Page 36 of Shades of Grey & Gold

Becca.

I swipe to answer. “Are you dying?”

“Are you?” she asks immediately. “Because I woke up from a dream that you were wearing a pilgrim dress and marrying a viking in a cranberry bog, so naturally I called to make sure the universe hadn’t shifted.”

I close my eyes. “What is wrong with your brain?”

“So many things. Where are you? You sound outside.”

“I’m walking Bart.”

“At seven in the morning? Disgusting.”

“I do this every day and you know it,” I turn my head as I say it, falling a step behind Cal.

“And every day I choose not to think about it because I love you. Wait,” her voice changes; sharpens. “Why do you sound weird?”

“I do not sound weird,” I whisper-yell.

Cal looks over with obvious amusement.

Becca gasps so dramatically I hear fabric rustle and imagine her sitting straight up in bed. “You’rewithsomeone!”

“No!” I snap.

Cal raises his eyebrows.

“Maxine Simmons! You tell me who you are with right now!”

“I am walking Bart,” I repeat, and turn my back to Cal, which is pointless because his six-foot-something frame towers over me.

“With who?”

“Whom,” I automatically correct her as one does when they feel cornered.

“Withwhomare you walking your dog at seven in the morning, you evasive little goblin?”

I sigh. “Cal.”

There is silence.

Then a sound that can only be described by what I imagine is the screech of fighting bobcats.

I pull the phone away from my ear.

Cal’s eyebrows climb higher and a stupid grin plasters itself to his face.

I mouthsorry. But I am not sorry, because this is his fault.

“Becca.”

“Coffee?” she demands.

“What?”

“Did. He. Bring. You. Coffee?” She punctuates each word.

I look at the cup in my hand. “Maybe.”