Blank Slate

Chapter 107 - Payton Taylor

I ordered an Uber and went through my missed messages on the ride back to the hotel Evie and I had been staying for the last week.

Oliver: Christopher is driving me crazy. I would give my right arm to come and hang with you and Evie.

Oliver: Did you give Evie a credit card? Because I think she is buying half of Paris. She keeps sending me photos of new things. Better watch out or she will try to buy the Mona Lisa.

Oliver: Heading to bed. Have a good night. Text me in the morning.

Liam: Grace is so excited that she is already packed. Our flight is at 8:30 am our time. We get into Paris at 10:00 pm your time. Anything you need me to bring?

Christopher: I am not driving Oliver crazy. He is driving me crazy. I would also give my right arm to be in Paris with you instead of being stuck in the middle of the desert. The shop you got Evie looks nice. Send more pics.

Christopher: What are you up to?

The texts made me smile. I had friends and now I had a home. Maybe I could become a normal person after all. I texted back Oliver that I had found a place to rent but it wasn't a normal apartment. I told him that I had given Evie a credit card and that I had to drag her away from the Mona Lisa when we visited the Louvre. Saudi Arabia was only an hour ahead of the time in Paris, but Oliver didn't respond right away. He was probably sleeping in. There wasn't much he and Christopher could do while Christopher healed from his head injury, so Oliver's days had been pretty lazy lately.

Liam kept his word about coming to visit and he, Grace, and Mia were flying in today on one of Whistler's private jets. I glanced down at my watch and saw that it was a little after seven a.m. meaning that it just after one a.m. in New York City. If I gave Liam a list of things I wanted for my new home that would be difficult to procure here, he would have time to get it and bring it with him. They wouldn't even have to worry about security. I thought for a moment and put together a list of items that I would like him to bring. Most of them were weapons that I could stash in my new home.

I didn't know how to respond to Christopher. He had been sending me texts like this all week. Like if we had the same kind of friendship that I shared with his brother. Christopher had told me to emotionally disconnect from the team in Dubai and then days later he had said that the key to solving all problems is to talk about them. He had accused me of sleeping with the rest of the team and now was acting like we were best friends. The man made no sense. Why would he give his right arm to be with me in Paris? Was it because Evie was here? Did he have a relationship with Evie or had it been a one-night stand? Evie hadn't mentioned Christopher in the last week, but I also hadn't asked.

I ended up responding like I usually did, by answering the direct questions but nothing else.

Payton: I am heading back to the hotel. Today I am going to work on getting my new place set up.

Once I was back at the hotel, I took a shower while being careful to keep my incision site dry and then worked through forty-five minutes of physical therapy exercises the surgeons had provided me with. While doing that I had received a text from Evie asking me to bring her suitcase from the hotel over to her new apartment. After I was finished, I filled a bag with ice and used an ace bandage to strap it to my arm before grabbing Evie's bag and heading out.

When I got to Evie's new storefront I knocked on the door and was surprised when Marc was the one to open the door in a pair of blue jeans and a clean white wife-beater tank top. He held the door open for me and I dragged Evie's oversized suitcase into the store. I was distracted away from asking Marc why he was here when I caught sight of the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in person.