Teddy was back home an hour later.  He had driven around, blowing off steam, but that only made him aware that he was wrong as hell.  What did Nikki ever do to him?  Nothing.  She even cooked him dinner and ran his bath even after he came in late!  And she was right: he could have called her.  He could have told her that he sometimes needed some time by himself.  He had an apartment in town, and he stayed at that apartment until late.  The only reason he didn’t stay all night was because he missed Nikki.  He could have told her that.  But nooo.  He decided to cuss her out.  He decided to stomp off.  He decided to be an asshole, he said to himself.

He entered the house hoping Nikki would still be downstairs, and not asleep.  But she wasn’t downstairs.  Their plates of food, in fact, were still on the table the way it was when he left, as if she didn’t waste any time getting upstairs.  He headed up that way too.

But when he got upstairs, and didn’t see her in his bed, where he absolutely expected to see her, he became concerned.

“Nikki?”

He went into the bathroom.  No Nikki there either.

“Nikki?”

He went into his massive, walk-in closet.  When he looked in the corner where her suit case had been, and saw that it was gone, and saw the clothes she had hanging up had gone, too, he began to panic.  “God no,” he said out loud.  “Nikki!” he yelled.

He ran back into the bedroom, to the nightstand, to see if she left a note.  She left something, alright, he noticed.  But it wasn’t a note.  It was the keys to the Aston-Martin.  She had left, and she didn’t take anything he had given her with her!

Teddy took off.  He pulled out his cell phone, calling Nikki, as he ran downstairs, out of his home, and got into his Corvette.  But Nikki didn’t answer her phone.  He drove around the neighborhood nervously, to see if she was walking trying to get somewhere.  What if she got lost???

Then he realized how savvy Nikki was.  She would have called a cab, or an Uber, or some fucking transportation!

Then he thought about what he had said to her.  He told her she could take her ass back to Los Angeles.  He all but told her to go!  Nikki was a proud woman.  She’d already told him she wasn’t going to take his shit.  She probably left right after he did.  And the transportation she might be on was probably bigger than an Uber!

He thought about the airport, or the bus station, or the train station.  He began heading for one at a time.  He was going to search each and every one of them until he found her.  And if she was already gone to L.A., he was going to get there too.  He wasn’t losing Nikki.  She was the only good thing he had going in his life.  The only good thing he’d ever had going in his life.  He wasn’t losing her!

But as soon as he began speeding toward the airport, his cell phone began ringing.  He answered it so fast, praying that it was Nikki, that he forgot to look at the Caller ID.

It wasn’t Nikki.  It was Gloria.

“She’s here,” Gloria said into the phone.

Teddy almost slammed on brakes.  Thank God!  “She is?”

“She doesn’t know I’m calling you,” Gloria added.  “She’s in a bad state.”

Teddy heart was still pounding as he hooked a U-turn and began heading for Gloria’s condo.

“You’d better clean up your act, Teddy Sinatra,” Gloria said angrily.  “For real though.  Nikki’s not thirsty like these girls out here.  She’s not going to put up with your mess the way they do.  She doesn’t have to.”

“I know that.”

“Then why are you treating her like this, Teddy?”

“Treating her like what?  What did she tell you?”

“You know Nikki isn’t going to tell me her business.  But she didn’t come to my condo this time of morning for her health.  She was crying, Teddy.”

Teddy’s heart dropped again.

“I couldn’t believe you would bring that nice girl, a proud person, to tears like that.  You should be ashamed of yourself!”

Teddy knew it too.  He picked up even more speed.  “Don’t let her leave until I get there,” he ordered.

But Gloria was upset with him.  “You’re in no position to be giving out orders,” she said.  And hung up the phone.