Sinking in the Shadows Read online

  “Well, you see, I recently booked that singles cruise package.”

  Rolling her eyes, she refuses to drop her professionalism and keeps her voice even and unaffected. “Which one specifically? We have a few different ones.”

  “Oh wow. I thought it was a one-time thing. Do you get complaints about them often?”

  She shakes her head and realizes the customer can’t actually see her and she replies, “Not any more than the other vacation packages we offer. We pride ourselves on having top-notch customer service and always ensuring our travelers are satisfied with their vacation packages. Was there something wrong with the trip you booked with us?”

  “Well, for starters, do you perform any kind of background check on people before letting them go on your cruise ships?”

  Is this dude for real? Tinley mutes her phone as she coughs and takes a quick sip of water before returning back to the line. “I’m sorry?”

  “Do you thoroughly vet everyone that books a vacation package with you?” There’s a brief pause then a heavy sigh as he continues, “Criminal history? Health checks? Stuff like that?”

  “Sir, I’m not sure I understand your line of questioning, but I’m pretty sure that’s not legal.”

  “Well, it damn well should be.”

  This is the kind of call where she’s going to have to hold herself back, and she can tell already it’s going to be very hard to do that. “You seem upset, and I apologize for that. Is there something specific I can help you with?”

  “I need you people to pay for my fucking medical bills, and if you don’t, you’ll be hearing from my lawyer.”

  Warning bells go off in Tinley’s head. This dude is obviously pissed about something, but he’s being super vague and not explaining what’s going on or why he’s so upset. She racks her brain trying to figure out what could have happened on the cruise to cause him to have medical bills, but she can’t think of anything. Maybe he slipped on some water and broke a bone? But wouldn’t he have taken care of that while he was still on board? And what would the rest of his line of questioning have anything to do with a broken bone? Against her better judgment, she decides to investigate further and find out what happened. “Sir, can you explain to me what exactly went on so I can try to help you out?”

  A harsh laugh comes from the other end of the line and the response out of his mouth isn’t one Tinley expected or could have thought up in a million years. “One of the bitches I boned gave me the clap.”

  “The clap?”

  “Yeah, you know, the drip.”

  “I’m sorry, I’m not familiar with those terms.”

  “Gonorrhea. The chick gave me a mother-effing STD, and you’re all responsible for the shit dripping out of my dick now.”

  Tinley mutes her phone while he goes on his rant and turns to her right to whisper, “This dude totally just told me he got gonorrhea on the singles cruise, and he said his dick is dripping. Should we call him Drippy Dick?” She starts laughing hysterically then looks up when she realizes she’s laughing alone because Dakota is not currently sitting next to her and they’re not talking right now. Her sadness sets back in as the weight of the mess between her and her best friend weighs on her shoulders. She attempts to ignore her own grief and unmutes the phone as the dude continues his ranting.

  “…and I couldn’t even tell you which skank it was. The boat was like a fucking orgy. Seriously, everyone was going at it like rabbits the entire time. It’s like it didn’t even matter if the chick was a double bagger or not. Everyone was getting laid on that boat. I should be flying high over all the ass I got. It was like a wet dream come to life. Instead, I’m dealing with this.”

  As his rant continues on and his anger escalates, Tinley finds herself biting down very hard on her tongue to prevent herself from saying anything she might regret. All she can think is that she’s thankful for karma, because obviously this guy got exactly what he deserved. She doesn’t know anything about gonorrhea, but she secretly hopes the treatment is long and very painful.

  Rather than let him continue putting down every single person that was on the ship with him, Tinley interrupts by saying, “Sir, I’m really sorry for what you went through. Unfortunately, I don’t have the authority to offer any sort of compensation for something like that. What I can do is connect you with one of my supervisors, and maybe they can help you further.”

  “Why the fuck did you let me continue on like that if you couldn’t do a damn thing to help me out? Are you stupid?”

