Anna
Call me.
Then proceed to scroll down and see that all the texts are different variations of her telling me to call her as soon as possible. That’s weird. She left a voicemail. I press play and put the speaker on to listen.“Lyse, it’s Anna, obviously, I don’t know why you haven’t answered your phone, but Libby said she was taking a walk last night and saw you with Mateo and that you two were having sex against your car? What the hell? Call me back.”
I stare at my phone in disbelief. What is Libby talking about? Having sex against my car? My anxiety rises, and I quickly dial Anna’s number.
“Fucking finally!”
“Anna. What’s with that message you left me? What are you talking about?” I say, panicked.
“Okay, so…Libby told Hilda and Hilda told me that she saw you last night with Mateo and you were canoodling.”
“Canoodling?”
“Yup.”
“You said that she said we were having sex.”
“Right, I needed you to call me back right away and you weren’t answering. I figured that would get those fingers dialing.”
“For fuck’s sake, Anna! I was damn near hyperventilating!”
“Why? It’s obviously not true. You wouldn’t be caught dead doing anything with Mateo.”
The silence is deafening. Shit. I’m really going to have to do this, aren’t I? I’m really telling people that I’m dating Mateo?
“Lyse? Right?”
“Well…”
“Holy fuck balls. You’re fucking Mateo!”
“No! I mean! Yes! No! Oh my god, Anna!”
“Well, which is it? Are you or aren’t you?”
“We’re not fucking—we’re dating.”
The other end of the call is so silent that for a moment I think Anna hung up. I’m about to speak when she says, “Dating? You? And Mateo? Together? You and Mateo are dating? Each other?”
“Yes, we’re dating each other. That’s usually what that means.”
“Wow. I’m shocked. Didn’t you say he was a walking red flag? And I didn’t think hedidrelationships.”
“Yeah. I did think he was a walking red flag, but you know, we spend a lot of time together because of Maya—they love each other so much—and I got to learn about who he really is as a person.”
“And who is that?”
“A nice guy, Anna.”
Anna sighs. “Shit. I can’t believe this is actually happening. Seb is going to be pissed. You know he gets all macho big brother and tells everyone to stay away from you.”
“He’ll get over it. He just needs to hear it from me first.”
Anna laughs. “Well, you better talk to him soon, because Libby is running her mouth. You’re the best piece of chisme we’ve had in months.”
I roll my eyes. Shit. Living in a small town can be really hard when you’re trying to keep a secret. I need to get to Seb before he hears it from someone else and blows a gasket.
