She clicked on the passenger.
Yes!
Gabe. Pickup location, the bar she was currently sitting behind. User rating 5.0, which made her perfectionist heart happy. She was also a 5.0.
She accepted the request and went to tidy her hair before she realized it was stuck under her hood and hat. It didn’t matter what she looked like. She was careful not to let him see. Anyway, lately, he’d been more and more inebriated when she picked him up, which meant he was even less likely to recognize her.
She pulled out of the alley and eased up to the entrance of the bar. A huge figure stumbled out of the door.
She’d seen him less than seven hours ago, but the length of time didn’t matter. Her breath caught.
Even drunk, Gabe Hunter was beautiful. He was huge and muscular, his face broad and usually creased in a grin. He was thirty-five now, and lines were carved deep around his lips, though she assumed they came more from smiles than age or frowns. The light from the neon sign of the door caught on the red in his too-long dark auburn hair, and when he came close, she knew his green eyes would be clear and dancing.
He wore snug jeans that encased his thick thighs, his T-shirt clinging to his flat stomach. What she’d do to lift that shirt and see his ridged abs. She’d glimpsed them, once, but she tried not to think about that mortifying experience too much.
She swiveled and faced straight ahead when he came close enough to see into the window. He knew her car now. Her back door opened and he slid inside, the car rocking a bit with his massive weight.
He could break her, and she didn’t think she’d mind being broken. Her thighs clenched.
“Anne,” came his boisterous voice. It was deep and slightly thick, his tongue rolling over her alias. “Fancy meeting you here again.”
“Good evening, Gabe.” She kicked herself as soon as she uttered the frosty greeting. It was what Evangeline would say, not Anne. She cleared her throat and put the car into drive. “Hey.” She felt a little ridiculous deepening her voice, but since he’d been talking to Eve less than seven hours ago, she wasn’t taking any chances.
“It’s funny how you’re always the one taking me home, isn’t it?”
Not that funny. She’d figured out the app’s algorithm worked purely off of distance on her second day. If she hovered around the bar when he was coming out, odds were she would be able to intercept his ride request.
If she wasn’t a totally harmless stalker, she’d be concerned with how easy it was to game the system. When she got into the business, that would be the first thing she changed. There were weirdos out there! Clearly Ryde didn’t have enough paranoid women working for them. “Yes. So funny.”
“Favorite movie.”
Her shoulders relaxed. He’d started this on their first night, and she adored it. Everyone thought they knew everything about her. No one ever took the time to ask her silly questions. Despite her subterfuge, she always answered honestly. It wasn’t like he’d pause in a cake tasting to ask Eve her favorite movie.“The Sound of Music.”
“Classic. But don’t you think it’s weird the answer to how do you solve a problem like Maria is to marry her to a widower with ten kids?”
She swallowed her smile. “He has seven kids, I believe.”
“Still a lot of kids.”
“It may not be the most feminist message, no. But I watched it with my mother every year.” Her mother had shared her name with Maria, and it had tickled young Evangeline to no end.
He stretched his legs out so far his knee bumped her elbow on the armrest. She didn’t move away, and neither did he. “Aren’t you going to ask me for my favorite movie?”
She edged her elbow back a hair, the contact thrilling her. “I know it.”
“That right? What is it?”
“Die Hard.”
He guffawed. “I do likeDie Harda lot, but it’s not my fave.”
“What is?”
“Star Wars.”
“No.”
“Why are you surprised?”
