Hey, I was just teasing. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.
Erin’s face screwed up with confusion. All she had done was simply not reply for maybe two minutes. Why was Jamie’s immediate reaction so apologetic?
No, you’re fine. I was just googling how to remove my foot from my mouth. You didn’t upset me.
Erin stared at her phone for a long while, watching the three dots bouncerepeatedly before disappearing. Erin was in the middle of typing out a second text when her phone suddenly jumped to life with an incoming phone call. She looked wide-eyed at the device in her hand before looking at Leo.
“Be cool.”
Leo sighed. Erin rolled her eyes at him again, then hit the green answer button.
“Jamie?” she asked, trying to bite back the nerves in her voice.
“Hey, sorry, I just…” Jamie trailed off and took a deep breath before rushing the rest of her words out. “It felt like it would be easier to explain in person, but since you’re not here, this is the best that I can do.”
Erin listened, her confusion growing by the second, but before she could respond, Jamie jumped back in.
“Ugh. Not that I mean you should be here, like here as in my apartment. Geez, that sounds awful. I just meant that I wanted to tell you in person, but it’s too late to ask you out.” Jamie sped through her thoughts. “Fuck, again, I need to be clear I’m not asking you out. I just—”
Erin smiled as Jamie rambled on, but felt she’d let it go on long enough.
“Jamie, you’re fine. What did you want to tell me?” Silence greeted her on the other end of the line. “Jamie?”
“Sorry, I just… Wow, this is harder than I expected it to be.” Erin could hear the fear and anxiety in Jamie’s usually bright voice. “I moved to Boston because I left my hus—my ex-husband,” she corrected herself. “It’s a long story, but he used to say that I would take my joking too far.”
Erin sat with Jamie’s words for a beat. “If that’s you ‘going too far,’ then I’d say I can handle it.”
Erin heard the slow release of a breath held in too long, before a small voice said, “Really?” Erin nodded, even though she knew Jamie couldn’t see her.
“Yeah, I just don’t really text much.”
Jamie laughed, and the tightness Erin hadn’t realized she felt in her chest released.
“Okay, that explains a lot,” Jamie said through a smile.
Erin felt her cheeks heat again, but instead of shoving the feeling down, she let herself laugh alongside Jamie.
“Okay, I should let you get back to your night,” Jamie said quickly. “Thanks for, um… not hanging up on me.”
Erin smiled. “Anytime.”
Erin ended the call and set her phone on the coffee table, Leo’s head still warm against her leg. The apartment was as quiet as ever, but something in her chest felt lighter than it had in a long time. She glanced down at the faint ink still smudged across her palm and let herself smile.
Ten
Jamie curled up sideways on her couch, phone balanced to her ear, a blanket tangled around her legs. She hadn’t planned on calling her mom tonight, but the fire, the texting, the phone call—it all buzzed too loud in her head to keep to herself.
“I think I embarrassed myself,” she admitted, skipping any kind of hello.
On the other end, her mom chuckled. “Sweetheart, that’s usually how you start your best stories. What happened?”
Jamie pressed her forehead against her knees and groaned. “She called me. Erin. The police PIO I told you about? I panicked and overshared and—ugh, it was a disaster.”
Her mom made a sympathetic noise, the kind that meant she wasn’t buying it. “Did she hang up on you?”
“No…” Jamie admitted reluctantly. “She actually laughed. Like, really laughed. And I think we ended on good terms? But it was still—” She broke off, feeling her cheeks warm just thinking about it.
“Well then,” her mom said lightly, “maybe it wasn’t a disaster after all.”
