Last Month's Shared Location
I slumped back, breath catching. The laptop light stung my eyes. Last month. That shared location. Fragments of memory slammed together. Drizzling rain that night. Mark’s call, loud background noise—music? Not a business meeting. His voice sounded… detached? "Babe, nightmare client session. Foreign guys wanna party all night. Location sharing’s on. Don’t stress." I clicked his live pin. A little blue dot, fixed precisely on the map.
Hotel name displayed. I’d thought it looked remote, figured he was working hard. When did he turn it off? Can’t recall. He stumbled home near noon the next day, sallow, puffy-eyed, shirt crumpled, reeking of stale booze and cheap perfume. "Drank too much. Crashed in a room," he mumbled. I believed him. Made him hangover soup. Now, that blue dot overlay perfectly with the pin Emily shared.
Emily's Push
My phone buzzed again on the nightstand. Emily’s name flashed. I stared. It stopped. Then buzzed again, insistent. I inhaled sharply, answered, pressed the phone to my ear. "Hey? Kate!" Emily’s voice bubbled, faint music behind her.
"See the pin? Amazing, right? Friday? YES? The terrace view is UNREAL! Sunset cocktails—OMG! Peak life!" Her excitement poured out, oblivious to my silence.I opened my mouth. Throat tight, dry. Nothing came out. "Kate? Hello? Bad signal?" Emily sounded puzzled. "Yeah… saw it," I finally rasped, voice unfamiliar. "Looks… expensive." "Hey! Worth every penny!" Emily breezed on, oblivious. "Treat yourself! Girls' night! Bring Mark too! Show him the scene!" Bring Mark? An icy hand clenched my heart. "He…" I swallowed hard. "He… probably… busy."
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