Irresistible Boss Succumbing to Your Touch (Maria Anita) novel Chapter 3

Flavian’s POV

Patrick called asking if I had time to grab a drink with him. I found my friend unusually serious, which was odd since Patrick was typically a laid-back, playful guy. Something seemed wrong. Either way, it would be good to hang out with him for a while. We agreed to meet after work at a bar, and when I arrived, he was already there.

"Hey, detective," Patrick greeted me seriously, which already had me worried.

"What's up, man? What happened?" I asked right away.

"Ah, Flavian, I don't even know what happened," Patrick sighed.

"What do you mean?" I ordered a drink and waited for my friend to speak.

"Something's wrong with Virginia." So that was it. Even I had noticed that Virginia had been acting strange lately, as if she were somewhat disconnected from the group.

"Patrick, I noticed she's been avoiding the girls, always busy with something, but I didn't think you two were having problems." I looked carefully at my friend, and I knew that expression on his face - I had seen it before.

"I didn't think so either, but we are having problems. Lately, we've been fighting over everything. We disagree on everything. But today something strange happened." He looked away as if remembering.

"What was it?" I asked, noticing he was getting lost in his thoughts.

"She asked me to have lunch at home because she wanted to talk. Then she complained that I hadn't told her Rick went to visit Tess over the weekend, since he went without telling Tess. I said I had no idea Rick had traveled and didn't understand why she was angry about it, after all, he would have gone to see his wife. Then she started this whole thing about how I don't trust her, how I don't tell her anything, and so on. I still don't understand what she really wanted, because she changed the subject and started fighting about how I supposedly don't trust her." I didn't understand this fight coming out of nowhere either, but I could imagine how Patrick was feeling.

"Patrick, this whole situation with Rick and Tess is pretty weird, isn't it? She's been gone for ages. I don't know, could they be fighting?" I had been suspicious about this for a while, but I respected Rick's choice not to talk about it.

"I've thought about that possibility, but Rick only says she's taking care of her father and that when he gets better, she'll come back. However, I think there's more to it, and if anyone knows what's going on, it's Manu - those two are full of little secrets," Patrick emphasized something I had already noticed.

"Yeah, those two became really close friends, and Manu knows something, but she won't tell," I said. Manu was loyal to her friends and wouldn't reveal Rick's secret, not even to me.

"But what Virginia did was so strange. It seemed like she was making up reasons to fight, you know? As if she wanted a pretext," Patrick speculated, and I agreed with him.

"Man, we both made terrible choices in the past." Patrick laughed as if my divorce and him being abandoned on the eve of his wedding were some kind of joke. It was impossible not to laugh with him.

"Don't even get me started, Patrick. And would you believe Sabrina showed up at the police station today?" I told him, and he looked at me as if it wasn't news at all.

"And you thought she would give up so easily?" Patrick was right, Sabrina wouldn't give up. "My friend, that woman is like a plague when she wants something, you should know that by now."

"The worst part is that I do know, but I fooled myself thinking I had gotten rid of her." I sighed.

"So what are you going to do? Just don't tell me you're going to hide this from Manu, it caused enough trouble last time." I wasn't sure if Patrick was warning me or begging me to tell Manu, but either way, he was right.

"After everything that happened, the first thing I'm going to do when I get home is tell my little one that that crazy woman showed up at the police station." Patrick raised his glass for a toast after I spoke.

"Well done! Now tell me, what does that lunatic want?" Patrick asked, and I told him everything, just as I would tell Manu as soon as I saw her.