“I literally asked you if you wanted food on the way home!” Asher yelled back.
“I changed my mind!”
Asher groaned, then rolled down the window. “Fine. Back seat. I need to take Wren to her car anyway.”
* * *
“You didn’t tell him?” Kamala practically yelled at me as we sat on my bed that night.
“I was going to, but he told me this sad story about losing all his confidence. And his brother was making fun of him, and Dale wants him to commit social suicide.”
“Are you talking about Dale’s birthday party humiliation he wants to inflict on Asher?” she asked, obviously remembering the conversation from the café as well.
“Yes. If Dale digs around and finds out that not only was he catfished originally but now I seem to be catfishing him…in a very different and nice way…he’ll never let him live it down.”
Kamala’s brows shot down. “Different and nice way?”
“I mean, he’s met me and seen me and I’m trying my hardest not to lie to him.”
“That’s all you’re doing!” she said. “Lying to him.”
“No, I’m not. He knows where I work. He’s met Bean! I told him about my dad’s stupid job and my mom. So see! I’m not lying.”
“You told him about your mom?” she asked, surprised. I didn’t tell anyone anything about my mom unless they already knew she’d left us. I hardly even talked to Kamala about the situation. