Page 46 of Mr. Wrong Number

But once I started reading... holy shit. She nailed it.

She’d taken my sterile words and made them sound personal yet professional. She managed to exude warmth while totally wielding the subtle power of persuasion.

She had to have spent a couple hours working on it because it was perfect.

I stacked my hands on top of my head and blew out a huge breath of relief. It was ready to go now.

Because of Olivia.

I responded to her email:

Liv—

This is incredible and you’re my hero. I owe you BIG TIME! Thank you x 100.

Colin

8

Olivia

The minute I woke up the next morning, I grabbed my phone and pulled up the newspaper online. Seeing my column in print with the cool professional logo made it feel official, almost as if someone else wrote it. I read it three times before jamming my bare feet into running shoes and running down to the c-store on the corner, where I purchased five copies of the newspaper. I had no idea what I’d do with all of them, especially since no one actually knew the column was mine, but it somehow felt important for me to collect them.

I was so excited that I had to text Mr. Wrong Number, even though he hadn’t responded to any of my texts since brunch the day before.

Me:I know you don’t know any of the details and you’re suddenly mute, but I don’t even care becauseI’m so excited! Remember that opportunity I told you I landed by lying?

I waited ten seconds before texting:Oh, that’s right—you’re not there. Well, anyway, that opportunity happened and today is the first day!

I didn’t wait around for a response, because I knew he wouldn’t text back.

When I got back to the apartment, Colin was sitting at the breakfast bar, reading a copy of the paper while eating a bagel in a pristine gray suit and a black-and-white-dotted tie. He looked likeGQand smelled like sin, and he raised his eyes when I walked in.

I was his hero—which made me feel like the world’s most incredible writer—so I gave him a little smile.

Jack was eating a bowl of cereal over the sink and said, “I’d tell you that we already have a subscription to the paper, but they only give us one and clearly you need more.”

I shut the door behind me and toed off my shoes. Shit. How to explain my stack of dailies? Thankfully I didn’t have to because Colin set down his bagel and said, “I read your piece about the new restaurant. Nice job. Made me hungry for steak.”

“Thanks.” I gave him a grateful look and was excited that I had something tangible running that day. I’d been so excited about the 402 that I’d totally forgotten about the bistro intro. “Perhaps my parents will finally believe that I’ve got a job now that there’s a byline.”

He picked up his cup. “They’ll be so proud.”

Jack made a derisive snort; he knew my mother.

“That I wrote a five-hundred-word piece about a restaurant that puts bourbon in every dish? Hardly.” I reached over and snagged Colin’s bagel, taking a tiny bite of the burnt side. “But they’ll be appeased for now.”

I set down his bagel and regretted my decision as Colin watched me closely. That was clearly some sort of healthy peanut butter, and it made me want to scrape off my tongue with my finger, but that would totally destroy the badassery of my move, so I had to swallow it down without gagging.

He said, “Hey, I read that 402 column you mentioned, by the way, and you were right.”

My heart started pounding. Not because it was my secret identity and I didn’t want Jack to catch on, but because Colin read the words that mattered to me. I kept my eyes on his bagel, half-scared and half-desperate to know his thoughts. “Yeah?”

He shoved the last big piece of bagel in his mouth and chewed before saying, “Yeah. I couldn’t care less about parenting, but that article was hilarious.”

I tried, I really did, but I couldn’t stop myself from beaming. “Told you.”

Jack dropped his bowl into the sink and grabbed a half gallon of orange juice, unaware of our unspoken conversation.

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