CHAPTER 10
Remy
I got up, feeling refreshed form a good night's sleep, and had a quick shower to freshen up before breakfast, which I assumed Danica and I would have together. After drying myself off and getting dressed into some casual clothes, I went over and knocked on her door.
“Danica? Are you up?”
There was no reply, so I knocked again, a little louder this time.
“Danica? It's me, Remy.”
I didn't hear anything, so I opened the door and looked inside. The bed had been made – hastily, it would seem – and Danica had left. I looked through my apartment to see if she was anywhere, but she had definitely gone. Fair enough; maybe she felt a little embarrassed about having passed out. I would call her later and talk to her.
Smiling with contentment, I headed over to my kitchen and fixed myself a healthy and delicious breakfast to start my Saturday.
* * * * *
I put the phone down, feeling very frustrated. This had been the seventh or eighth time that I had tried calling her phone, but every time I dialed her it went straight to voicemail. Was she really busy? Was there a problem with her phone? Or was the issue that she just didn't want to talk to me? If it was the latter, I really couldn't understand why. We’d had such a lovely time last night, and I had no doubt that she was into me, and I was quite sure that she hadn't been faking any of what she had said or how she had acted with me. So, what was the issue?
I realized that I hadn't even thought of the most obvious place to look for her: Facebook. I went to my laptop and typed in her name, but couldn't find her in the search results. Hmm. Well, I knew that one could use a phone number to look for someone's profile, so I decided to try that. I typed her number in the search bar, and sure enough, a profile came up and the picture was definitely her. The name, however, was Dani Dancer. Fair enough, I guess she didn't want to use her real name for whatever reason, maybe privacy concerns or something. I tried to look at her profile, but it seemed that she had all her privacy settings on the highest level, so there was pretty much nothing to see.
I sent her a friend request and settled down on the sofa to watch a movie while I waited for her to accept – which she surely would, right? I put on one of my favorite war films, Platoon, so that I wouldn't be too distracted by the feeling of waiting. Still, I kept checking my phone every few minutes to see if the notification had arrived. It hadn't.
By the time the movie had finished, I was feeling frustrated. Why was she avoiding me? What was going on here?
I Googled her name, hoping to find some sort of other social media platform on which she was active, or just anything really. There was nothing. I then logged into one of the property networks I used for work, which would be able to tell me if she was listed as a tenant or property owner anywhere in Manhattan.
Again, there was nothing. This girl was impossible to find!
“Come on, Danica,” I whispered as I dialed her phone once more. “Pick up, please pick up.”
Once more though, the call simply went straight to voicemail.
All right, all right... the dance academy. They would know.
I dialed their number, but was greeted with a message that informed me that they would be closed until Monday. Great.
Still, I had one more shot – I knew that m PA Carly was on pretty friendly terms with most of the staff at the dance place. Hopefully she had at least one of their personal numbers. I called her.
“Hi, Remy,” she said as she answered. “How's it going? Please don't tell me you're gonna ask me to work today...”
“No, nothing like that. But I do have a favor to ask.”
“All right, shoot.”
“This is gonna sound weird, but how close are you with the staff at the Hanover School of Dance?”
“Um, well I guess I'm kinda friends with Bianca, who teaches Anna. Why?”
“Would you be able to call her and find out how I can find a girl who just started working there? Her name is Danica. I don't need her phone number, I just need to know where I can find her.”
“Um, all right, but what should I tell her it's about? What is it about, Remy?”
“Just say that I'm a, um, a relative of hers.”
“Are you?”
I chuckled awkwardly. “Um, no. Look, I'll tell you about it at work, all right? Just please do this for me.”
“Okay, okay, I'll do what I can. Chat later, Remy.”
I cut off the call and waited in suspense. Five minutes later, she called back, and I answered the call right away.
“Hey, Remy,” she said, and from her tone I could tell that she was smiling on the other end of the line. “I've got something for you.”
“Excellent! Thank you, Carly! What did you find out?”
“This Danica girl works at a place called La Casa. It's a Mediterranean restaurant downtown. She apparently does a lot of shifts there, so you should have a good chance of finding her there.”
“Thank you so much! I owe you one.”
“And I won't forget that, Remy! Ha-ha. Have a good weekend.”
“You, too. Say hi to Anna for me. Bye!”
Excellent... I now had a lead, and I planned to follow up on it immediately.