At that I laughed and said, “Fine. There was this moment last night where he looked at me like . . .”
“Like?” she prompted, urging me to go on.
“Like how Malec looked at Aliana after their first fight.”
She reached across the countertop to grab my forearm while squealing in delight. “Are you kidding me? I would have died if he ever looked at me that way!”
“Hi, recently resurrected person here.”
“Then what did you do?”
“I got out of the car.”
“You didn’t kiss him?” she asked in utter disbelief.
“We’re just friends. I can’t.”
“You most certainly can! Often, and with a crap ton of passion.”
I went to my old standby. “I’m not dating anyone. You know that. I’m focusing on my business. And kissing leads to dating.”
“I really want to respect your choices and be supportive of you, but as your friend, please know that everything you’re saying is still dumb. You should totally be making out with him.”
When I just shook my head as my response, she came over to sit on the other barstool. “You know I only want the best for you, right? Instead of drawing boundaries, I think you should go with the flow. See where the universe takes you.”
“That’s not really my thing. I’m more of a violently-struggle-against-the-flow type of person.” Sometimes I did make things harder than they needed to be.
We sat in silence for a moment until she said, “So, just friends, huh? Does that mean you’d be good with him dating someone else?”
“Is he?” The words rushed out of my mouth without my approval. “I mean, if he is, that’s fine. Good for him.” My reaction was totally unwarranted considering he’d told me himself that he wasn’t dating anyone. “As his friend, I would want him to be happy.”
“I don’t believe you,” she said in a singsong voice.
Yeah, neither did I.
But even if I wanted to date him and wasn’t desperately afraid of getting close to him, there still wouldn’t be any way. I couldn’t compete with the kind of women he could date. What did I have in common with the world’s most beautiful actresses and models?
I mean other than the fact that we were all hungry all the time?
“Well, I have to get ready for work.” She put an emphasis on the last word, clearly pleased to have a client again. She took her coffee mug to the sink. “Is there a message you want me to pass along to your newly acquired friend?”
“Nope, I’m good.”
“Maybe I’ll give him a good, rousing speech about how faint heart never won fair maiden,” she mused, rinsing her cup out and putting it into the dishwasher.
“It won’t do you any good. He accepted his defeat and retreated like a good soldier.”
She seemed to consider this. “Or . . . he didn’t retreat. Maybe he’s biding his time and planning to attack from another position.”
Shaking my head, I gathered up my stuff and then went into my bedroom, closing the door behind me. I dropped my purse on my bed and plugged the charger into my phone. I peeled off my dress. I needed a shower, but Shelby would need to use it first.
For her new job.
My phone buzzed again, and I let myself have that moment of hope again before checking. My bank again. They must really want me to go into debt. But this time I bothered to read the first line.
It said SECURITY ALERT.
I opened the message, and it said something about fraudulent activity and to call them as soon as possible to resolve it. My pulse began to beat frantically. I logged on to my banking app to see what was going on.
Zero.
My checking account had been cleared out.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
I called the phone number in the text and pushed the numbers in the menu to report fraudulent activity. A woman named Karen answered and asked for my account number. I didn’t know it off the top of my head, although I probably could have gotten it from my banking app.
She asked, “Do you have your debit card? You could read that number to me.”
The last place I’d had my card was in my clutch. I dived for my purse, pulling out the candy bar, my driver’s license, my lipstick, mints, and a thing of tissues.
No debit card.
“It’s gone,” I told her.
“Do you know when you lost it?”
“I had it yesterday.” I specifically remembered putting it in my purse when I was getting ready for the Oscars, just in case I needed