“Huh.” Thankfully he didn’t say anything about the cast-iron pan. Instead he asked, “Do you have any fun plans today?”

“I’m going to buy a car.” I couldn’t keep the glee out of my voice, and it made him smile. “I’ve never bought a car before. I’m really looking forward to it.”

“That does sound . . . well, I don’t know if fun’s the word I would use. Having the car is fun. Buying it usually not so much.”

“I’ve been adequately warned. And my friend Shay is supposed to be here in a few minutes. I’m hoping to get to the lot before it opens so I can get the car I want.” This was the dealer’s busiest day of the week and I was afraid the car would get sold. My phone buzzed with a text from Shay. “Speak of the devil.”

“Oh no,” I said.

“Everything okay?”

“Not really. Shay had to cancel. I’m going to try one of my other friends.” I called Delia and she didn’t pick up. Which was unlike her. I tried texting her and waited.

“No answer?” Tyler asked.

“She didn’t reply,” I confirmed, a sinking feeling settling in my stomach. “Which means I’m going to have to take an Uber to get to this dealership.” It wouldn’t be cheap.

“I can drive you.”

“What?” Had I heard him correctly?

“I can drive you,” he said, repeating his offer. “I don’t have much going on until later on this evening, so if you want, I can go with you.”

He’s not interested in you. He has a girlfriend who looks like a Russian Barbie come to life. He is just being your friend. Stop being so excited.

My pounding heart didn’t listen.

Something in my expression made him laugh. “Is that a yes?”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Um, obviously the answer was yes. Because I might have been a lot of things, but stupid was not one of them. It was, in fact, an overly enthusiastic “Yes!” It made him laugh again. So even if I was embarrassing myself, it was worth it to hear his reaction.

“From what I’ve read online, you’ll be even better backup than Shay,” I told him. “Because you’re a man. And you’re tall.” And hot.

Thankfully, my lips refrained from uttering that last part.

“You don’t know any other tall men?” he asked.

“We did discuss this as a friend group, and no, we didn’t have anybody else to ask that we thought might do it. Delia did offer to send along her giant cardboard cutout of Edward from Twilight, but I passed.”

“Good choice,” he said with a grin. “Are you ready to go?”

“Let me grab my purse.” I’m spending the day with Tyler Roth! I felt like a teenager again, giddy over her first crush. Not to mention that I hadn’t forgotten what Oksana had inadvertently told me and not only did it add a spring to my step, but it filled me with a confidence that I hadn’t felt in a long time.

Tyler was holding the elevator open and I grabbed my coat from the wall. It was sunny outside, but the weather had dipped down into the fifties.

We walked to the parking garage and Tyler showed me where my parking spot would be. It was right next to his, where his car, a classic red Mustang, sat. His choice surprised me. I thought he’d be more of a sleek-sports-car type of guy. “This doesn’t seem like you,” I said.

He opened the passenger door for me. “It doesn’t?”

I shrugged one shoulder as I got in. To be fair, I didn’t really know much about him. A guy who dated Oksana should be driving a Porsche or a Lamborghini. He seemed full of contradictions and I wanted to figure him out.

He got in on his side and put on his seat belt, then started up the car. “So, I was surprised that Pigeon slept in your room last night.”

“Me too. I think she’s coming around.”

“I noticed this morning that she seemed calmer. I think having you there while I was gone was good for her.”

“She’s become my little shadow. She doesn’t want me to pet her, but she watches everything I do.” And I was very fortunate that she couldn’t talk or else I’d be in trouble. While following his list and trying to get everything cleaned before he got back, I’d found out that I hadn’t fully yet learned my lesson when I used Dawn to clean the windows in the living room. It made sense—if it could clean glass bowls, shouldn’t it be able to clean regular glass, too? I’d also had a mishap of sucking up half a roll of floss in the vacuum. But the worst had been when I’d forgotten to return the lint screen to the dryer and a sock had gotten sucked in there, covering a vent and making the drum go off balance. I’d called a repair person to come out the same day to fix it and had emptied out the rest of the money I’d been setting aside for a deposit on my own apartment.

From that point I decided not to attempt any more cleaning until I had thoroughly researched it first. I had a college degree, and five days a week I was in charge of educating and keeping twenty-five tiny humans alive. I knew I could figure out my cleaning issues if I learned how to do my new chores correctly.

So far, so good.

Although, to be fair, I hadn’t cleaned my bathroom yet and could only imagine that was going to be unfun.

“I had a feeling the two of you would get along. I’m glad I’ve been proven right,” he said. “It will make traveling a little easier knowing you’re there.”

“Speaking of, how was your trip to New York?”

At some point he’d put on sunglasses, making it so I couldn’t see his eyes. Boo. “Tiring. A bunch of boring meetings. I’ve actually been working toward a promotion so I don’t have to travel so much.”

“You don’t like traveling?”

“I do. Or, I did. A few years ago I really enjoyed it but now . . . I guess I want to be around more. Be at home. Settle down a little. If I get that promotion, I’ll still be working long hours, but at least I’ll be here in Houston. I mean, I just got here and I have to turn around and leave tomorrow afternoon for Singapore.”

“What? Now I feel bad that you’re coming with me,” I said. “Especially given that you’re not going to be here for very long.”

“Don’t. I’m happy to be here with you. This should be fun. What about you? Do you travel?”

“Not anymore. But I used to.” I told him about some of my family’s vacations while we compared notes of places we’d both traveled to. I told him about a restaurant in Singapore that he should check out when he got there. “It has the most beautiful view. The city skyline looks amazing. You should see it at sunset. That view is one of my favorite things in the world. You have to stop by.”

“I will,” he said.

“It was always one of my favorite places. Mostly because around the corner they had this massive Hello Kitty shop. I was obsessed with Hello Kitty when I was younger. Like bedsheets, towels, stuffed animals, underwear, anything you could think of, I had it in Hello Kitty form.” I hadn’t ever told anyone about that particular obsession before. Mostly because my mother had dismissed it as silly. I wondered what it was about him that made him so easy to talk to.