Louis' POV
I watch Claire leave, and something about it unsettles me almost immediately.
The word friend sticks in my mind, sharp and deliberate. She didn't say friends. She said friend.
That means she was meeting just one person. It was not her two female friends from the other day.
A friend.
It could be anyone. It should be anyone. But my mind doesn't wander far before it settles on a single name.
Jax.
I try to stay focused on my work, forcing my attention back to the screen, to the neatly arranged documents and numbers that usually demand precision. But the words blur almost instantly. My thoughts begin to spiral before I can stop them.
Who was she meeting?
I don't like how easily that thought comes. I don't like how naturally my mind jumps to him, as though it's already decided something I haven't consciously admitted.
I try to reason with myself.
It's paranoia. It is baseless and untrue, she didn't specify.
