Page 6 of Wrong Number, Right Unicorn

“But I?—”

This was taking way too long. “Wrong number, I guess.”

The grandson told the cop he’d be right back, and taking my arm, he pulled me through the throng and outside onto the sidewalk. Sirens blared, and people who’d been arrested were manhandled inside.

“You’re not Julian.”

I sighed. That was obvious. The guy was under a lot of stress with his grandmother, but I’d become bogged down in this dilemma. On the flip side, I relished being near him, no matter where we were. I’d stay in that dank booking area forever if I had to.

“Nope. Davien.”

“Damn. Grams said she gave me Julian’s number.”

Grams might have been a little preoccupied having been arrested. Or perhaps she wanted to be locked up and deliberately given her grandson the wrong number.

I held up my phone, side-stepping him asking me what my number was. That should speed up the process.

He took out his phone and showed me the dialed number. Inwardly I was screaming, wanting to fast-forward to handing over the money and get to the “I love you” part of the conversation.

“Yep, you dialed me.”

I pulled out five one-hundred-dollar bills. Now that we’d reached the money part of the discussion, I expected our interaction was at an end and we could take Grams home and talk. Or do other things.

“I can’t take that.” He pushed my hand away, his face screwed up in distaste.

Dear gods, this was like walking through syrup.

How do you know?My unicorn was very literal.

Never mind.

I counted to ten. We’d been so close, and now our discussion might morph into an argument. I couldn’t let our first night end with us shouting at one another.

“Let’s backtrack for a minute. You called Julian.”

“No. I thought I did.”

This guy would get along well with my unicorn.

I look forward to it.

“Fine. Your intention was to call Julian, but you phoned me instead.”

“Correct.”

Good, we were on the same page.

“And you begged Julian for bail money?”

“No, I asked you.”

He was so like my beast. Ahhh!

I like him.

“You wanted Julian to bail Grams out.” He opened his mouth, and I raced on before he could say a word. “You asked me instead of Julian for five hundred bucks.”

“Yes. But I don’t know you and can’t accept the money. Five hundred dollars is a lot.”

---