Page 128 of No Headlines Please

She hesitated. "Are you sure? Because I don't want to be any trouble."

"It's not trouble," I assured her. "Whatever it is, I'm happy to do it."

She gave a shaky laugh. "I'm so glad to hear it, because honestly, I was a little nervous."

My smile faltered. "Really? Why?"

"Well…you know. I don't want to be a bother. And honestly, I wouldn't be calling you at all if I hadn't seen your number from the other day." She said it like I'd called yesterday instead of weeks ago.

I was still processing that when she added, "If you want the truth, I was sure you'd changed it."

"My number? Why would you think that?"

"Well…for starters, because you didn't want me to call you. Remember?"

"Yeah, I'm really sorry about that." My heart was already in my throat. "Maybe the next time I see you, I can explain?"

"Sure. I mean…only if you want to."

I couldn't decide if she was brushing me off or trying too hard to be nice. "And the whole not-talking thing, that was just temporary – or at least, it was supposed to be."

"Oh. Well…I'm glad you're working things out. Tessa said you get like that sometimes, where you need space to yourself."

What the hell? "She did?"

"Yeah." She paused. "So, I'm really glad you're getting it."

I wasn't glad. Mostly I was confused. "And I didn't change my number. You do see it's the same one, right?"

"Yeah…but your voicemail…it's not even you."

I frowned. "It's not?"

"No. It's this robotic thing, totally generic. What, you didn't know?"

Finally, it hit me. "Oh, my God. I changed my cell provider last fall. I even got a new phone."

"Oh. That's nice." She said it like she was talking to a stranger while waiting in line. Or maybe she didn't believe me.

I hated that. "I guess I never reset it."

She said nothing.

I tried again. "But I never saw you called. Did you leave a message?"

"No. Because it wasn't your voice, remember?"

"Oh. Right. But I never saw your number."

"Uh…yeah. I might've used the phone at the shop."

This didn't make sense. But then I understood. She'd probably called from the bike shop so I wouldn't recognize her cell. But I still would've noticed the area code – except I got so many spam calls, I mass-deleted them all the time.

Shit.

But she had reached out. And I'd missed it. Lamely, I said, "I'm really sorry."

"Don't be. It's fine. Anyway…I don't want to take up a bunch of time, but I really do need that favor. It's kind of important."