Page 29 of Gave Proof Through the Night

“I read.”

“Romance books?”

“I read the text overlay on reels. You know when it says, ‘POV she’s fake dating the hockey player and he loses his mind when he sees her wearing another man’s jersey.’ That sort of thing.”

“Why would she be wearing another man’s jersey?”

“Not another-man’s-jersey exactly, a jersey with another player’s name on the back. Like one you can buy in the gift shop.”

I blink at her. “So she’s fake dating a guy.”

She nods enthusiastically. “And he gets jealous.”

I stare at her for several seconds then burst out laughing. “That would never happen in real life.”

She waves me off like I’m some annoying housefly, and scans the rest of the group for more eye candy, I guess. Then she goes very still.

“Erica.”

Something in her voice makes me look.

“That’s him,” she says.

I don’t ask who. I already know who.

“Go,” she says. “Right now. Just walk past him. Drop something. Sustain eye contact. Use your body language.”

“No.”

“Erica. He is right there. Go do your thang. Strut by like you’re Jessica freaking Rabbit.”

I’m tired and covered in travel grime. I probably look like a raccoon.

“No.”

“The gala, Erica.”

“I’m aware of the gala.”

“We discussed this.”

“I know.”

“It’s not like it’ll be a hardship. Just look at the man.”

“I have eyes.”

“Okay so,” Zoe says, and I can hear her recalibrating. “First of all, the shoulders. Are you seeing the shoulders?”

I’m seeing the shoulders. I’ve been seeing the shoulders in my head since Cinco de Mayo.

“And the way he’s just there looking like that with his hair being all… hairy.”

He does have good hair. Dark, a little disheveled. I want to run my fingers through it and… no. No, I’m not going there.

“And he’s tall,” she goes on. “Like, genuinely tall. Not ‘tall for this room’ tall. Tall tall. You’d have to stand on your tippy toes to kiss him.”

Tippy toes. I look at him for one involuntary second. One. The man is absurdly, unfairly, almost offensively good-looking. Like someone put in a very specific request and the universe just said, “Request approved.”