Chapter 102 A Spy Adventure
Emily worked overtime on her new collection to have everything prepared for Fashion Week. She hardly even saw any of her friends, so she was a little annoyed when none other than Nova Summers strode gracefully into her studio wearing an extravagant sun hat.
“I hope you’re happy!” Nova said with no preamble. “Carter dumped me.”
This was shocking news considering how much Carter seemed to adore Nova. One would think a guy like him would be lucky to date a movie star, but then again, it was Carter. Emily even forgot her annoyance for the moment. “How could he?” she asked.
Nova rolled her eyes. “He said something about being a lone wolf or something stupid like that.”
“I told you,” Emily replied, “he’s an idiot.”
Nova made a dramatic gesture with her hands. “I know, I should have listened to you.”
“You are way out of his league, so it’s probably for the best,” Emily concluded.
“That’s true,” Nova agreed, “I couldn’t see it as a long-term thing anyways. He’s always trying to climb mountains or jump his motorcycle off cliffs... It’s exhausting!”
Emily chuckled. She could actually relate to Nova ever since they bonded a little at the weird dinner party.
“You know,” Nova said, “we should go out for a coffee sometime.”
Of all the things she might have said, Emily had not expected that.
“Uh... okay,” she responded, “I’m way too busy at the moment with Fashion Week coming up, but yeah.”
“Sounds good!” Nova smiled with disarming sweetness. “We might have got off on the wrong foot, but I think we could be friends.”
Emily found to her surprise that she felt the same way. Now that she was pretty sure Nova wasn’t trying to steal her fiance, she realized she actually liked her.
“But for now I must return to L.A.,” Nova said breezily, “Apparently there’s any number of Hollywood stars pining for me even as we speak.”
That evening Emily got home to find an L-shaped piece of old and rusty metal on the living room floor.
A meal was already prepared for her, but she was more interested in the strange object.
“Is this a motorcycle part?” she asked.
“You and your motorcycles,” Byron said, coming forward to greet her. “I actually think it’s part of a generator, but I’m not really sure. It arrived on our doorstep this morning, along with this...”
He picked up a folded piece of paper from the coffee table. The note was printed in an old-fashioned cursive font:
“Meet me at the bar of the Hotel DuMonde, Tuesday at 7 pm.”
There was no signature and nothing else to identify who had sent it.
“I suspect it’s Nathan,” Byron said, “We’ve been giving each other useless gifts since we were young. Old scrap metal, embroidered tea cosies. It’s kind of an ongoing joke.”
“What about the note?” Emily asked. “Would he send you something so mysterious?”
“He’s never done this spy stuff like ‘meet me at the bar of the hotel’ and what not, though I could see him doing something like this.”
“Maybe it’s better to call him and find out.”
“Yeah, I thought of that,” Byron said. “but it would kind of ruin the intrigue if he is planning a spy adventure.”
“It’s not worth risking your safety,” Emily insisted. “What if it’s someone like Christine or one of her associates?”
He considered this for a moment. “You’re right, I’ll call Nathan. He might deny it or talk about it in veiled terms, but it’s worth a try.”
Emily had a quick bite while he made the call. When Byron got back to her, he seemed even more mystified.
“I don’t think it was Nathan,” he reported, “He outright denied it.”
“But you said he might do that.”
Byron frowned in perplexity. “Yeah, but I have a feeling it’s not him. He might have at least dropped a subtle hint, but he said he really had no idea what I was talking about.”
“That makes it a bit creepy,” Emily said, “Are you going to go to the hotel to see who it is?”
“Yeah, why not?” Byron grinned, reminding her of the dashing, adventurous side of him which she always loved.
“You always insist on me being accompanied by your security guys, but now you could use them yourself,” Emily said.
“I’m sure it’s nothing that scary,” Byron replied, “though it’s sweet that you’re concerned for me. Would you like to come along and see for yourself?”
“Yeah,” Emily said, “I’d love to come and be your other bodyguard. This note has me all curious.”
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