“Uh, not sure we have many of those out this way.” He winked. “You happy to wait here?”

“Yeah, sure.” Matt jogged off towards the front desk and Jules had to stop herself from calling out to be careful. She was about to call for a cab when Matt’s phone rang, startling her and nearly making her drop it. She recovered, pressed the green button, and raised the phone to her ear.

“Hello? This is Matt’s phone.”

“And who are you?” asked a woman’s voice.

“Oh, I’m … a friend—of Matt’s. He’s just … He can’t come to the phone right now. Can I take a message?”

“It’s his mum. Wait a minute. You’re not Kirsten, are you?” Jules had no idea who Kirsten was, but it was clear from her tone that Matt’s mom did not like her.

“Uh, no, ma’am, this is Jules. I met Matt at Christmas. I’m a friend of Chloe’s. Do you know Chloe?”

“Mmm.” The response sounded like a growl and Jules just knew it was accompanied by a frown, even though she couldn’t see the woman’s face.

“Oh, look, Matt’s here!” she exclaimed as she held out the phone. “It’s your mom,” she mouthed.

Matt’s inquisitive expression morphed into one Jules couldn’t read, and he took the phone from her and pressed it to his ear. “Hi, Mum, what’s up?” It was obvious from the false cheer he affected that Matt wasn’t about to reveal his whereabouts or what had happened.

His expression changed again, and Jules watched as he looked at the floor, his mouth flattening into a thin line and his brows meeting. “Yeah, no—” He’d clearly been cut off and although she couldn’t make out most of the words, she did hear “Kirsten” a couple of times and from the tone of Matt’s mom’s voice, she was not pleased.

“Mum. Mum, we can talk about this another time … Yeah, well, it’s not why you called, so what’s going on? Oh, right. Yeah, I can make that work, no worries. No, I’m happy to, Mum. Look, I’d better go. I’ll call you later, okay? Yeah. Love you too. ’Kay. Bye.”

He dropped the handset by his side and finally met Jules’s eyes. “Sorry ’bout that.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, she just needs me to take her to the doctor the week after next.”

“Ah, I see.” Was he really going to ignore the whole “Kirsten” thing?

“Do we still need to call a taxi?” he asked. Apparently, he was, yes.

“Yeah, your mom called before I had the chance.”

“No worries.” He scrolled through the phone one-handed and made the call. “Ten minutes,” he said, adding a weak smile.

Jules nodded. Say it, she prompted herself. “So, who’s Kirsten?”

“Oh, uh …”

“Annnd …” she drew the word out, “why did your mom freak out when she thought that I was Kirsten?”

Matt bit his lip, then reached for her hand. She let him take it. “How about when we get back to my place, we talk? ’Kay?”