  If there’s one thing Tinley will not tolerate it’s someone calling her stupid. It’s completely unacceptable and she has to seriously hold herself back from going off on this guy. She repeats the mantra in her head, I cannot get fired, as she attempts to the end the phone call.

  “Well, if that’s everything, I’ll go ahead and get you transferred over so someone else can assist you.”

  “Are you deaf as well? You’re not hearing—”

  “Okay sir, one moment please.” Tinley hits the transfer button and immediately pulls her phone out of the queue. Now he’s somebody else’s problem, and she doesn’t even care. She doesn’t get paid enough to deal with abuse like that, and really, nobody should have to put up with it. That bathroom break she considered taking earlier sounds pretty good right about now. Maybe she’ll go hang out in there for a while and get away from all the noise, and a nice long bath sounds like the perfect way to end this awful day.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Today Marek has been completely tightlipped about everything going on. Her big day is finally here, and she’s not quite sure how she feels about that. It feels so final. She knows her thinking sounds silly, but it’s like the minute you turn thirty, you can’t pretend anymore. You’re one hundred percent an adult, and there’s no going back. She has spent so much of her time dreading this day, but that’s just it—it’s just a day, one day out of the thousands that make up a life, and when she thinks of it that way, it sounds so insignificant.

  About an hour ago, Marek picked Tinley up for a date. The only information he gave her beforehand was to wear something that makes her feel pretty. Not much is doing that these days since she feels so ready to pop, but Tara provided her with an adorable black maternity maxi dress, so she doesn’t feel completely disgusting, which is pretty much her constant state of feeling these days. Her belly has grown so large that she can’t even bend over to tie her shoes anymore, not that she would be able to put her shoes on since her feet have swelled up to twice their size. No, these days she’s pretty much rocking her flip-flops every day. Although, her sister helped her out in that department too with some pretty cute rhinestoned sandals. So at least, in their engorged state, her feet look adorable.

  The first thing Tinley hears when they step foot into the very dark room is “Happy Birthday” by Altered Images. She can’t help the giant grin that covers her face and she leans into Marek. She steps up on her tippy toes and whispers into his ear, or at least where she thinks his ear is at, “What did you do?”

  He squeezes his hold on her and whispers back, “I have no idea what you could be talking about.”

  Before she gets the chance to say anything else, they’re suddenly surrounded by bright lights and everyone she knows jumps out of their hiding places to yell, “Surprise!”

  Everyone but Dakota, that is. Tinley is instantly aware of the fact that her best friend is missing from the festivities, and the sting of the fight they had, digs deep into the pit of her stomach. Tinley and Dakota have been best friends since they were ten years old when Dakota moved to town halfway through the school year. She was super shy at first because she didn’t know anybody, and Tinley took it upon herself to become her brand new best friend. They’ve pretty much been inseparable ever since, and now that they’re not speaking, it feels like she’s missing a part of herself.

  She doesn’t even know how to reach her. After she moved all of her stuff out of their apartment, she changed her phone number and
completely disappeared. The whole situation still makes zero sense to Tinley. It’s not like Dakota even liked the job anyway. She always said it was just temporary until she got her career going—they both did—but something changed along the way, and Tinley can’t help but wonder why they both felt the need to keep secrets from each other. As much as it pains her to think it, maybe their friendship has just run its course and it’s nobody’s fault at all.

  Luna takes off running and immediately Marek releases his hold on Tinley’s hand to chase after his young daughter. That little girl has her father wrapped around her tiny fingers and if only thing, it makes Tinley live him more. There’s just something special about the relationship between a father and daughter. With the excitement of the surprise wearing off, she finally has a chance to check out the room around her and Tinley’s hand flies up to her mouth as she releases a laugh.

