“You two have chemistry,” Dina says. “You should go out on a date.”
“A date?” Connor asks in a tone that could make one think she suggested he fly to the moon. “You think I should ask her out?”
“I’m right here.”
Connor adjusts his rearview mirror. “Quiet in the back while the adults speak.”
We laugh.
“Of the three adults in the car, you’re the youngest,” I remind him.
Connor’s eyes sparkle. “You wouldn’t consider going out with me, then?”
“No.”
“Are you off Friday night?” he asks.
Yes. “No.”
“Are you sure you’re not?”
Dina turns in her seat and looks from me to him back to me. I don’t know what she sees, but she says, “Leave her alone, Con.”
Connor re-centers the rearview mirror.
I watch the pedestrians near the window as the SUV stands still in traffic. Yellow crime scene tape wraps around the buildings, perhaps the entire block.
I spot a reporter who’s running toward us, the cameraman hustling with the equipment on her heels.
“Why did we stop?” My face can’t be on the news.
Connor honks. Once, twice. The cars around us respond. It’s so loud that Hanna looks at me, frightened. “It’s okay, baby girl.” I’m pretty sure I’m the scared one. Nobody is coming to save me. Nobody will tell meit’s okay, baby girl. I won’t need comfortwhen the crime lord I’m hiding from sees me on the news. Because I’ll be dead.
Pedestrians converge on the car.
Connor rolls down his window and pats the roof.
The reporter runs around the car with her cameraman and the microphone.
In the back seat, I duck down.
“Mr. Crossbow, Mr. Crossbow?—”
Connor cuts off the journalist. “I owe you an exclusive.”
“Yes, yes, whenever you’re ready. But?—”
“How about Friday night?”
Jealousy burns a hole in my chest. It feels like indigestion.
“I’m free Friday night.”
“Are you now?”
This motherfucker is flirting. Is it on purpose? Because I rejected him? I bet it is. Doesn’t he know it’s for the best? He’s the one who told me we were done after that one time on the road.
“Yes, yes. Um, I’m covering the event today, and I wanted to?—”