Truly, Madly, Like Me - Jo Watson Page 0,54

need to abbreviate coming out.”

“He usually tries to keep it hidden until he gets to know someone,” Samirah added.

“Really?” I felt somewhat touched by this.

“And then it’s all brekkie and footie and Chrissie!” she teased.

Mark laughed. “Let’s get out of here, before she makes me look like a total fool.” I got the feeling from this interaction that Samirah and Mark knew each other well. I started walking out when something caught my eye.

“What’s that?” I asked, pointing at it.

Samirah walked up behind me and sighed. “I need an assistant. It’s getting too hard to work being this pregnant. And I’m sure I’ll need some extra help when the babies arrive too. I was planning on sticking it up in the town hall.”

“Oh.” I looked at the poster for a moment. “Good luck. Hope you find a good person.”

CHAPTER 26

We pulled up to my hotel, after what was a literal thirty-second drive. But for some reason I didn’t want to get out the car. I was agitated and I didn’t know why. I’d been feeling so relieved a few moments ago, and now I wasn’t. I shuffled about in my seat a little and then, without thinking, reached into my bag to grab my phone, only to realize that it wasn’t there. This made me feel even more agitated.

I caught Mark looking at me out of the corner of my eye. I turned and our eyes locked. I took the opportunity to study them for a while. He was wearing his glasses again. His eyes were brown, nothing spectacular or out of the ordinary and yet . . . yet?

Something familiar about them I couldn’t place. Maybe he was right, he had one of those faces. A generic, nice-guy face with generic, friendly brown eyes. He wasn’t the kind of guy you would find on Tinder posing at the gym with his pecs or sending you dick pics.

“Weird not being able to use a phone?” His question caught me off guard.

I nodded. “It is. More than weird. It’s . . .” I didn’t finish the sentence, because I didn’t really have the words to describe this feeling of not having it. And especially at a time like this. I would usually have told everyone about my dog’s surgery and everyone would have reached out with good wishes and praying hand emojis and emojis with tears. That would have made me feel better . . . I think?

“Do you know why there is no reception in this town?” he asked, as if he could hear my thoughts.

“Some satellite looking at space,” I offered up. “Something like that.”

“No. Not a ‘something like that’ at all.” His voice had taken on a slightly harsh tone.

“Then what?”

He leaned forward and looked out the windshield, casting his eyes upwards. “We can’t see it here. Because of the lights from town. You up for a short drive?”

I looked at the time. It was already two a.m. But I didn’t really feel like being alone right now, and I probably wouldn’t be able to sleep if I was.

I nodded and he smiled at me. “Right, let’s go.” He pulled off and started driving again.

We drove out the small town and left the lights behind us, and soon we were on a dirt road heading into the middle of the desert. I briefly wondered if I should be scared, driving out into the middle of nowhere with a virtual stranger. These kinds of things rarely ended well. I looked over at him as he drove and decided that all indications so far suggested he probably wasn’t a threat . . . I hoped not anyway. Soon the flat road we were on started tilting up, going higher and higher, and soon it felt like we were climbing up the side of a high mountain. We drove slowly, right on the edge of it. I plucked up the courage to look down only for a moment . . . instant dizziness and swelling nausea. We were higher than I’d imagined.

Finally, we stopped and Mark turned off the lights of the car. I was suddenly hit by how black everything outside was. I stared into the blackness. It was impenetrable. Like it was a solid wall. Or a thick, black mist. It seemed like the blackest black I’d ever seen before.

“It’s so dark here,” I whispered, a shiver running down my spine.

“This is called a dark site.” Mark opened the car door with a creak and climbed out.

“What’s a dark