For Jakob

6: catching flights

S I X

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Callan's POV

"If she acts naughty, feel free to raise your voice at her," I chirped happily.

"...she's a fish."

I paused, "She can still be rude," I said solemnly.

My elderly neighbour shook her head, "Alright then, have a safe trip."

"Thank you Mrs. Banner," I bent down to tap Sushi's bowl lightly, "Bye Sush, mama loves you!"

With one more wave to Mrs. Banner, I walked three doors down, back to my apartment to make sure I was ready to leave.

My flight was in a few hours, and I would be leaving for one to two days to attend the event.

Unfortunately for my heart, I wouldn't be alone.

He was coming with me.

I hadn't seen him since he took me to the fitting appointment three days ago. In those three days, I had been to the store twice; Sade had shown up at my door first thing in the morning and based on a message from Zion, he would accompany me for the next few days.

I didn't mind having Sade around me while I was at work; he was very easy-going and funny. We had similar tastes in TV shows and movies so we usually spoke about that when there was a lull in shoppers at the store.

I had gotten updates from Zion every single day about the tracking progress they had made, which wasn't much at all yet, but I knew they were trying. Jerryl texted me the most random pictures and videos about ten times a day and they usually always cheered me up. Tai and I also messaged about a book that we were both reading.

So it wasn't as though I had been disconnected from them for the past few days.

I just hadn't seen or heard from him.

Which again, rationally, made sense.

He was the boss.

It was shock to me that he had even attended so many meetings with the group in the first place. More than that, it was surprising that he had decided to assign himself as my security personnel.

Surely he could've gotten one of his many employees to do that.

But he didn't.

And yet, he hadn't shown up for the past few days.

It was quite confusing; I didn't know what to think.

He didn't speak at all until it was pertaining to something work related.

But then, he had said my name; I hadn't heard anyone use it for years, but hearing it come out of his mouth had sent a tremor through my body.

We had held eye contact for who knows how long, and then abruptly, he swallowed and nodded his head in a goodbye.

After that, he had literally run out of my apartment while I tried to calm myself down.

He still had my grandmother's necklace.

What if he stole it and pawned it off?

Was that likely?

"Stop being stupid for two seconds Cal," I muttered to myself, grabbing my checklist from the kitchen counter.

I had to stop thinking about him. This...infatuation, for lack of a better word, wouldn't end well for me.

I just had to focus on making sure that I got through this event