She knows he’s kind of a slacker. Doesn’t really know what he’s doing in life, hangs around different GreenGirls with his friends, is kind of looking for work, trying to figure it out.

She knows it’s ridiculous of her. But she knows how he makes her feel. She knows what happens when they look at each other.

She can’t help smiling. She sees herself smiling as she looks in the mirror, checking her outfit, adjusting her brunette ponytail, and that just makes her smile even more.

She knows plenty about the reality of relationships, how they fail, why they fail, when they fail. She’s had plenty of experience, for better and for worse.

And she also knows this one feels different. More open. More lift. More energy.

Part of her knows it’s not going anywhere.

And part of her feels, deep down in a place she’s always been able to trust, that this one really is going somewhere.

She’s been here before.

She’s never been here before. Not exactly.

It feels—she laughs out loud—exZACKtly right, for whatever crazy reasons, as she floats out the door.

7.

7.

As Zack sits there dumbfounded on the bench, the phone in his hands suddenly rings.

He jumps. A little freaked out to feel the assassin’s phone come alive in his hands like that.

He looks at the number.

It’s his own.

Is he going to answer?

It’s his only choice. He can’t just run forever. Maybe there’s a chance to resolve this. To do more than just run.

“Hello?”

“Hello, Zack.”

The voice of the businessman again. But now, something different in it. A shift to a darker hue. Zack senses a strange new intimacy. Even in the silence that hangs for a moment between them.

“You shouldn’t have run, Zack. That just tells me you looked in the phone. If you had just stayed there, handed back the phone, acted happy and dumb, that might have worked. I might have bought it.”

“No, you wouldn’t,” says Zack. “I couldn’t risk it. ’Cause I knew you wouldn’t risk it.”

There’s a beat. During which Zack feels Joey is assessing his intelligence. “Well, maybe you’re right, Zack. But now you leave me no choice. Now, I need that phone back.”

Zack can feel his hand trembling, holding Joey’s phone against his ear. “Hey, I’m willing to give your phone back and forget everything,” Zack says. “But I know you’re not going to do that. You’re not going to forgive and forget. That’s not how guys like you work.” And then he maybe goes a little too far. “That’s not how people succeed in your business.”

A grim silence at the other end. Zack can feel the guy assessing. Irritated.