Page 313 of A Matter of Time

“It’s Saturday morning,” I complained to whoever it was.

“Oh, now you answer your phone? What about last night, asshole? You totally blew us off.”

I processed the voice, tried to think of what I was supposed to have done on Friday night instead of being out with my boyfriend, Sam Kage, his partner, Chloe, and her boyfriend, Jason. It took me a couple of minutes for my brain to kick in and remember.

“Oh, Ev,” I groaned. “You had a guy for me to meet.”

“That’s right, I did,” my friend, Evan Rheems, scolded me. “C’mon, Jory, if you didn’t want to go, all you had to do was tell me. You know I would never make you meet somebody who’s not cool.”

“Oh no? I have two words for you—Mark Dade.”

There was a long silence before: “Screw you, J, that’s not—one pervert does not negate my entire record of great hookups.”

I chuckled, because he was being very defensive. “You suck at setting me up, and you know it.”

“But that’s no excuse to⁠—”

“I’ll make it up to you,” I soothed him. “How ’bout I take you and your lovely boyfriend out for dinner next week? I promise to⁠—”

“No,” he grumbled. “We’ve gotta pick up Loudon’s mom at the airport. She’s in from Bloomfield Hills for all of next week, and sadly, she hates going out and loves to cook. The week after we’ll make a plan.”

“Bloomfield what?” I asked, hung up on that part.

“Hills. It’s in Michigan.”

“Oh.” I couldn’t stifle the laugh. “Well, I am sorry I blew you off. I didn’t mean to, but Sam’s back and I⁠—”

“What?”

“Sam.”

He caught his breath. “What?”

“Evan,” I warned him.

“You know another Sam?”

“We both know I don’t.”

“Oh God.”

“Stop.”

He was starting to breathe hard. “So the Sam.”

“Yep.”

“Police detective Sam.”

“Yes.”

“As in, the-guy-I-hate Sam?”

“You don’t hate him.”

“Oh no, I’m sure I do hate him.”

“Well, stop, ’cause he’s gonna move in,” I said, deciding at that moment that he could. What was I waiting for, a shining light from heaven? I was madly in love with the man. He was, in fact, the only man I had ever loved. To make him wait through a period of dating to move in with me was a stupid waste of time. The man wanted to be with me—who was I to say no?