  Every single balloon in the room is black. In fact, every decoration in the room is black. The tables are covered with black tablecloths and the centerpieces are calla lilies. Guess Marek took her drama queen rant about mourning her twenties literally and gave her a birthday funeral celebration. Tinley starts walking toward where he’s dancing with Luna when suddenly the song changes and the Wedding March starts playing. She tops in her tracks and looks up at the speaker above her as if it will give her answers as to why this of all songs is currently playing. Marek seems equally confused as he walks over to a guy standing in front of a laptop and instantly the song changes to one of her favorite Fall Out Boy songs and she finds herself instantly singing along.

  Tinley’s pleasantly amused as she starts walking to the corner of the room where they’re at. She’s pulled from her thoughts and her mission as someone comes up beside her and says, “I wanted to apologize to you for what happened when we first met.”

  She’s shocked when she looks up and Marek’s sister, Giselle, is standing right next to her. Tinley has no idea what she could possibly be apologizing for, and the expression on her face must convey her confusion because Giselle continues speaking.

  “Marek told me you thought we were together. I’ll admit I thought you might have a thing for him, and I wanted to test that. He’s my big brother, and I was starting to get tired of him being alone. It made sense at the time to try to make you jealous of his ‘relationship’, but obviously all I did was cause issues and create problems when you actually did get together. That wasn’t my intention at all.”

  The whole scenario sounds weird and crazy, but Tinley just nods her head and accepts the apology. If there’s one thing she’s learned from Marek about his sister, it’s that she thrives off of drama, and since this woman is going to be in her life for the foreseeable future—and hopefully longer—she doesn’t see the point in making an issue out of this.

  Nodding Tinley thanks Giselle for her apology and starts to continue walking when Tara walks up to them. “Hi, I’m Tara, Tinley’s sister.” She reaches her hand out toward Giselle and says, “And you are?”

  Tinley has no idea what kind of game Tara’s trying to play because they both know that she knows exactly who Giselle is. In fact, she had a few choice words to say about her when they both thought she was Luna’s mom. Now that she knows the truth, Tinley thinks the whole thing is kind of hilarious.

  Giselle reaches for Tara’s hand and daintily shakes it. “I’m Giselle, Marek’s sister. I think we met before.”

  Tara’s mouth drops wide open and it’s only now that Tinley realizes that she forgot to mention that little detail to her sister. Oops. Her eyes go wide, and she shoots daggers at Tinley when she says, “Marek’s sister? Well isn’t that amazing. That explains why you’re here at my sister’s birthday party.”

  This is certainly awkward. Tinley runs her hands down the front of her dress in an attempt to straighten nonexistent wrinkles. Any excuse for something to do other than stand here in the awkward uncomfortable silence of Tara’s creating. She finally looks up and both women are just looking at each other not saying a word. Awkward. She starts to step away unable to handle this any longer, besides it is her party after all she needs to mingle with the rest of the guests. Not like she even knows who Marek invited to this thing. It’s not like she is Miss Popularity, but there do seem to be a hell of a lot of people here.

  Before she can take a step, Tara asks, “Tinley, who is Mr. Mancandy in the corner with your man?”

  Her man? She cringes at that phrase. There’s just always been something about pet names that has peeved Tinley and Tara knows it. They irk her in the worst way possible. But the other part of what her sister asked her has her intrigued. Looking up, she does in fact see Marek in the corner of the room with some guy she’s never seen before. He’s playing around with a laptop, no doubt controlling the interesting variety of music being played tonight.

  Giselle clears her throat and her voice is laced with venom as she says, “That arrogant asshole is Anders McKay. I don’t know why my brother wastes his time with that lowlife. Trust me, he’s not someone you want to get to know better.”

  Without another word, Giselle stalks away in the opposite direction and swipes a glass of wine from a tray. She stares daggers toward the corner of the room and downs her drink before disappearing into the throngs of people.

  Tara whistles looking from where Giselle was standing and back to where Marek and Anders are. “Holy shit. Did that just happen?”

  Tinley nods her head furiously. “There is a story there and I am going to find out what it is. That is some juicy gossip for sure.”

