Page 62 of Dial F for Finance

Then I look down at Dominic’s message again.

Call me if you need an extraction. Or a felony. I’m flexible.

My throat does something stupid.

I don’t think. Thinking has gotten me nowhere good today. Thinking bought the cake, booked the ticket, boarded the train, walked back into that kitchen with a little hope wrapped in pink cardboard. Thinking is overrated.

I wave the cab off and tap his name.

He answers on the first ring.

“Jen?”

One syllable. That’s all it takes.

My throat closes so fast I almost laugh. It’s insulting, honestly, the efficiency with which his voice reaches across state lines and rearranges my central nervous system. I was standing on a Queens sidewalk with my mother’s cruelty still under my skin and my hands shaking, and now Dominic Cruz says my name in that low, careful way and some treacherous part of me unclenches and I hate him so much my eyes burn from it.

I hate him because it feels too good.

“I’m fine,” I say, because apparently I have chosen death by muscle memory. My voice comes out bright and brittle enough to cut fruit. “Just checking in. How’s the movie?”

There is a beat.

Then Dominic says, very calmly, “No idea.”

I frown at the mural. “You don’t know what movie you’re watching?”

“I’m not watching it.”

“You didn’t go?”

“No.”

The wind pushes at my coat. Somewhere behind me, a car horn blares, long and offended. “Why not?”

“Because I’m in New York.”

The entire city seems to drop out from under me.

I straighten off the wall too fast, my heel catching in a crack in the sidewalk. “You’re what?”

“In New York,” he repeats, like he’s confirming a lunch reservation.

“Is this for work?” I ask, because that’s the only thing that makes sense right now. “Did you have a client emergency? Is there a meeting?”

“No, you infuriating woman,” he says, and his voice drops, rough and immediate. “I’m here for you.”

My hand tightens around the phone.

“For me,” I repeat, because apparently I’ve become a person who needs simple sentences notarized.

“Yes.”

“Why? I . . . I haven’t been very nice to you lately.”

He chuckles, soft and deep. “I came in case you needed me.”

Oh.