Over the months, I’d gotten better at pretending for everyone around me so they thought I was handling it all pretty well. Jordan knew more than the others, but even she had no idea how much I missed Tristan. Looking down at my phone, I read my newest message to him.
If you see these, you need to know that today’s a hard day for me. It’s never easy, but today’s really hard. I miss you so much.
Send.
I stuffed the phone back into my jeans pocket because if I didn’t, I’d stand there texting Tristan all day until Jordan got home. Daryl was scheduled to get there in just minutes, so at least I wouldn’t have a lot of time to sit and think. That was the worst. It’s why I went into the city most days. At least when I was thinking surrounded by millions of people I didn’t feel so alone. The city did that for us lonely folks.
But even visiting art museums couldn’t improve my spirits. Lately, I usually ended up at The Cloisters staring at images of death in the Middle Ages, and even in my funk I knew that wasn’t a good sign.
A knock at the door told me Daryl was early, so I let him in and we sat in the same room we’d been in when he told me Tristan was gone and he didn’t know when he’d return. It was like our ritual. Each time I’d sit on the couch where I’d sat that first night with Tristan, and Daryl would sit opposite me and begin talking about things I pretended to understand. Even now, months later, I had no clear idea about why Karl needed to have my father’s notes, and I didn’t think Daryl knew either, although he seemed to feel he understood better than I did.
I didn’t care about any of that. Karl, my father’s notes, and whatever Tristan’s father had done meant nothing to me. I just wanted Tristan home and the two of us to live happily ever after. Or at least as much as that was possible with us.
Daryl was looking particularly mountain mannish, as if he’d decided trimming his rusty colored beard wasn’t required as long as he wore a dress shirt. He had that chest hair peeking out look that I found gross, and his whole appearance made paying attention to him difficult, especially today.
“How are you doing out here? Any problems? Any security issues?” he asked in his best dad voice.
“West and Varo would have told you if there were any. I don’t think they keep much to themselves when it comes to their job.”
“True. Those boys do take their job seriously. I’m thinking Tristan must have found them at a military school or something. They’re good for what we need them to be, though. I was talking more about Karl or anyone from the Stone Worldwide Board. Have they tried to contact you at all?”
I shook my head and frowned at even the mention of them. “No. Why would they contact me?”
“Because they likely think you know where he is.”
“Well, as you well know, I don’t, even though I think you do,” I said in a voice that reflected my anger and frustration at the whole situation.
Daryl stared at me, and I waited for him to say either he knew or he didn’t, but instead he simply continued his train of thought. “If Karl shows up here…”
I cut him off mid-sentence. “I know. Get West and Varo up here lickity split and have them rough him up for me.”
“No. Nina, I need you to take this seriously.”
“Roughing up Karl sounds pretty serious to me, Daryl.”
“Nina, I’m responsible for making sure you’re safe. I’m just trying to do my job here.”
“Does your job include telling me where Tristan is?” I asked sharply, making the conversation come to a dead stop.
Daryl’s expression lacked any emotion at all, and he stared at me, finally answering, “No, it doesn’t.”
Even his faded brown eyes gave no indication whether he knew where Tristan was or not, so as usual, I gave up and forced a smile. “Fine. What else do we have to talk about?”
“The Karl business is a real concern, Nina. He’s gotten the Board to take over Stone Worldwide, but as long as Tristan is somewhere in this world, he can’t truly take control of the company.”
“I would think if he intended to pump me for information, he would have done it before. It’s been four months, Daryl. Karl and the Board think he’s never coming back.”
My voice caught as I spoke those words. Never coming back. A knot twisted in my stomach as the words echoed in my head. Never coming back.
“We have to be careful,” Daryl continued, likely not noticing that I didn’t want to talk about this anymore. “Karl is going to be a danger as long as Tristan’s gone.”
I couldn’t do this today. Jumping up from the couch, I threw my hands up. “Then maybe he shouldn’t be gone! Maybe he should be here handling things instead of leaving everything up to me!”