The No-show Novels & Stories

He leaned on his seat and took his phone out of his pocket. "I'll be staying here. Yes. Yes. Cancel all my appointments. Yanna? Tell her I'm with my grandfather, and she'll understand. Yes. Until when?" He looked straight into my eyes. "I don't know. I will call you again," Noah dropped the call and put his phone on the table. He looked at his wristwatch, "Where are you staying?" "We have a mansion here," "Where?" He glanced at me with his dark obsidian eyes. "Why?"

"I need to take this, so you can go." I nodded, giving a dorky little wave on my way out that went unreturned, as Dakota was already on the phone. ******** Date number 9 was a flop. Well, by flop I mean a complete no-show. I can't say I was overly disappointed. After all, this whole elevator thing could be stressful and I didn't mind having a break. But, the dude missed his chance and we couldn't exactly reschedule. I had a timeline to stick to and rules to follow.

"No no-no-no. It can't be on the lips." "But you said, 'sure'?" "Oh? Did I? Perhaps you misheard me say sure instead of no?" I laughed uneasily at him. He frowned but I ignored him and continued to speak, "I guess it's okay if it's on the cheek—" "Ahem! Aren't you ashamed of yourselves bitches? Don't keep this beauty waiting, please! I don't give a fuck about what the both of you would do just," She took a deep breath and calmed her crumpled face before she continued, "let us first do the match, alright? We don't wanna keep our audiences waiting, right? Okay, let's do it!" She clapped her hands together and smiled widely at the cheerful audiences.

I replied. Nikki set my phone down on the bar surface and looked at me with an expression I could not fully read. It was not the blankness of someone who had nothing to give. It was the expression of someone who had just found themselves in possession of a piece of information they had not expected to be holding and who was deciding very quickly what to do with it. "No," she said slowly. "No one by the name Avery Nash performs here." She picked up my phone and looked at the photograph one more time, carefully.

Damn it. He sighed heavily, staring blankly at the slide show happening in front of him. One of his people making a presentation on... a product that's to be branded and advertised. It wasn't going very well. He wagged his pen in his left hand. Relaxed in his chair while he thought of the girl that ran away. Probably because of something he said. The boardroom grew quiet. The person presenting was looking at him. As were the rest of the members of the meeting seated around him. "Nick." Bartholomew Veen nudged him from his right side.

Men who were still deciding whether I deserved the seat I occupied. Missing it was not an option. Showing up without a credible reason for my absence from New York — equally not an option. "I'll have to go," I said. "That's not the problem," Noah replied calmly, leaning forward now, elbows on the table. "The problem is how you disappear from here without raising the wrong questions. The Shroff signing still needs to be managed. The restructuring of the east side corridor needs eyes on it. And your legitimate businesses—" he gestured vaguely at the rooftop, at the hotel around and below us— "can't look abandoned."

On my seventh day in Snowcall, one of my friends, Lucas Freeman, called me out of the blue. "Miranda, when are you coming back?" "I'm not planning to anytime soon," I replied. "Norton's birthday is next week. You're not going to come celebrate?" "I'll pass, but I'll send something." The conversation went quiet, and I could hear Lucas awkwardly passing the phone to someone else. "Maybe you should try talking to Miranda. She usually listens to you," he said.

They wouldn’t even make the list. And even if they did… She sure as hell wasn’t going to lift a finger for them. Shantal turned her gaze out the window, her expression unreadable. “Tell him I’m not available.” Roy hesitated. “Even if Regina, ” “Not. Available,” Shantal repeated firmly, cutting him off. Silence settled over the car. But the storm brewing beneath it? Far from over. Because sooner or later, Roger Zellweger would realize… his biggest mistake wasn’t abandoning his daughter.

“Alright, alright, it doesn’t matter anymore. I'll forgive you.” Forgive me? These words felt like ice picks stabbing into my heart. He still doesn’t believe me. Seeing the atmosphere becoming tense, Mona walked over, patting her belly and feigning sincerity. “Nancy, I also want to apologize to you. I was too anxious at the time. You don’t have children, so you probably don’t understand the feelings of a mother...” Mona raised her hand and smoothed her hair. The wolf tooth bracelet on her wrist gleamed warmly in the light.

“Councilor Shaw isn’t here today. No appointments.” “So, can I get the confirmation on the appointment?” I asked again, when she refused to move or reply the first time. “Yeah, No.” She said, confusing me as she checked her nails. “Excuse me?” I said, getting impatient. What was her problem? “Cousilor Shaw is not in the building. He didn’t come to work today. So, there will be no appointment booking for today.” She told me without even bothering to look at me again.