“Right.You two always had your own thing going.Is she well?”
“Yes, she is.”
Then I remembered she was going on a fucking date today.Why did that bother me so much?I didn’t want to examine it too closely.
“All right, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Wyatt said.
“Fantastic.”
After I hung up, I checked in with two of my project managers and ended up staying at the office until the evening.At seven o’clock, my phone lit up.It was Amy.
“Hey, Knox, can you call me in, like, three seconds so I can pretend you’ve got an emergency?”she said when I answered.
“Sure.”
After the call disconnected, I immediately got up from behind my desk.Three seconds later, I called her.
“Hey, Amy!”
“Oh my God, what happened?What kind of emergency?”she asked in a theatrical tone—so very unlike her.Anyone who knew her would realize it was fake.Only, her date didn’t know her at all.
“Your mom needs medical attention.”There, that sounded good.
“Oh, right, right.Yeah.Just give me the address, and I’ll come there, okay?”
“All right, I’ll text you the address.How fast can you be here?”I spoke loudly so the guy could hear me.
“No clue, but I’ll leave right away.”
I heard someone audibly groan, and I felt oddly relieved that she hated the date.
You’re not good enough for her, dude.No one would be.
“See you soon!”
I didn’t want to just leave it like that, though.I wanted to take her to a bar.The one I had in mind wasn’t far away, and she could Uber straight there.
After she hung up, I sent her the link to the bar.
Knox: Let’s meet here now.
I didn’t hear from her until I left the building.My phone rang, and I picked up right away.Before I could say anything, she began talking.
“Oh my God, I got rid of him.Thank you so much, Knox.God, this was...I can’t even...Let’s just say, I want to forget about this day altogether.I owe you one.”
“Sure.You can buy me a drink.”
“Wait, you were serious?Meet you at The Sun?”
“Obviously.That’s why I sent you the link.”
“I didn’t even bother looking at it because I thought it was part of the ruse.”
“Where are you?”
When she rattled off the address, I realized where she was, did a small calculation, and said, “You’ll need about ten minutes.You’re closer than I thought.I can pick you up.”
“No, that makes no sense.I’ll just Uber there.I need a drink.”
