“Vegetarian”

“Not at all. I love meat—I mean—I eat…meat…all the time.” Dear lord. The brief feeling of relaxation vanished instantly and I was back to tripping over my words like a teenager.

Ethan laughed into the phone. “So a good selection of meats and Sheppy’s on the menu will do it for you”

“Hey, I never said I would go out with you.” I closed my eyes.

“But you will.” His voice did something to me. Even through the phone, without sense of sight, he compelled me to want to agree just to see him again. To look at him again. To smell him again.

I groaned into the phone. “You are killing me here, Ethan.”

“No,” he chuckled softly, “we’ve already established that I’m not a serial killer, remember”

“So you claim, Mr. Blackstone, but know that if you do kill me, you’ll be number one on the suspect list.”

He laughed at that and the sound of him made me smile. “So you’ve been talking about me to your friends then”

“Maybe I keep a secret diary and wrote about you. The cops will find it when they search my flat for clues.”