It was empty.
What in the actual hell?!
I shut the dishwasher door roughly, opened it once more to confirm that it was indeed empty, and shut it again. My phone chimed and after staring at it like it might explode, I grabbed it to check the text.
KASH:
Hey babe, just got done doing inventory. You home yet? Gonna pick up dinner.
I didn’t respond. He’d left to do inventory at the same time we left for campus. Why was he lying about this? He was the only one who knew where I kept my journal. Granted, Candice knew I had one and knew about the song as well . . . and she had given me the approval on my new lingerie. But she’d been in classes all day and was in practice now. She wasn’t supposed to be home for another hour. My head shook back and forth as I looked around my apartment, which now looked exactly as I’d left it that morning, and I went to sit on the couch. I just—I don’t understand. Am I going crazy? Am I doing all this to myself and just not realizing it?
Ten minutes later, Kash called, but I let it go to voice mail. Same with the next call from him a few minutes after that. I pulled my legs up onto the couch and rested my chin on my knees as I played the morning in my head over and over again. And that’s how Kash and Mason found me some time later.
They didn’t knock, but then again, they never did. They walked right in and both heaved sighs of relief. And I knew I’d locked that door earlier.
“Did you not get my messages?” Kash asked, and planted himself directly in front of me, legs spread, arms crossed over his chest.
“I didn’t listen to them.”
“Are you okay? What’s—”
“Where have you been?” I demanded, and looked directly into his gray eyes.
His head jerked back. “Taking inventory at the restaurant. Exactly where I said I was going.”
“Where have you actually been?” Turning my head to look at Mason, my eyes narrowed. “And where were you?!”
They exchanged a look that I didn’t understand, but it made my heart beat faster, and not in a good way. They were lying to me. I knew it.
“I went to help Kash since he helped me with inventory at my bar the other day.”
I shot up off the couch and leveled my glare at both of them. “Don’t lie to me! What you guys did isn’t funny!”
“Wait. What? What did we do?” Kash’s eyes were massive and he looked . . . nervous?
“You’re really going to act like all the shit around here wasn’t done by either one of you?”
Now neither looked nervous. Just incredibly confused. “Babe. What the hell are you talking about?”
“The dishwasher and the—” I cut off quickly and pointed at the floor of my doorway. “The stuff there! Why would you do something like that to me? That’s cruel.” My voice shook and I tried to swallow past the lump in my throat. “Did you really think I would find all that shit funny? You’re such an ass**le, Kash!”
Kash looked over at the bare carpet before looking back to me. “Woman. You’re starting to piss me off, always accusing me of doing something. We’ve been gone since you left this morning.”
“It had to have been you,” I whispered, my anger quickly fading. I looked at Mason. He looked lost. “It was one of you . . . right?”
“What was?”
I jerked away from the tone of Kash’s voice. I’d never seen him mad at me like this. “It wasn’t you?” My body collapsed onto the couch and I grabbed my head in my hands. Oh my God, this is what going insane feels like! “I’m going crazy.”
Kash came to kneel in front of me and grabbed my chin in one hand to make me look up at him. His anger was gone and he looked just as lost as Mason. “Baby, what are you talking about? Tell me what was wrong in here.”
I told him about the lingerie, journal, and laptop, how they were laid out, and I whispered to him about the song that had been clicked on. His expression grew darker with each new item, and when I told him about the dishwasher, he made Mason go look in it. “So . . . so the pancakes weren’t you either?”
The boys stopped talking and looked at me again. “There were pancakes too?”
“No. Remember the night I was making pancakes for you when you came over? The night Mason came to hide from his boss.” When Kash nodded, I continued. “When I got out of the shower that night, the skillet was out and turned on. There were bowls, measuring cups, the whisk, and pancake mix. I thought you were trying to hint that you wanted me to make them for you.” Both of their eyebrows shot straight up. Oh my God, it really hadn’t been them. What the hell was happening?!
“Shit,” Kash mumbled, and his head fell back. He just looked at the ceiling for a few moments before whispering something to Mason. Mason walked quickly out of the apartment, his phone going to his ear. “Rach, I need to tell you something. But I don’t want you upset with me. You need to know that Mason and I did this to protect you, all right?”
My stomach dropped and I could swear my heart skipped a few beats.
“Do you trust me?”
Of course I trust him . . . or I did, up until tonight. And after that intro to the conversation, I’m really starting to rethink all that. And why did Mason leave? I think I need him here with me. Where is Candice? Shouldn’t she be home soon? Why the hell was the dishwasher on . . . Oh my God! Kash is going to tell me that I’m insane and he’s going to send me away. I’m the crazy girl who turns on dishwashers with nothing in them and lays out lingerie!