“What?” Her eyes go wide as she looks at me incredulously.
“I heard every word and I don’t think you’re that good of an actress.”
“Oh, sorrySpecial Agent Harrisfor going above and beyond. I can’t help it that he found me interesting and charming even when I was pretending not to be. I guess you’re not used to that.”
Fuck, she’s irritating, yet the spark in her green yes is intoxicating. Her tenacity comes off in waves, and I don’t think there’s a damn thing she can do to put a damper on it, no matter how hard she tries. And she’s right, it’s annoyingly interesting and charming. You don’t come across people like her often. But when you do, you want to do what you can to stay in their orbit because just being around them, feeling the gravitational pull, makes you feel everything so much fuller.
“Look,” I say, trying to go back to business. “Whatever you did, worked. Enzo is clearly smitten.”
“Yeah, obsessively. If one of my clients told me they had a great date—so much so they stalked said date after dinner—I’d tell them they’d need help!”
“Aren’t you the help?”
She narrows her eyes. “You know what I mean.”
I do, but I don’t want to tell her I do.
“It doesn’t seem Enzo is used to not getting his way with women,” I go on and Mira nods.
“I thought the same. He would seek out the type of woman who would fall all over him in a glucose guardian type of way?’
“A what?”
She laughs and the way her face lightens immediately does something to me. “A sugar daddy. It’s a silly thing you say online because sometimes keywords can get you flagged.”
“Right. You have a big following.”
“My friend, Kat, has close to a million followers. It’s pretty cool, actually. She posts about the places she travels to.”
I nod, finding it interesting that she deflects a compliment about one of her accomplishments to a friend, saying how she’s even more accomplished. Trying to convince myself I’m just interested in getting to know Mira better from a psychological standpoint, I slowly take in a breath and reach over, moving aloose section of hair out of her face. She goes still and her eyes meet mine as my fingers sweep against her forehead.
“Which, um, which is why I’m a little worried,” she says, voice a little shaky.
“About what?” My hand falls back down into my lap.
“About Enzo figuring out that I’m Mira, not Mya, and I don’t work at a small practice out of the city. The longer I keep this up, the more chance there is he finds out who I really am, and it’s not like I can just go all ghost-mode and delete my social media. It’s, uh, kinda my main job.”
I nod again, fully aware how much money can be made from sponsorships and brand deals when you have a good social media following.
“I’m not asking you to do that,” I tell her.
“I know.” Her head bobs up and down and she taps the screen of her phone, checking to see if her friend texted. “Going on one date to see if someone is a cheater is different than continuing to see the same person.”
Putting the car in drive, I slowly pull out of the parking spot and head towards Lincoln Park, where Mira lives. The screen of her phone lights up, but instead of a text, it’s a notification from an app that’s usually court appointed when there are children involved in a custody situation.
“Why are you using that?” I ask and she sighs.
“My ex is really good at crying to the judge and was able to get this somehow written in.” Shaking her head, she opens the app to read the message. “Hmm, guess he must be up late fighting with his girlfriend.”
I glance over. “What makes you say that?”
She lets out a snort of laughter and starts reading. “‘Mira, my mother informed me about the incident yesterday and your behavior has been documented. You really need to’—oh this gets good—‘one, stop lying on all your posts. No one believesyou. Two, pay for the damaged model cars. Three, worry about yourself and what you’re doing.’” She sighs and then laughs.
“I…I don’t get it. Model cars?”
Mira laughs again. “My ex used to put together model cars and when we divided up our property, he forgot to put them on the list. Anything he didn’t list was to stay at the house with me. But I was nice and since I’m not a child, I gave him the stupid cars. They were all in boxes and I guess some pieces came off during the move so he says I owe him five grand for the fucking cars.” She rolls her eyes. “He won’t let it go.”
“Won’t let it go or you go?”