Page 37 of A Crazy Kind of Love
Working.I abandoned Zion and walked back to my desk with a smile on my face. I moved my mouse to wake up my monitors and tried to make myself focus on copyediting the document I’d emailed in earlier. Andy might not want to print an article about Miriam Blackwell, but someone somewhere might be interested in it.
Another buzz distracted me.Are you going to print this?
Maybe.
In that case, you should know I’m readingWar and Peaceand performing surgery on an orphaned puppy.
I bit my thumbnail and giggled.Pictures please?
When my phone buzzed, I held my breath hoping for a photo, but it was even better.Screw texting. When can I call you?
Zion and Leonard lifted their heads when I squealed. I had at least another hour left to work. But I wrote,Now?
I set my phone aside to flip through my afternoon shots, but my stomach felt like it might burst with rainbow-colored exploding butterflies. I barely dared hope that he was calling because he might be interested in me and not my camera. The last time I saw him, he’d been all business. But then hadn’t he flirted a little bit just now?
Minutes later, my phone rang, and I snatched it, but made myself wait for at least a second ring. “Hello?”
“Jo? It’s Micah.” His voice directly in my ear made me swallow hard.
“Hey, Micah. What are you doing?”
“Sitting in my backyard, talking to a pretty girl.”
I bounced on my stool. “Yeah?”
“Are you going to be able to come to the show tonight?”
“Planning to.”
“Cool.”
He paused, and I couldn’t think of anything to fill in the silence.
He broke in. “Hey, I can put a press pass in with the backstage pass if you want to take pictures. I think they’ll confiscate your camera otherwise.”
Like a punch in the gut, his intentions hit me hard. “You want me to take pictures?”
“That would be cool. But only if you want to.”
“Yeah, that would be great.” I wondered if he’d found out I hadn’t made Eden pay for her pictures. Now he’d expect me to show up wherever he wanted me to and give him free publicity. I started to tell him exactly what I thought of that, but he found his voice.
“So will you have time after the show to come out with us? It won’t be anything special, but we like to go out after and get some food and relax. It will mostly be the band guys, but you’d totally be welcome.”
“Will you need pictures of that, too?” At my irritated tone, Zion glanced up at me with a curious expression.
“What? I hadn’t thought . . . I mean, it will only be . . .”
Why was I blowing this? I changed my tone of voice. “Yes. I’ll be happy to come out. Can Zion come, too?” Zion waggled his eyebrows and continued to mess on his laptop.
“Zion? Oh, right.” He exhaled. “Zion’s just your roommate, right? I mean, he’s not—”
I chuckled. “Have you met Zion?” It suddenly hit me what he was asking. I pushed my hair behind my ear. “He’s just my roommate. And my best friend. But he’s not—”
“I’m sorry. That was pretty nosy.”
“You’reapologizing tomefor being nosy?”
He laughed. “Yeah. I guess that’s a twist. But can I ask you something personal?”
