If I do get my answers, that will mark the beginning of something new, but the end to this. This unconventional pact thing Ethan and I have going. And I’m not sure I’m ready for it to end. It just started and it’s going so well…

Sixty-Five

June 13

Last night I slept poorly again. Kept waking up and then struggled to fall asleep.

I shouldn’t have called Alisa before I went to bed.

I picked up the phone and put it back on the nightstand a few times. I wanted to call and tell her what happened, but something made me hesitate. Realizing she’d know something was off if I missed our call two nights in a row, I dialed her number.

“Finally,” she said. “I was about to send MI6 after you.”

I told her about the last two days but kept it to a minimum because I knew it would be hard for her to understand our arrangement.

“So, Aaron isn’t Max and you’re basically back to square one.”

“Sort of. It’s just a matter of days before I find out his name though.”

“And this is the reason why you guys watched a movie and today went for a drive?” she asked casually. “So you can find out Max’s real name?”

“Yes.”

“Why?” she asked a bit bluntly. “I don’t get it.”

“What do you mean why? I told you. Before he tells me, he wants to make sure my intentions are good.”

“Like in an eighteenth-century chaperone type of thing? Is Max a tween?”

She had the exact same reaction I had when Ethan refused to tell me who Max is. But, since then, things have changed, I think. I see things differently now.

“He’s just looking out for his friend,” I said, realizing how it sounded.

“Isn’t this the same man who plastered a photo of the two of you kissing in a paper, not caring about his friend’s feelings? Now he cares? What’s going on with you, Maya?”

“Nothing is going on,” I said, trying to sound convincing. “And it was his publishers who put the photo in the paper. Besides, you told me I should be more open and make friends.”

“This is not what I had in mind.”

“You know what? Me neither. But sometimes it doesn’t work exactly as you plan.”

“Hello? Is my friend still there? Who’s talking? I hear the voice, but I don’t recognize who’s behind it,” she said and I know she was trying to joke but it wasn’t too far from the truth.

That was why I hadn’t wanted to call her.

“I’m going to ask the obvious. Why are you not talking to Celine about this? Ask her if she knows who Max is.”

Smart Alisa.

“I thought about that too, but I’d have to explain too much and hurt her feelings, probably for nothing since she doesn’t seem to be that involved in his writing.”

“That sounds like an excuse to me,” she said.