I looked away and smiled, then looked at her again, my glee sliding off my face quickly. “Thatisinteresting. Not sure what it has to do with any of this. He’s your friend, as I’ll remind you again, and I’m doing him a favor. For you.”
Pointing to her chest, she repeated, “For me?”
She and her smug smile was the worst.
“Yes. I knew you’d want me to help him if I could, right?”
Her voice deepened, suddenly becoming serious, but she wasn’t fooling me. Her wheels were turning, and that was never good. “Yes, yes, of course. You’d be doing something noble.”
“That’s right. Noble.” Narrowing my eyes, I said, “Don’t get any ideas, Vicky Austin. I’m not attracted to him in that way.”
“Okay, okay. No ideas. I’m just teasing you. Forget Mike for now. I’d love to spend some time with you dreaming some more about our firm, Ren. Knowing now that you would even consider San Diego changes things.” I was more than grateful for the subject change.
“I want nothing more than to do this with you, but my staying here is a long shot.”
Vicky leaned her chin on her hand, as it rested on the table. “I’ve seen firsthand what God can do with a long shot.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Mike
Two days had passedsince I saw Ren, and I was starting to get antsy. This was foreign to me, and I didn’t know what to do about it. The overwhelming desire to see her was unexpected. When I got up for work, I made up my mind to text her, if for no other reason than to hear from her.
This was bad. So, so bad. What has this woman done to me?
It was Thursday, so getting to talk to her tonight before game night the next evening would be best. Then I was going to see if she was willing to meet Grammy on Saturday. Especially since my grandmother hadn’t stopped calling and texting me about it. Taking a bite of stir-fry leftovers I’d brought to work for my lunch, I gathered my courage.
Me: Hey, hey, there. What’s going on?
Then I erased it. I sounded like a commercial announcer with fake teeth.Oddly specific, man.
Flicking my head from side to side like a boxer warming up, I rubbed my hands together and tried again.
Me: Hi Ren. Mike here. I was wondering if you were free to talk.
Eh. Better but not great.
I’d decided to tell her who I was in case she hadn’t saved my name in her phone yet.
In my head, I sounded like those smooth-talking radio personalities right before announcing the love song someone had requested. Hopefully, she liked that kind of thing.
When there was no answer fifteen minutes later, I figured she must be busy. Scrolling through social media to pass the time, I kept eating and laughing at reels of toddlers misbehaving. I accidentally hit the share button and had to scramble to erase it.
“Almost did a Grammy share,” I murmured, setting the phone down as if it could explode at any moment.
Twenty minutes later, as I was picking up my food container to throw away, my phone buzzed. My heart raced just seeing her name pop up.
Renata: Ciao Mike. I knew it was you. I’m free anytime this afternoon. What time works for you?
She’d saved me in her phone!
“Yes.” I hissed, fist pumping the air like a high schooler. “Italian just got even more alluring. Need to learn some words to impress her. Okay, calm down, big boy, and answer the text,” I scolded myself, taking a deep breath and using my hands, palms down, to chill out and blow out a long hissing sound.
“What are you doing?”
I dropped the phone, then tried to grab it dramatically, praying I hadn’t just sent her that reel with the cats that were afraid of cucumbers I was laughing at right before she texted.
Looking up at my co-worker Joseph, I said, “Need something?” My tone was too stern for how I usually spoke. “Sorry, what can I do for you?”
