Rule No. 1: No Romance (GirlxGirl WlW)

Chapter 29

Louise's POV

"Louise, you can't be serious?" Ari lets out a puff of hot air. It condenses in a wisp of vapour as it meets the cold night air and disappears. "When I told you I was around town and to call me if you needed anything, I meant actual serious stuff, not for me to follow some gay guy."

"Well, I'm not asking for a favour, I'll pay you," I groan, resting my back on the cliff railing. "It's important."

"How are you going to pay me? With what money?"

"I have a job now."

"You don't need to pay me, Louise," she sighs. "Why is this guy a problem?"

"I'm seeing my boss—"

"Does your grandfather know?"

"He knows I'm seeing someone from the office but he doesn't know it's her, long story short, this guy is a bitch and is threatening to out us to my grandfather... Look, Ari, I really like this woman, I can't have her lose her job because of me."

"What? Do you want me to kill him?"

"No— What?"

"I'm joking," she deadpans, and honestly I can't tell, nor do I want to know, if she's serious. "I'm a measly private investigator."

"I just need you to get me some physical evidence I can use to keep him at bay, he has some pictures of us, and I want to have the same leverage," I say, looking down into the city. "Esther has promised him she wouldn't out him and I think he knows she'll stick to it, but I made no such promise."

"This is a nice spot, so romantic," she follows my eyes. "But when I told you to pick a secluded place I didn't mean the peak of a mountain, it's freezing in here—"

"Ari... you are not taking this seriously, are you?"

"No, but consider it done," she says, a smile tugging at her lips. "You've grown up to be a carbon copy of your mother."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," I sigh. "You don't need to help me just because you have some kind of deathbed pact with my mother, as I said, I'm not asking for a favour — I'll pay you."

She eyes me with an amused expression. "Alright, I'll invoice you when I'm done."

"I'll kill you if you send me a blank invoice," I groan as I watch her leave, she simply raises her arm slightly waiving her hand in acknowledgement.

I shake my head, taking my phone out of my pocket, Even though I told Esther I'd deal with it I know she's still on edge after all that has happened, and I'm not sure if she truly believes I'm able to get him out of our backs but for this to work, I can't have her go talk to him and risk Ari's chances of catching him in the act.

She answers right away, her voice sounding tired yet soothing to my ears. "Are you finally going to explain to me that marvellous plan of yours?"

"You wouldn't approve," I answer with a sigh, running my fingers through my hair. "I need you to trust me and play along."

"Playing along is one thing but you asking me to pretend I don't know Caleb came to talk to you is another, I've been avoiding him the whole day" she groans, and I can hear the ruffling of papers. "How am I supposed to have a meeting with him tomorrow and not dig my nails into his eyes?"

"Ouch," I flinch at the mental image. "He'll probably expect you to say something, but we need him to think he doesn't need to worry about us. Do your stoic face thing, you're a pro at it."

"Are you planning to catch him in the act? Good luck, ever since I've caught him, he's gotten annoyingly cautious about every single detail of his affairs."