14 Dear Miss Tallerico

IMANI

"Are you going to come back home immediately after your date?" Lola asked while she helped Imani zip up the dress she got for her the day before in front of the mirror.

It was almost time for her date with Kurt Powers and the closer it got to the time she was meant to leave the house, the more she wanted to back out of the date. It didn't have anything to do with Kurt because she saw him as a nice guy. It was just her.

She had a habit of backing out of dates a while before she was meant to leave the house for them. She just couldn't picture herself in a relationship right now… or ever.

'That's probably why Lola is helping me get ready right now. She'd stab me with a rusty knife if I tell her I don't want to go.'

"Yeah, why?" Imani asked as she let down her hair which she'd been holding up and Lola began to run her hand through the curls.

"I'm just asking."

Imani didn't miss the smirk on Lola's face and she realized what her friend was implying. She definitely wasn't going home with a guy she barely knew.

"No, I'm not coming home immediately," she replied, pressing her lips together to prevent the grin that wanted to grow on her face.

Lola blinked in surprise and stopped running her hand through Imani's curly hair. "Really?"

"Yes… I might drop by Parisa's place to grab a drink with her. Maybe watch a movie too," she shrugged and Lola kept quiet for a while as she stared at her through the mirror.

"Wow…"

Imani raised her brows at her when she didn't continue and Lola resumed running her hand through the curls.

"That sounds like so much fun," Lola stated monotonously with her face downcast. "I wish I could be there."

"Really?" she asked as she bit her lip and squinted at the mirror. "You don't look like you wish you could be there. I don't see it."

Lola looked up to the mirror with a blank expression on her face and sneered at Imani. "Do you see it now?"

She let out a laugh as she walked to her bed and sat on it before she began to put on the Kron high heels Lola had asked her to wear. "I'm not going home with Kurt. He could be a serial killer."

"Like anyone would want to murder you. You're the world's favourite person. So, you can't come home tonight. If you do…" Lola paused to stroke her chin as she looked up at the ceiling and furrowed her brows. "If you do… Wow, you look hot. Date me instead."

"Really?" Imani asked as she grabbed her phone from the bed and stood up.

"Yes, call Kurt to cancel the date. I'll break up with Takeda right now. Let's go on a date."

Imani rolled her eyes and turned on her phone before the retrieval bar popped up.

'Eighty-seven percent retrieved,' the screen read.

She realized that she had to leave now if she wanted to get to the restaurant in time since the date was starting at nine-thirty PM and the time was nine-seventeen PM right now.

"Yes, you look hot. I'm just kidding about the dating thing," Lola smirked. "... Maybe."

"I have no idea how Takeda deals with you… I should meet him one of these days, seeing as I'm not going to work for a couple of weeks."

The smirk instantly vanished from Lola's face. "Ah, he's always busy. Work stuff."

Imani furrowed her brows in confusion because that has always been Lola's response whenever she asks to meet her boyfriend. "...Okay."

She grabbed her clutch purse from the bed and kept her phone in it. "I will be back home in an hour or two."

Lola narrowed her eyes at her friend. "Don't you dare."

------

E-mails. Lots and lots of e-mails. Most of them dating back to a month ago… and most of them from Lucas Harrison.

"What the hell?" Imani muttered as she scrolled down but the e-mails didn't seem to have an end.

She was currently stuck in traffic and she absolutely didn't want to fly. She had been thinking of calling Kurt to cancel the date but that would be a bitchy thing to do since he was probably waiting at the restaurant already. She had texted him but he hadn't replied yet and was about to call him when the phone alerted her that the e-mail retrieval was complete.

When Desmond had told her that it seemed like she had lost a lot of e-mails, she didn't quite understand but now she did.

'How didn't I get any of these e-mails?'

She finally stopped scrolling before she opened one and read the content. And read another. And another. And another.

There was a virus killing the werewolves and they needed her help to find a cure. The Alpha had been setting up meetings at a café named Milos. Meetings she never showed up to since she never got the e-mails.

She shook her head as if to dispel her thoughts. Everything she'd just read had too much information for her to take in at once.

She opened the most recent e-mail from Lucas Harrison, it was from Thursday, and read it.

A meeting at Milos by nine-thirty PM.

The time was nine thirty-four right now. She was still very confused about what was going on when her phone rang in her hands.

It was a call from Lola.

She cleared her throat and picked the call. "Can I help you ma'am?"

"Are you at the restaurant already?" Lola asked.

"Uh…" Imani looked up and saw that the traffic was beginning to move. "No, why?"

"Kurt's sister just called. His car fell out of the sky while flying."

"Oh, my God," she blurted out in surprise. "Is he okay?"

'See, this is why I don't like flying,' Imani thought, relieved that the date was no longer happening but worried about Kurt.

"He is, but I'm on my way to hospital."

Imani glanced out the window just as the car was about to drive past Milos and she remembered the e-mail she just read. She was still confused and didn't know what to do but she was... curious?

"Lola, I'll uh, call you back," she said and hung up, not waiting for a response. "Sutton, park."