The Real(30)

Me: You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.

Cameron: Try me.

Me: I’m waiting on Bree who’s getting her fortune read and a dog just made love to my boot. Didn’t take it to dinner or anything, just fed his desires and left.

The bubbles started going, and I knew he was laughing because his answering emoji told me so.

Cameron: Poor boot. Are you getting your fortune told?

Me: Nope, don’t believe in it.

While waiting for his reply, I glanced at the picture above the TV. It was an old movie poster with a prominent moon and stars in darkening blue above the title The Man in the Moon. I briefly thought of how astrology and astronomy were both based on numbers or the use of. I thought it ironic that if mathematicians had a religion, it would be either of those.

Cameron: There are numbers in the moon and stars.

I couldn’t believe what I was reading. It was as if he were in the room.

Me: Wow.

Cameron: What?

Me: Just a lot of strange coincidences in the last few minutes.

Cameron: Are they coincidences?

Me: Don’t you start. I told Bree from a scientist’s point of view that love was a chemical reaction and that people get off on the high of it and she got pissed.

Cameron: You make me high.

Maybe I was still a little cynical, but the man had an arsenal of woo and was tearing down any argument I held day by day. Whatever the science was behind the way I felt for him didn’t matter. All that really mattered was that he made me high and in the most organic way. Time would tell if we would last, but I was enjoying the high.

Bree appeared from the room minutes later with a smile.

“Ready?”

I smiled back. “I think I am.”





“Kat, you in here?” I asked as I walked into the bathroom. “I hate to bother you, but everyone is seated at the meeting.”

“Yeah.” Her voice was unsteady. “I’ll be right there.”

She opened the stall door, her face pale, her forehead covered in sweat.

“Are you okay?”

“It’s the sushi I ate last night. I think I got a touch of food poisoning. And my head is killing me.”

“Oh no. We can reschedule,” I offered, knowing we would be hard-pressed to do so.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” she snapped, running the water and soaping her hands. “I’ll be right there.”

“Okay,” I said, turning on my heel.

“Is there something you want to say to me?” she asked.

“Pardon?”

“I said”—she turned from the counter and crossed her arms in front of her—“it looks like there is something on your mind. Let’s hear it.”

She clearly had some sort of confrontation in mind as her dark blue gaze scoured my appearance like I was beneath her.

I shook my head. “Nope, just waiting to start this meeting.”

“Sure? Because from where I’m standing, it seems like it.”

“Kat, is there something I’m missing here?” I said, both annoyed and stunned at her uncalled-for aggression. “I don’t have an issue here.”

“Good,” she said as she walked past me, the air around her filled with an unspoken insult.

“What. The. Hell,” I mouthed, walking after her.

An hour into the meeting Kat was leading, I got a text.

King of Woo: Hey, beautiful.

Me: Hi.

King of Woo: How’s your day going?

Me: Sucky. Full of suck. A suck fest.

King of Woo: Let me make it better. Plans tonight?

Me: I was just going to watch scary movies and pass out candy.

His answering text was the thumbs down emoji.

Me: You have a better plan?

King of Woo: Can you get together a last-minute costume? There’s a pub party tonight. Nothing big, but I would love it if you could come.

Me: I think I can dream something up.

King of Woo: I’ll pick you up at eight.

Me: See you then.

“Abbie?” I met Kat’s icy gaze that led the rest of the room to stare in my direction.

I was being called out like the distracted kid in class, which I was at the moment, but I’d covered her ass enough times to expect the same. I didn’t work for her, and at some point, I might have to make that clearer.

Lucky for me, I was good at multitasking and met her challenge head-on. “We’ll be implementing all of it next quarter along with the new software. It’s clearly outlined,” I reminded her, making her call-out redundant.

She continued the meeting I’d spent hours preparing for—prepping her for.

It was going to be one of those days.





“Okay, woman, I’m here,” Bree called from down the hall. “I don’t have long. I have to get back to work and scan the ca—” her words stopped as she took in my costume.

“What do you think?” I asked, proud of myself for being able to throw together the perfect outfit on such short notice.

“What do I think? Are you serious?” she said, setting her purse down, her scrubs tarnished with a blood stain that I didn’t want the story behind.

Bree looked me over with wild eyes. “This is a date, not a costume contest. Where’s the sexy?”