Chapter 27

"Ariella, where are you? I'll have Alex pick you up." "I'm at an apartment..." Ariella mumbled half-asleep. "Which apartment? Wait, you're not home? Were you sleeping somewhere else?" Fiona sounded surprised. Ariella was always pretty conservative-not the type to crash at someone's place, especially without a boyfriend in the picture. That question snapped Ariella wide awake. ‘Crap, I was too sleepy and messed up. I actually told her I'm at some apartment.' She bolted upright, brain scrambling to fix the slip. Then she quickly said, "Yeah, one of my old coworkers had a birthday last night. We had drinks, and it got late, so I just crashed at her tiny place." "Ohh, okay. You scared me for a sec. I thought maybe you had some... spontaneous one-night stand or something." Fiona chuckled. "So, where's the place? I'll send Alex." "No need, really. Just tell me where we're meeting and I'll come find you." "Oh, come on, Alex isn't busy. Why are you being so formal with me?" "I'm not. It's just