Accidental Tryst (Charleston #1)(39)

"Wait, you know him?" D'Andre asked.

"Not really. Well. A bit, I suppose."

"Whoa." D'Andre leaned back and looked at me with increasing respect. "Would you send him a link to my channel?" he asked. "Or . . . man, he lives in New York, right? Does he want to come out tonight and see Logic? I can hook him up too. Then I could meet him."

"He's young. Like sixteen or something. He probably can't get into a club."

"For real? Damn."

"I can ask."

"Call him. Call him, right now." D'Andre elbowed me. "Pleeeease?"

"Fine." I rolled my eyes with a smile and dialed the number on the card.

It rang twice.

"Al?" I asked. "Alex?"

"Who is this?"

"It's, uh, Emmy." Silence. "From the plane. With the phone . . . situation." I winced.

There was a muffled sound, then an expletive, then a deep breath.

"Emmy, girl. Sweet Emmy. How are you?" His voice came out calm and deep like he was pretending to be super relaxed.

I laughed silently. "Great, actually. How are you?"

"Can't complain. Back with the old man in the Big Apple. You get your phone sitch sorted?"

"Nope. Still have that guy's phone."

"Dude. You must have sweet talked him."

"Ha. Well, anyway, the reason I called is I have this friend, D'Andre. He's a musician. A rapper."

D'Andre nodded approvingly.

"A poet," I added, and D'Andre put a hand to his chest in thanks.

"Yeah?"

"He has a YouTube channel. The only other person I know who has one is you, and I don't know how these things work, but I thought maybe you all should connect. You might like his stuff or . . . something."

"Give it to me, I'll look it up right now."

"Oh, uh sure." I gestured wildly at D'Andre. What's the link? I mouthed to him. He pulled it up on his phone, his face hopeful, and I read it out to Alex.

"Cool. Cool," Alex said. "Just gonna give it a look and listen, back in a mo."

There was silence on the phone, and I imagined him slipping on those massive earphones of his.

"He's listening right now," I told D'Andre, who jumped to his feet and paced back and forth in front of me.

"Calm down," I told him.

"I need a paper bag," he said.

After a few minutes, Alex was back. "I need to get hold of this guy."

"Oh, uh." I looked at D'Andre who had both hands covering his mouth. "He's standing right next to me. I'll give you his number."

"Extra. Put him on, will you?"

I held out the phone to D'Andre who looked at it aghast.

"He wants to talk to me?" he whispered.

I nodded.

He took the phone and cleared his throat. "This is D'Andre. Yeah, sure." He got his own phone out of his pocket and typed something into it. Then walked back and handed me Trystan's phone.

"Is this happening?" D'Andre asked me, looking nervous.

I smiled and shrugged.

The phone in his hand buzzed, and he answered, walking a few feet away along the sidewalk. It must have been good news based on the size of the grin he was wearing.

Remembering Armand's text, I decided to get hold of Trystan. Dude had some explaining to do about the price of a two-night rental in Charleston. I wanted to call him but didn't want to risk getting barked at if he was in the middle of something. Instead, I texted him to make sure he’d settled in and found clean sheets.

A response came back almost immediately.



* * *



Suit Monkey: Settled in fine. Thanks. How's David?



* * *



Can I call you? I typed. I refused to thank him via text, it was too big.



* * *



The phone rang immediately with an incoming call. Suit Monkey. My heart jumped to my throat as I hit "Accept."





20





Emmy





Trystan," I greeted him as soon as it connected.

"Yeah."

There was a beat of silence and I rushed to fill it. "I wanted to thank you. I never got a chance to do that after you found David. So, thank you. Officially. Thank you."

"How is he?"

"Fine. Thanks to you. I—I don't know how to thank you," I rambled.

"It was nothing. He called me, it was easy at that point."

I let out a breath. "Thank you. I mean it."

"You've now thanked me four times. Stop it." But suddenly I heard him smiling through his words, and inside I relaxed.

"How was he?" he asked.

"He was fine. Better than fine. Apparently you bought him dinner, discussed business and told him there was a car and driver waiting on him?"

"All that was true." He laughed. "He's a smart man. I enjoyed chatting with him. Anyway, did you ever find out what happened?"

"Not really," I confessed. "I mean he had money for a cab, and honestly, I think he took it from my purse because I realized this afternoon I was missing sixty dollars in twenties. I just don't know when he might have done it. And I can't imagine him stealing from me."