingers fly over the screen.

“Are you single, Robert?”

His hand stills instantly, and he looks back up at my face in shock.

“Oh, no. Not for me!” I say quickly, realising what he thought I meant. “For my mum.”

“Your mother is not the type of lady to go for a grunt like me,” he says, surprisingly quietly.

“She doesn’t date much, so even I don’t know what she is attracted to, but you seem sweet, and aren’t too harsh on the eyes for an old guy,” I say with a smile.

“That is kind of you to say, Aria. But I don’t think I am her type.”

“Don’t know if you don’t try.”

He chuckles to himself, clearly dismissing the absurd idea, and his attention goes back to my phone screen.

He’s running me through the settings, and how to use the panic button when Mum and Abigail enter a little later, bags of incredible smelling food, bowls, and chopsticks in their arms.

“How about you ladies set all of this out, while I have a quick word with Robstar?” Abigail says. But she doesn’t wait for a response before she and Robert walk out, closing the door behind them.

“You look better, Mum.” The colour is back in her cheeks, even if she does still look exhausted.

“Having Abigail and Robert here is a comfort.”

“Speaking of Robert...” I start, wiggling my eyebrows when she looks up at my pause.

“Aria!” she hisses, eyeing the closed dining-room door.

“Mum!” I hiss back, then start giggling. “Come on, he’s cute. And clearly you feel safe around him. Why not ask him out?”

“I could never!” she says, cheeks flushing.

“Why not? I asked if he was single, and whilst he didn’t answer directly, I got the impression he would be up for it if you did.”

My mum’s face absolutely flames as embarrassment washes over her.

“You asked if he was interested in me?”

“Not in so many words, but I was feeling him out for you.”

“A lady does not simply ask a man out,” she says, but she is looking at the door as if she can see him on the other side.

“Of course you can! You say, ‘Hey, Robbie, wanna grab a bite to eat, and maybe you can have me for dessert?’”

She whips around to face me so fast I am surprised she doesn’t keep on spinning, but says nothing. I think I stunned her into silence.

Laughing, I hold up my hands in surrender. “Or you could just ask him to stay for a coffee after dinner, and I’ll make myself scarce so you can chat.”

The dining-room door opens, and Abigail takes a seat next to me, so Robert is forced to sit next to my mum in the only available chair left. Interesting.

“Maybe after dinner you and I can chat about what happened today, and you can talk me through your course schedule for the first semester,” Abigail says, turning to me. Did she hear us through the door? Her face isn’t giving anything away.

I look pointedly at Mum, not taking my eyes off her when I respond, “I would love to.”

I think I am going to like this Abigail.

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