Page 57 of The Best Shot

Ava: Fine. Potstickers after? I’ll buy.

Annie:

Yasmine:

At Ricochet, the emergency meeting turned out to be a group hang with an extra chair and a woman named Michelle sitting beside Hale.

Ava introduced her as a friend of a friend, new to town, just joining us for drinks. She said it casually enough that a stranger might have believed her. None of us were strangers.

Five minutes after we sat down, my phone buzzed in my lap.

Ava: This is the one.

Ava: She is perfect for him.

Tabby: you said that about the dentist

Ava: The dentist was a rough draft

Annie: I’m just here for the free food. you promised potstickers

I sipped my drink and studied the condensation ring on the table. Across from me, Hale looked patient and open, if mildly doomed.

Michelle was polished MBA energy, shoulders back, laugh practiced but not unkind. She asked about long-term vision before the appetizers came. She had opinions about work-life integration. She used the word synergy without apparent irony.

Hale smiled. He nodded. He asked her questions, because he wasn’t cruel, and that was just who he was. But he did not bite. I watched him not bite, said nothing, and finished my drink.

The next morning, Ava took it personally.

Spice Cabinet : Main Chat

Ava: What thee actual fuck, Hale.

Annie: LMAOOOO

Tabby: I liked her

Ava: Feedback from Michelle is you are “emotionally evasive.”

Tabby: I mean.

Hale: Maybe you’re not as intuitive as you think you are.

Ava: Excuse me?????

Ava: I am, in fact, extremely intuitive.

Ava: I brought you a polished, educated, gainfully employed woman with a pension plan and a skincare routine.

Annie: she has a point

Tabby: I mean. you’re intuitive, but Hale is also a deeply weird man.

Ava: I NEED BETTER FRIENDS

Annie:

Tabby: