Page 30 of Mr. Wrong Number

Shit.

I looked back at the sink; I needed time to absorb this jarring turn of events before I laid eyes on her again. “That is the rule.”

“Seriously?” I saw in my periphery that she tilted her head, and I could feel her eyes on me.

“Seriously. You had a big day; I’ll get the dishes.”

She said, “Wow,” but stayed put beside me.

God, I just need her to go away.“Better go before I change my mind.”

“Colin.” She was telling me to look at her with her tone of voice.

“Olivia.” I did look at her then, and she was giving me a tinysmile. I shifted my weight to one foot and hoped I looked as exasperated as I felt, because I needed her gone. I raised an eyebrow. “What?”

She nudged me with her elbow, a playful touch of her funny bone to my side, and said, “Thanks for being cool tonight. It was kind of fun until you weirded out at the end.”

She was too close, too earnest, too playful, and I was careful to keep my voice level as I said, “Sure. Now go to bed, Olivia.”

She slow blinked another grin. “Sweet dreams, Colin.”

6

Olivia

My alarm went off, and everything inside me wanted to ignore it and sleep in.

But I couldn’t risk it. I couldn’t risk jeopardizing all of the big-girl, adult things that were finally happening in my life by going back to my undisciplined ways. I had to keep the New Olivia thing going.

Besides, I could always nap on Colin’s bed after he went to work.

I put on cutoff sweat shorts and aJust Do ItT-shirt with a swoosh that had worn completely away, brushed my teeth, and pulled my hair back in a ponytail. Five minutes later I was riding the elevator down to the lobby, adjusting my earbuds while clicking on my favorite running playlist.

And then I was off.

The morning sun was just starting to come up and the citystreets were quiet; it was a perfect morning to run. And the running itself actually felt good for once. I was killing the game, jogging four whole blocks without stopping, when I nearly ran over a dude who was tying his shoe. I came around the corner like a shot, really feeling my stride, when all of a sudden—boom—there he was in the middle of the sidewalk. I tried to sidestep with a graceful, deer-like leap, but ended up tripping over my own feet, sprawling out over the sidewalk, and landing on my knees.

Hard.

“Shiiiiit,” I hissed through my teeth.

I looked down at my knees and they were both skinned and starting to bleed like I was a fallen kindergartener at recess. And they hurt so screamingly bad that I wanted to bawl. I rolled over so I was sitting up, and tried not to moan.

“Oh, my God—are you okay?”

I looked up and blinked fast as a handsome face and a backward hat looked down at me. I muttered to myself, “Seriously? Are you freaking kidding me?”

Apparently he heard me, because he smiled. “It’s no big deal; people fall all the time.”

How wonderful to fall like a clumsy oaf in front of a guy who looked cuteandnice. I climbed to my feet, jumping up and smiling like my kneecaps didn’t feel broken and my palms weren’t scraped. “I’m fine.”

“You’re bleeding.” He had on sunglasses, but I knew he was looking down at my knees, one of which had a stream of blood running from it.

“Nah.” I waved a hand in the air and made a ridiculouslyperky face. “I bleed easily. Like all the time. It’s seriously no big deal. Um, have a good day, I guess.”

I turned away from him and just started running, throwing my hand up in a wave as I did my best to disappear from his sight. I sprinted down the block, desperate to put as much space between him and me as possible, but after about twenty seconds he caught up to me.

Dammit, he started running alongside me.

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