Page 39 of Paws & Order

Neither of us looks away.

The world goes strangely quiet.

Then my phone rings.

Loud.

Shrill.

Absolutely determined to ruin my life.

We both jump.

I pull the phone from my pocket.

Alaric.

Of course it's Alaric.

Liza starts laughing.

I close my eyes.

"Don't answer it."

"I'm legally required to."

"Tell him you're busy."

"I am busy."

"Exactly."

Still smiling, she starts toward her building.

I answer the call.

Alaric doesn't even bother with hello.

"So."

"No."

"You almost kissed her, didn't you?"

I hang up.

Behind me, Liza's laughter follows us all the way home.

CHAPTER 11

LIZA

Gomez reacts to the ghost pastry the way he reacts to most things that aren’t tuna—with a single suspicious sniff and then profound indifference.

He circles the danish twice, bats it once with a paw, and walks away.

I brace for poltergeist shenanigans anyway, but nothing happens except Gomez settling onto the windowsill and beginning to wash his face with the air of someone who has seen stranger things and found them equally beneath him.