Page 40 of Hypnotized By Love

It felt like I only had one bargaining chip here to use. I just had to run the clock down until he was serious, responsible Mason again and this YOLO fool was gone.

He started climbing the ladder, and my sense of urgency forced me to say, “I will go with you to Flavio’s to hang out but only if you promise to stay safe until tomorrow afternoon. No jumping off anything.”

That made him pause, and the smile he gave me could only be described as triumphant. “Deal.”

As he climbed back down, I said, “You have to promise me that you will go inside and stay put and not respond to any phishing emails or phone calls about your car warranty.”

“I don’t own a car.” He was finally back on solid ground.

“I know. That’s the point. Don’t get scammed by anybody, don’t call Bridget, don’t go looking for alligators ... Just don’t do anything that might potentially endanger your life.”

“Only if you promise that you’ll be this delightful at dinner,” he teased back. “Tomorrow night?”

“No, I have clients tomorrow night. I can do it the night after.”

“At seven?” he pressed. “I’ll pick you up.”

“You will not,” I said. “I’ll meet you at the restaurant.”

“It’s not like I don’t already know where you live.”

“That’s not the point. This is not a date, so I’ll meet you there. And I’m agreeing to hang out with you, and that’s it. You’re not going to force me to talk about anything that I don’t want to talk about.”

“I’d never do that,” he said. “If you don’t want to talk about anything serious or about what happened between us, I could always interview you for the article.”

I had kind of forgotten about that, what with the whole trying-to-keep-him-alive thing. “Fine. We can talk about my job, and that’s it.”

“I’ll take it. And we can work from there.”

“We will not work from there,” I protested, realizing that he was again baiting me. I just shook my head and started walking back to my car.

I had opened the driver’s-side door when he yelled so loudly that the entire county could have heard him, “What? No good-night kiss?”

As I drove off, I considered the fact that in the space of a day, I had gone from resolving to never see Mason again to hypnotizing him, having him convince me to have dinner with him and Bridget, drive him home, and have dinner with him again.

Much as I wanted to deny it, I wasn’t doing this just because I didn’t want him to smash his skull in. I was also doing it because some part of me desperately wanted to spend time with him.

Which had me worrying what else he might easily “convince” me to do.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Sierra was asleep when I got home. I considered waking her up, but her schedule was so chaotic I didn’t want to interrupt what sleep she got. I figured I could talk to her in the morning.

But when I woke up, she was already gone. I texted her and asked if there was a time we could chat. She usually responded instantly, but it took a bit before she answered. She told me she would be working a double and could have breakfast with me tomorrow morning.

As I moved through my day, I found myself thinking about Mason way too often. Like, a disconcerting amount. I was tempted to call and interrupt my sister at her job just so that I could ask what was going on with her and him, but I could wait until we were face-to-face.

I did text Bridget to see how she and her mom were doing, and she didn’t reply, either. I texted again to remind her of my offer to bring them breakfast, and she did respond to that message. She told me not to worry about it, that they were doing okay.

Then I invited her to breakfast with me and Sierra the next morning, and she sent me back a thumbs-up emoji.

That seemed unlike her. Her texts were usually more like novels.

Frowning, I made myself a note to stop by their house and check on them. Maybe I’d grab some gluten-free cookies from the bakery andbring them over. This would happen sometimes—the chemo would wear Bridget’s mom out, and Bridget would devote herself entirely to her mom’s care.

The least I could do was bring by a treat to try to make things a bit easier.

Thinking of Bridget reminded me of what she’d said. How convinced she seemed that Mason was into me. It was patently ridiculous, but it was still there, lurking at the fringes of my mind, wanting me to pick it up and examine it more closely. I had a job to do and food to eat and water to drink—I had no time to consider whether or not Mason was interested in me.

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