“Pick up, pick up, pick up,” I mumbled, pacing through the dimly lit living room, my phone pressed tightly against my ear.
The sun was just beginning to rise, its golden rays slowly creeping across the floor, but I hadn’t closed my eyes, not even for a second. I couldn’t. My mind had been in overdrive since I came home from closing the café, only to find the apartment eerily silent. James was already gone.
I had been trying to ignore the sinking feeling in my stomach for hours, telling myself there had to be a logical explanation. But I knew better. And the longer I went without hearing from him, the harder it became to breathe. He hadn’t answered my texts. Hadn’t picked up any of my calls. And it wasn’t like I had bombarded him—at first.
Now? I wasn’t even sure how many times I had cal
