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Sarah lay down next to me on her back so we were both looking up at the ceiling. “I think spark is something that’s either there or it isn’t. I mean look at you and Oliver—lots of spark, just no substance.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “What a disaster that was.”

“So, what are you going to do?” Sarah turned her head to the side to look at me.

“Well, I think that after this weekend, whatever Mason and I had is gone,” I said quietly. It hurt to say the words out loud. Somehow, they seemed to have more truth to them when I said them that way than when I thought them in my head. Saying them to Sarah just made everything feel so...so final.

“Well, for now, how about we let our polish dry?” Sarah lifted her leg and wiggled her brightly painted toes at me. “Then we can order some pizza.”

I looked Sarah in the face. She and Bree really were the two best friends anyone could ask for. “Deal.”

SARAH AND I WERE sitting at the kitchen table finishing the last few bites of pizza when my phone rang. It was so loud, it startled both of us. “Good grief! That ringer could wake the dead!” Sarah said through a mouth full of pizza. “Who is it?”

I wiped my hands on a napkin before picking my phone off the table. I was so surprised when I saw the name on the screen, I almost dropped it. “Holy shit!” I shouted. “It’s Mason!” What was he doing? We’d never actually talked on the phone before! I could feel a wave of apprehension wash over me. “Why is he calling?” I asked Sarah…like she would somehow magically know.

Sarah’s eyes grew big. “Quick! Answer before it goes to voicemail!”

Without giving myself any time to chicken out, I nervously pushed the green “answer” button. “Hello?” I tried to sound cool and calm, but my voice came out weird and breathy.

“Umm…hello? Anna?” A deep voice rumbled through the phone line back at me.

“Yes,” was all I could squeak out.

“This is Mason.”

“Yes, hi.” I glanced at Sarah who smacked her hand on her forehead. Great. At least everyone was on board with how awkward the phone conversation was. I scowled at Sarah as I got up and quickly began to walk toward my bedroom. I didn’t need an audience.

“Yeah, hi,” Mason said back. There was a long awkward pause between us as I slipped into my bedroom and shut the door. I climbed onto my bed and sat cross-legged in the middle. I really wasn’t sure what to say, or why he was calling. Everything felt so strange. It wasn’t how I imagined our first time talking on the phone would be.

“Shit,” Mason sighed into the phone. “I’m screwing this up already. I didn’t expect you to actually pick up the phone, so it totally threw me off.” Mason’s voice was deep, strong, and incredibly sexy—just like I’d imagined it would be. Every nerve ending in my body seemed to be tingling after just hearing him say a few words.

I was finally able to calm myself enough to process what he was saying. “Wait? Why are you calling if you didn’t want me to pick up?” I asked. The call just kept getting more and more awkward. “Do you want me to hang up?”

“No!” Mason said quickly and with so much force it startled me. “Please don’t hang up. It sounds stupid now, but I was going to leave you a message apologizing for our last conversation. It just seemed like trying to do it over text was a bad idea.” Mason paused as he cleared his throat. “I…uh…not everything…shit…everything doesn’t always come out exactly right over text, so I wanted to call.”

“I see,” I said slowly as the whole interaction started to make a bit more sense. “What were you going to say in the message?”

I could hear Mason take a deep breath. “I was going to say I was really, truly sorry for the way I acted Friday night. I cringe every time I look back over the messages I sent you. I was way out of line and it was not fair or respectful to you in any way. I’ve been trying to figure out all weekend how to apologize to you, and nothing seemed quite right, so here I am. I’m really sorry, Anna. I hope you can forgive me and that I didn’t ruin what we have between us.”

I smiled as I answered back to him. “That wasn’t too bad,” I told him.

Mason cleared his throat again. I was finding it sweet how nervous he seemed. “I…I actually have it written out here on a piece of paper I’m reading from.” There was a bit of a sheepish undertone to his voice.

“Well, it seems like a pretty good message you were going to leave.” I knew the smile I was wearing came through in my voice. I also felt a tremendous sense of relief that whatever it was between us wasn’t over yet.

Mason chuckled. Oh, I liked the sound of that—deep, throaty, and super-hot. “Pretty good?”

“It’s not quite the same as a kitten or puppy meme…” I was cut off by the sound of Mason laughing. Oh. My. God. If I thought his chuckle was hot, his laugh was downright sexy and seemed to shoot straight through me. Wow!

“Point well taken,” Mason finally said when he stopped laughing.

There was a brief moment of silence and all I knew was I didn’t want the conversation to end. I nervously pulled at a loose string on my comforter as I racked my brain, trying to come up with something to say. I decided it would be best to see if Mason wanted the conversation to continue—he’d mentioned earlier that he didn’t plan on me answering the phone. Maybe he didn’t want to actually talk? Only one way to find out. “So, now that I threw everything off by answering, do you have time to talk?” I asked hesitantly.

“Yes, please,” Mason said quickly. “Thank you for not hanging up on me, Anna. Although I wouldn’t have blamed you if you had.”

“It’s so strange to hear your voice,” I blurted out. I closed my eyes as I cringed. I needed to get both my nerves and my giddiness under control.

“Yours is beautiful. Soft and sweet like I imagined it would be,” Mason said quietly. I felt myself blush.

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