Page 102 of The Rom-Commers

Need my backpack—Can you bring? URGENT

Where are you?

Coffee shop

And then… nothing.

Had he gotten another phone call? Lost interest? Fallen victim to Mrs. Jablowmie’s predatory behaviors?

Was his meeting over—and now he was coming? Or was the meeting still going—so I should try to sprint to his place and back here before Donna Cole escaped?

I closed my laptop and capped my pen. And then I hesitated—not sure what to do.

Minutes went by. Donna Cole ordered at the counter, then took a seat at a banquette around the corner.

More minutes went by.

Then more.

Maybe Charlie wasn’t coming. Who knew what the mistress might be doing to him by now.

I stood up. I couldn’t stand it. I had to do something.

But that’s when the coffee shop door swung open—and it was Charlie. Hair wild, shirt untucked, my backpack over his shoulder, out ofbreath like he’d been running. He scanned the room until he saw me, and then ran—ran!—over. “Here,” he said, shoving it at me. “Does it have”—he shook his head—“an inhaler or something? What’s going on? What do you need? Are you hurt?”

Ah. He’d thought I was having amedicalemergency.

Oops.

“Nothing like that,” I said, waving my hands to help him regroup. “It’s just got my screenplay in it.”

Charlie coughed at that. “Your what?”

“My mermaid screenplay.”

He shook his head. “That’syour emergency?”

“Yeah.” I pulled the zipper and yanked it out.

“I thought you were…” Charlie said, still breathing hard. “Hurt or sick or something.”

At the thought of that, Charlie coughed some more.

“Shh,” I said, glancing Donna Cole’s way. “What is it with you and the coughing?”

“I’m not doing it on purpose,” Charlie said.

“It feels performative.”

“This from the woman who just made me abandon my meeting to sprint over here.”

That felt oddly touching. “You abandoned your meeting?”

“I thought you were dying. I was picturing you like a fish flopping around on dry land.”

I tilted my head, likeOdd visual.Then I said, “I’m fine.”

“Clearly.”

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