Page 58 of The Wrong Heart

My faceless friend. My anonymous confidant.

The final link to the man I love.

Nibbling my lip, I whip out a quick response.

Me:Are you saying we should start a band? I’m so in. With that name, I feel like we would need eight members.

Zephyr:Agreed. And our music would need to be super mysterious. I call drums because they’re loud and obnoxious.

Me:I’ll take violin.

There’s a pause before his reply comes through.

Zephyr:Popular instrument these days.

Me:It’s so underrated. Like nitrogen.

Zephyr:Nitrogen? Explain.

Me:Oxygen gets all the cred. Nitrogen takes up three-quarters of our atmosphere, but when do you ever hear, “Nice job today, nitrogen. Well done.”? Never. #teamnitrogen

Zephyr:To be fair, I’ve literally never heard anyone say, “Nice job today, oxygen. Well done.” either. People just don’t talk like that. Nice use of an octothorpe, by the way.

Leah suddenly appears over my shoulder, and I nearly hit the ceiling.

Or… what’s left of my ceiling.

“Is that the heart guy?”

I quickly close out the app and stuff my phone back into my pocket. “Yes. His name is Zephyr.”

“Like, that’s his birth-given name?”

“No, obviously. We don’t know anything about each other.”

“Bummer. Sexy name.” Leah leans back against my kitchen island, her fingers curling around the edge of the countertop. She tilts her head in the way that she does when she’s trying to get a read on me. “What do you think it means?”

“Zephyr?”

“Yeah.”

Pursing my lips together, I twist my hair over my left shoulder, fiddling with the split ends I need to trim. “Do you think it’s an acronym for something?”

“Ooh.” Her golden eyes glow brighter, widening as her mind tries to conjure up something amazing. “Zombies Eating People’s Hearts Year-Round. He’s a zombie.”

“That took a very dark turn.”

Leah waggles her perfectly shaped eyebrows at me. “Maybe he just likes Madonna.”

“Or maybe it’s a code word.”

“Or asafeword—during sex. Maybe he’s a kinky son-of-a-bitch.”

We both laugh, but my laughter ebbs the moment Parker’s face flashes through my mind. Because I was thinking about sex.

Damn it.

While Leah starts wiping down the countertops, I pluck my phone back out and scroll through my contacts until I find his name. I shoot him a quick message.

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