  “And when you do, make sure to tell me everything. It’s like a real life freaking soap opera.”

  Tinley giggles as she walks away from her sister and toward her boyfriend. Maybe there’s a little excitement from this party after all. Who says turning thirty has to be all bad?

  Chapter Twenty

  Marek and the man who Giselle called Anders are animatedly chatting in the corner when Tinley stops right in front of them. Both are bent over fiddling with the laptop, no doubt adding more songs to the evening’s playlist.

  Marek’s eyes light up as she stops in front of them and he comes over for a quick kiss. “Hey babe, are you enjoying your party?”

  She contemplates how to answer that question and with a shrug, she responds, “It’s been interesting, that’s for sure.”

  “Interesting good? Or interesting bad?”

  His sister stands in her peripheral and she half expects her to come charging over her. She did say she was sorry for before, but it’s still strange how she’s watching them right now. Tinley tries to ignore her and attempts to fully focus on Marek. Which isn’t exactly easy with the entire party going on around them. She slides her hands down the front of her dress and plasters a fake smile on her face. “You tell me. Giselle just came over and apologized to me.”

  “For what?”

  “For leading me to believe that she was your girlfriend and potentially Luna’s mother.”

  The mystery man standing behind them chokes as he takes a pull from his beer. Fortunately, he doesn’t spit anything out, but from where Tinley’s standing it looks like he’s struggling to hold everything in.

  Marek glares at his friend and turns back to Tinley. “I’m glad she apologized, but I’m scared to ask you if that’s all you were referring to or if something else interesting happened in the last five minutes since I left your side.”

  “The Wedding March?”

  He points to the guy standing behind them. “The idiot standing behind us is my business partner Anders.”

  A lightbulb goes off for Tinley and she says, “Oh! You’re the one who owns Big House Book Store.”

  Anders has a boyish grin on his face as he raises his hand and says, “That would be me.”

  Tinley looks past Marek still focused on his best friend. He’s got wavy sandy blond hair and a little bit of scruff on his face. He’s got at least four inches on Marek, but he’s also about twenty pounds lighter. He’s definitely on t
he leaner side and funnily enough Dakota’s type completely. Especially with his form fighting slacks and suspenders. She ignores the twinge of pain in the center of her chest with her best friend missing and asks, “So, care to explain your interesting music choice?”

  With his thumb, he motions to Marek and says, “My buddy Marek here told me that this was a funeral-themed birthday party. That you were all depressed about turning thirty, which is ridiculous by the way because my thirties have been way better than my twenties. But anyway, I figured what’s more fitting of a funeral theme song than the one everyone uses when signing the rest of your single life away to be stuck with the same person for the rest of your life?”

  “That’s rather cynical don’t you think? Do you have a problem with love?”

  Marek groans beside her and speaks before Anders has a chance to respond to her question, “Don’t even get him started on this topic babe. All it will do is depress you.”

  “Now you’re just making up stories Marek. Don’t lie to the poor girl. There’s no juicy story to tell.”

  Tinley doesn’t believe a word of it but she chooses not to press him further. “I don’t know you well enough to interrogate you on this one, but I definitely feel like there’s something there. Trust me when I tell you I’ll get to the bottom of your broken heart story Anders, you can guarantee it.”

  “I’d like to see you try.”

  In the words of one of her favorite TV show characters, she simply replies with, “Challenge accepted.”

  He just grins and doesn’t say a word, but that has her thinking. “So, your love life aside. What’s the story between you and Giselle. Why does she hate you so much?”

  Anders chokes on the beer he was just drinking, and part of his beverage dribbles out of his mouth and onto his chin. He continues coughing unable to stop and Marek yet again speaks for him. “Honestly, my sister is bat shit crazy. She had a crush on him way back in the day and he never reciprocated her feelings. So now she holds it against him and thinks he’s an asshole. But he knows I would chop off his balls and dick if he ever touched her. She’s just trying to start drama, like always.”