The air rushed out of my lungs as I thought of how incredibly dumb I had been not to pick up on things before now. The description of Hannah, the fake-out love interest that Nicole Marcel wrote about at the start of Breach of Contract, the woman at the first law firm Penelope worked at with the blonde pixie cut that wore a gauzy white chiffon shirt, black piercings…it was an exact match.

"Wait, you're…in the start of Breach of Contract, that's…"

"A little self-insert. Maybe I was feeling a bit uninspired when I started the book up, or perhaps I just wanted to get to the hot BDSM stuff that I really wanted to write." Hannah grinned madly. I realized that in all the years I'd read Nicole Marcel's work, the only author photo that existed of her was from years ago, the Nicole there had longer, darker hair, and she was turned away from the camera so that you couldn't get a full look at her face.

It was no wonder that I'd never connected the dots.

"You're Nicole Marcel…oh my god." I said. The dizziness returned, but the rollercoaster in my stomach was a loop of pure glee and joy.

"Actually, my real name is Hannah Merrill, Nicole Marcel is just a pen name." Hannah…actually, really Hannah, looked back toward the door. "Did I creep you out too much with my little charade, or are you still interested in that coffee?"

"Please, I'm…" I paused. This could all still be a ruse. In the same way I put the coincidences together, she could have put them in place. "I need you to prove it to me. I mostly believe you, it's just…I've lived in the city my whole life, I know there are amazing coincidences, and it's a small world, but there's also…predators out there, even beautiful ones. I want to believe you, Hannah, just…you understand how all of this looks, right?" I balled my fists, still tense. Survival instincts had saved me more than once in my life, and I didn't want to drop them all just because a cute…ok gorgeous…ok stunning…woman might want to sleep with me, or do something more sinister.

Hannah closed her eyes, looking self-loathing for a second. "You are…completely right. We're not characters in one of my books, we don't just fall for each other and abandon all reason. That's fun as hell in fiction, but…gah, Zoe, I'm sorry for trying to concoct this whole thing instead of just coming up to you and saying 'hi, I see you're reading my book' or something."

"It's OK…I mean I guess it's OK if you're actually who you say you are." I smiled.

"Give me two minutes, I know exactly what I have that can prove this." Hannah opened her door and started moving into the apartment.

"I'll stay right here." I nodded.