Vanished

Unimpressed Cat

"His name is William Rodgers," Linda said as she caught up to me outside the entrance of the hotel. She'd gone to check us out while I waited for the car we'd ordered to take us to the airport.

I nodded. I'd been able to find out as much myself, but that was also all I'd been able to figure out, which was strange. But everything that had anything to do with Austin or William, or whatever the hell his actual name was, was very strange.

The people I talked to, the ones I'd seen him with that first night, said they had met him in the lobby when they arrived at the conference. He'd been looking at the BioloGen scheduled displayed in the lobby. They'd introduced themselves to him and had walked to the conference hall together, but they didn't actually know each other. All they knew was that he also worked for BioloGen.

The one woman had given me some strange, jealous kind of looks when I asked if they knew where he was from. "Shouldn't you ask him that?" she had responded in a sugary tone, which was anything but sweet.

"I would if I could find him. Do you know where he is?"

She didn't, but I got the feeling that she wouldn't tell me even if she did. And that she wouldn't mind finding out a little more about him herself, which pissed me off.

And the fact that I got pissed because someone else found him attractive pissed me off even more.

Seriously, what was my problem?

It had been ten years. We'd both clearly moved on. Well, maybe not clearly... I'd had other relationships -including Jeff who was my on again off again something- but none that had lasted. And none that had really ever measured up to him, but still... ten years. Why was I still possessive of him?

He wasn't mine anymore. He might be a married father, for all I knew. Maybe there was a beautiful Mrs. Rodgers, and maybe they had several small children...

And that was weird, too. He hadn't just changed his name from Austin to William, like I'd initially thought. No, he had changed his entire name from Austin Johnson to William Rodgers.

Why?

"The guy I talked to," Linda continued, "was from New Jersey. He didn't know much about William, but said he had met him once before in New York."

"Oh." I hadn't heard that. "Do you know if he's been with BioloGen for a long time?"

She shook her head. "That was about six months ago. The guy didn't know any more than that. Said William kept to himself."

I snorted out a sour laugh. He kept to himself alright. It was like Austin had turned into some freaking hermit.

***

The Georgia heat slapped me in the face when I stepped outside the terminal even though it was after nine pm. I debated whether I should pick up Selma, my calico cat from my sisters, or if I should wait until the morning. My niece was already asleep and chances were my sister was, too. Her husband, Brian, on the other hand, was probably awake watching whatever sports game was on TV.