Kate bursts through the door from the kitchen to find Ana leaning against the wall trembling; her eyes are closed with her head up towards the sky. She can see Ana inhale and then exhale intensely trying to fight back the tears and calm down. "Ana, what happened? Are you OK?"
Ana looks at Kate and wipes her eyes. She isn't used to wearing much makeup, so she forgets and smears her mascara giving herself an unintentional and messy smokey eye. "You can probably guess, but I just got into it with Christian. Ugh! He makes me so angry! I didn't want him to see me cry, so I ran out here." Ana explains to her dear friend who looks very worried for her.
"How can that asshole even have anything to start with you about?" Kate's voice is getting increasingly indignant.
"Get this; he was mad because of Blake. Like I chose Blake over him. What a fucking asshole." Ana shakes her head and wipes her tears once more.
"The asshole probably realized he fucked up by ghosting you and saw you with another guy. Honestly, I know you liked him, but it seems like you dodged a bullet with that one. Why don't I text the guys and we can leave, and all have pizza back at the apartment?" Kate knows how Ana would not want anyone to see her upset like this but she also wants to try to redeem their night out somehow. She puts her arms around Ana's shoulders and starts to walk with her towards the street. Ana looks up at Kate and gives her a small smile.
An hour later, Ana, Kate, Zach, and Blake are all in the living room of the girls' apartment enjoying pizza from Mama's Pizzeria, the place on the corner. "This pizza is pretty good. I mean not as good as the vichyssoise at John's restaurant but it'll do." Zach teases Kate as he picks up his third slice of pizza. Kate responds by teasingly smacking him on the shoulder.
The four of them spend the next couple of hours sharing the pizza, drinking beers, and talking with each other. Ana is surprised at how natural this feels. There are no awkward silences or feelings of uncertainty - they are just talking and laughing and having a genuinely good time.
When the guys finally leave it's pretty late. Kate shuts the door behind Zach and Blake and looks at Ana. With a mischievous smile, she asks Ana, "So, what do you think? I think he likes you a lot."
"Well, who wouldn't?" Ana replies facetiously, practicing her calm face and trying not to laugh.
"No, but seriously, what do you think?" Kate is dying to know what Ana thinks of Blake. He seems like a genuinely nice guy and was acting like he honestly is interested in Ana. She needs someone who is going to spoil her and treat her like a queen. Sometimes, Kate thinks Ana is too kind for her own good and always tries to see the honorable side of people. And, somewhat selfishly, it would be fun for Ana and Kate to date guys who are friends so they can double-date.
"Seriously, I think he's nice. And he's cute. We're going on another date Friday."
Slowly, a broad smile stretches across Kate's face with her cheeks making wrinkles around her eyes. "Yay! That's so exciting!" Kate jumps up and down a little bit in her excitement.
Mia rushes to keep up with her brother. "Christian! Slow down! I'm wearing super high heels and am a foot shorter than you!" Christian doesn't break his stride until they reach his car. He gets in the driver's seat and starts the car before Mia even has a chance to get in.
"Jesus, Christian! What the hell?!" Christian has always had a temper, but he usually softens when it comes to his little sister, so the fact he is still worked up perplexes her.
"Never mind, Mia," Christian tells Mia brusquely.
"No, Christian. I know you don't like to talk about personal stuff but I am involved, and I'm not going to stop until you tell me. You told me things didn't work out with you and Ana but what the hell happened back there? Why did she run off and why are you so mad? Is it because of her date?"
As soon as Mia says the word date, Christian unwittingly flinches. "Mia…" Christian pauses, unsure of what to say and how much information to divulge "... I liked Ana, and she never contacted me after our date, I thought she liked me. But tonight, when we were talking, she fucking lied to me. She told me she called and texted me. That pissed me off. I fucking hate liars."
"But Christian, why would she lie about that?" Mia asks him trying to figure this whole mess out.
"I don't know. Maybe to save face?" Christian doesn't take his eye off the road when he answers her.
"I don't know, Christian. That seems weird. Are you sure she didn't text you and you missed it or something?"
"Mia, I'm not a fucking idiot." Christian's voice is getting terser as the conversation between them continues.
