“Josh’s personal assistant,” Sarah says. “Theresa Rodriguez.”
“Also known as T-Rod,” Jonas adds. “She runs Josh’s life.”
“And T-Rod’s stunningly beautiful,” Sarah adds. “Hey, love, do you have a photo of T-Rod on your phone?”
“Why would I have a photo of T-Rod on my phone?”
“I thought maybe from the wedding? Maybe she’s in one of the group shots?”
“I don’t have any of those shots on my phone—just a few select favorites of you and me.”
“It’s okay,” I interject. “I’m sure T-Rod’s stunning, but I’ve got another Argentinian I’m currently a bit obsessed with.”
“Baby, stay focused,” Jonas says playfully. “The poor guy’s losing his mind.”
“Sorry,” Sarah says, looking sheepish. “I didn’t mean to get us off track. I was just trying to prove my point about Argentinians being beautiful.”
“No problem,” I say to Sarah, smiling at her. “I’m sure I’ll meet T-Rod at some point and instantly realize you were completely right.”
Sarah giggles. “Okay, anyway, back to the Argentinian woman you actually care about: do you know if Samantha speaks Spanish?”
Memories of Samantha’s whispered voice in my ear flood me, sending blood straight into my dick. “Yeah, she speaks Spanish,” I reply, trying to keep my voice sounding neutral.
“That might be helpful to Henn,” Sarah says. “You never know. Maybe there’s some sort of annotation about bilingual employees in Delta’s employee files.”
My heart lurches into my throat. “Delta’s employee files?”
Jonas and Sarah look at each other like I’ve just screamed, “Someone, please, cut off my dick!”
“Where’d you think Henn would look?” Jonas asks slowly.
I run my hand through my hair, my stomach suddenly doing somersaults. “Facebook? Some census bureau database? I guess I didn’t think it through. I’ve never worked with a hacker before.”
“So... you’re comfortable with the idea of Henn hacking into the Census Bureau but not an airline’s employee files?” Jonas asks.
“I guess it just seemsparticularlyillegal to hack into a company’s private employee files. I mean, I can’t even pretend that shit is legal.”
Jonas shrugs like that’s an obvious statement. “What Henn does is definitely illegal. But no harm will come of it, I can personally assure you. Henn will go into the database, look around, get the information, and leave without a trace. That’s what he does.”
“But...” I begin. I run my fingers through my hair, collecting myself. “You don’t think it’s crazy for a dude to hack into an airline to find a girl with whom he chatted in a bar? I feel like if I do this, I’m crossing some line I’ll never be able to un-cross.”
“And what line would that be?” Jonas asks calmly.
“The line between sanity and insanity?”
Jonas laughs. “Sanity is highly overrated, my friend.” He looks at Sarah. “In fact, it’s my experience a little infusion of madness is a very good thing.”
Sarah smiles.
Jonas addresses me. “But, hey, given I’m a dude who hacked into the University of Washington to find a woman I’d never laid eyes on, take my opinion with a grain of salt. But either way, we gotta call Henn and let him know what you wanna do because he’s a busy guy.” He pauses. “So what’s it gonna be, Ryan? Are you gonna listen to your brain or your soul?”
I twist my mouth, considering the situation, and quickly realize I’ve got no choice. “I’m gonna listen to my soul,” I say.
“Atta boy,” Jonas says, a huge smile spreading across his face. “No regrets that way.”
I nod definitively. “If I don’t do this, I’m gonna go to my grave wondering ‘what if.’”
“Worst two words in the English language, as far as I’m concerned,” Jonas says. He begins scrolling through his contacts on his phone, presumably looking for Henn’s number. “My two cents? If your soul is shouting at you about Samantha half as loudly as mine did at me about Sarah, then, in my opinion, you have no choice but to listen the fuck up.”
