Who was Ed kidding? He wasn’t going to do a single thing with sexism in the workplace training until she came back, and they both knew it. With a huff of exasperation, she fired back her hope that he would leave her office untouched, and she would be happy to bother with it in the new year.
Seriously, what part of her big “getaway from all you people” did allthese people not get? She hadn’t even been gone twenty-four hours and everyone in her life was blowing up her phone. In a fit of taking-a-stand pique, she put her phone on silent. But then she thought about her kids and took it off silent. She would regret that, but they were her kids. Just because she had time to herself for the first time in years didn’t mean she didn’t care what was happening with them. She felt bad enough she’d taken off for two whole weeks without them.
She turned back to her empty sketch pad and had just picked up a pencil when her phone rang. “That’s it,” Amy said, and snatched it off the cot, ready to give whoever in her family was calling a piece of her mind. But the caller ID said Julie. Best friends were different—they were always an automatic answer.
“Hey!” Julie said. “What do you think of the house?”
“The house is amazing. You never told me it was so big! But we do have a little problem.”
“Is it the hot water? There are instructions in the drawer by the sink for what to do if the hot water goes on the fritz.”
“Wait, can that happen?” Amy asked, momentarily paralyzed by the idea of no hot water.
“Not usually, but…sometimes. Is it the hot water?”
“No, it’s the grown-ass man who is here for the same two weeks as me.”
There was a long pause of utter confusion on the other end of the phone. “What are you talking about?” Julie asked slowly, as if she suspected a prank, or worse, that Amy was seeing things.
“Apparently, Sam booked someone in for the same two weeks.”
“She didwhat? Is it a friend of hers?”
“I don’t think so. He said he paid for it in full. He must have gotten it off a vacation rental site.”
Julie apparently pulled the phone away from her head, because her scream of exasperation sounded a little farther away. But in the next moment, she was loud in Amy’s ear. “Are you kidding me right now, Amy?”
“Not kidding.”
“I’m going to kill her. What did you tell him? Where did he go?”
“Nowhere. He’s here. For now, we’re splitting it.”
“Oh my God, you’rewhat?”
“We agreed to coexist,” Amy said. “Until he gets his money back or something. There are two primary suites, you know.”
“Amy.” Julie groaned. “You can’t be serious. You can’t shack up in the house with a stranger. Who even is he?”
“For starters, I’m not shacking up. Two primary suites! And his name is Harrison Neely.”
There was another longer-than-necessary pause. “Thegolfer?” Julie asked. “Not the golfer. Surely it’snotthe golfer.”
Amy was startled that Julie knew his name. “Yes, the golfer. How did you know that? You don’t strike me as being up on golf in any way.”
“Wow,” Julie said. “Is he cute? He looks cute on TV.”
“What has that got to do with anything? And since when do you see golf on TV?”
“It has nothing to do with anything. But when you date, sometimes you date men who are into golf, and you end up seeing it on TV. I mean, I would highly advise against sharing a house with a total stranger, but he’s sort of famous, and he’s cute. At least helookscute, but he always has a hat on. Is he bald? Not that there is anything wrong with bald. You know what, Amy? You should totally embrace it. Have sex—”
“Jesus, Julie!” Amy cried. “He’s a stranger!”
“But cute. And pretty well known in golf circles, actually.”
“Seriously, how do you know that?”
“I told you. And besides, I’ve played golf.”