"I know. I'm trying to help you out here." She counters back to him beginning to lose her patience. She can tell he is feeling the same way as he grips the steering wheel harder and harder, so his knuckles are white. "You didn't block her number?"
Christian doesn't answer Mia but instead turns to give her an icy glare. Finally, after a few seconds of silence, he says "No. I didn't block her. I told you I liked her."
"Look, all I'm saying is it seemed to everyone that she liked you too so her suddenly going quiet doesn't seem to make sense. Maybe something happened with your phone. Barney can probably tell if something happened, can't he?"
"Yeah, I suppose he can."
"Then you'll know for sure, and you can move on."
It's the following day, Christian has just finished reading the background Welch provided on Angela. And although everything she told him was real and in the report, he isn't interested and doesn't plan to pursue anything. He'll explain it to Elena later, it's not that important to deal with plus, she'll try to convince him to give things a try with her and he's not in the mood for any nonsense.
Christian is thinking about what Mia said in the car last night and against his gut feelings, he decides to humor his sister's idea by having Barney take a look at his phone. Barney is a total tech genius, if there were something wrong, he would find it. Christian doesn't want to risk anyone overhearing his conversation; therefore he uncharacteristically decides to visit Barney in his office.
Christian walks into Barney's basement office, which he selected over the corner office with floor to ceiling windows Christian offered Barney initially. Barney is sitting at a bank of monitors, each one displaying something different. The one in front of him appears to be written in binary code. Whatever. Barney is the best IT person he's ever met, and he doesn't care what Barney does.
"Barney," Christian announces himself in his authoritative CEO voice.
Barney quickly turns to look at Christian, "Mr. Grey. What can I do for you?"
"I need you to work your magic, but this needs the utmost confidentiality. This project isn't business related, per se."
"Absolutely. Everything stays between us. What do you need?"
"Can you tell if my phone malfunctioned at some point? For example, someone said they sent me a text which I didn't receive. Would you be able to tell if the phone malfunctioned to determine why I didn't receive the text?"
"The phones are constantly sending different data to the servers so as long as the data is still there, I don't see any issue with that."
"Great. Here's my phone. I need you to make this a priority - I can't be without my phone for too long." Christian hands over his late model iPhone to Barney.
"No problem, Sir. I only need a couple of hours."
A little while later, Christian is walking back from a deliriously long and agonizing finance meeting. Barney catches him in the hallway, "Mr. Grey. I have that information you requested." He slyly hands Christian his phone. Christian places it back in his pocket and motions towards his spacious office.
"Come in, Barney." Barney walks in and takes a seat at one of the white leather chairs in front of his large modern dark wood desk. Christian walks around to the other side of the desk to his desk chair. "So, did you find anything?"
"I think so." Christian raises his eyebrow at Barney's uncertain answer. "What I mean is, there isn't a malfunction with your phone, which is good. But I did find a number in your contacts that has been recently blocked."
"Interesting. Do you remember the name of the blocked contact?" Christian tries to act calm but inside his stomach is doing flip-flops. He's not sure if he wants the number to be Ana's or not - neither outcome is ideal.
"Um, yes, the name Anastasia." Barney rattles off her name as if she is just like anyone else. Christian knows that is not the case. There is no one like Anastasia in the world. She is unquestionably one of a kind.
"Can you tell when the number was blocked?"
"That I can. It was blocked on the 24th." Barney looks down at the notes he has on his iPad.
"Can you see the time?"
"The contact was blocked just after 20:30."
Christian can feel the anger rolling inside his gut and quickly rising through his chest and into his throat. That was when he was at dinner with Elena. But why would she do that? It doesn't make sense. It's not like she knew Ana or anything.
"I see. There isn't a way to see if the contact has tried to text or call me, is there?
"Unfortunately not. The phone company intercepts any calls or texts sent by a blocked contact before it gets to your phone."
"Thank you, Barney. That will be all. Thank you for your hard work." Christian nods at Barney, effectively dismissing him.
"No problem, Sir I hope I helped." Barney gets up out of the chair and walks out the office back to his basement office where no one is there to bother him or ask him any banal questions.
Fuck! Now what the hell is he supposed to do with this information, Christian asks himself. He rakes his hands through his hair and then rubs his temples out of frustration. Why would Elena want to ruin a relationship with Ana? She never even met her!