“Yeah, but I spent three hours getting ready for it. Turn off that ring light before I start seeing white circles everywhere.” She motioned at the light that Hazel had contributed to her interview with Mason’s employer. The appliance company was based in Germany, but her interviewer had been located in Baltimore. She’d assumed Mason would just get her on a list of service people and she’d pick up an occasional job out of it—there weren’t that many commercial appliances in Rendezvous Falls. Instead, he’d recommended her as a possible regional service tech, meaning she could get jobs from businesses as far away as Rochester or Syracuse. Either one was only a ninety-minute drive at most, and it opened up the possibility of a lot more business.

But first she needed to be interviewed after submitting her résumé. Mike had helped with the résumé—meaning he’d basically done it all. She would have just given them a list of machines she could fix, but Mike had made the document into a work of art, with glowing descriptions of her skill sets. She’d asked him to tone down a couple of lines that just felt over-the-top to her, but he and Hazel had teamed up to convince her to trust the two of them with her future.

She hadn’t been sure how Mike would feel about helping, considering the weirdness the previous week with Mason. She didn’t agree with Mason’s assessment that there were sparks between her and her friend, but there had been something strange that night at the Shamrock. She and Mike had avoided any discussion of it. How do you discuss sparks anyway?

She’d used a riddle to get him to join Team Zoey.

Z: What disappears as soon as you say its name?

M: ????

Z: Silence. This is me, ending ours. I need your help with a job application.

There’d been a long pause, but eventually he’d responded.

M: Where and when?

They’d had a planning meeting at the kitchen table, with Hazel and Mike both shouting out ideas. Zoey had finally assigned Hazel to help with the video call, and Mike to help with the résumé. Both things were far outside her comfort zone.

“Mom, we have to let Mike know how well this went—you nailed it!” Hazel grabbed her phone and began texting.

“Only because I had such a fabulous personal assistant to manage things. I’d have done the interview in the workshop after a long day and would have looked haggard and pale.”