The Worst Friend Then You Can All Lose My Number novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: What Jared Knew

I found Jared on the curb outside a bar on Larimer, with his tie in his pocket and his phone in both hands.

There was a gash in his phone screen from corner to corner.

He looked up when my rideshare stopped.

His eyes were red.

"You came," he said.

"I'm here for five minutes."

He tried to stand and sat back down.

"Joss kicked me out," he said.

"Good."

"Carys."

"She's right to. I'd have done it in a day."

He laughed, and it turned into something wet and ugly.

"She said I embarrassed her. She said the guide launch is Saturday and she can't have me in the apartment looking like this. She locked the door and put my bag in the hall."

"You told me you'd show me something."

"Yeah."

He held out the phone.

"I wasn't going to," he said. "I've been sitting here for two hours trying not to. But I went through everything tonight and I can't look at it."

I took the phone.

He had opened a long thread, and the contact name at the top was Joss.

It began three years ago.

Every trip had its own run of messages.

The first trips were only chatter, plans and jokes and a birthday surprise for me.

The sabotage began at the third trip.

Santa Fe. Bad news, babe, Carys booked us the other hotel again. Look at this room.

Under it was a photo of a stained carpet and a bed with a broken headboard.

Jared's reply was an angry face.

She is so useless at this, he had written. How hard is it to read reviews?

Joss wrote, I know. I try so hard to cover for her. Please don't say anything, it'll just make her cry.

I scrolled down.

The cabin. A photo of a sink with a cracked basin. She picked the cheapest one to look generous, Joss wrote. I'm sorry.

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