I never heard back from Owen last night. Which is fine. Obviously.
He certainly doesn’t owe me a play-by-play of what happened with Zoe after I let him know she was Listicling him.
Okay. I’m dying to know what happened.
And… well, he texted me yesterday, right? I mean, I’d been trying to keep it to email because I didn’t want to overstep.
Except giving the guy a full walking tour map right after he complained about Zoe’s itinerary was possibly the definition of overstepping.
But he seemed to like the walking tour, so I’m ignoring that. Anyway, nowhe’stextedme, so I think it’s fair game. Right?
Oh goddamn it, I should not be worrying about this. I should be writing an elaborately staged kidnapping scene with a sexy double agent and a private jet.
I sit at the table. I open my laptop. I sip my coffee.
Fuck it.
I grab my phone.
George
What happened? (Are you up? Please be up. Did I wake you? Sorry I woke you. WHAT HAPPENED?)
I hit send and watch my words pop up in a new bubble. I was going for “comically excited,” but on reread, I’m pretty sure I just hit “neurotic” and “too much time on his hands.”
I am already concocting a story about how the text was meant for someone else. Not Zoe, obviously. Who the hell else do I text? Screw it, I could just make someone up. I am already writing the text, scrambling for a name. Marco Valenti, maybe? He was a minor character in the last Steele book. Would Owen know that?
But then three little bouncing dots appear.
CHAPTER 28
OWEN
I shufflemyself up onto an elbow and try to blink away the sleep as I smile down at my phone screen.
I did think about texting George last night to let him know what happened, but I wasn’t sure if that would be an intrusion. Clearly, I left the poor man hanging. I tap out a response.
Owen
We talked. She copped to running a covert, listicle-based, matchmaking blitz. She promised to stop.
His answer comes back almost immediately.
George
Do we believe her?
I laugh out loud, my voice breaking the silence in the empty apartment.
We are cautiously optimistic. We are also going to thoroughly vet any new suggestions she makes going forward.
Good call.
This is not my first Zoe rodeo.
Zodeo?
Zoe-odeo?
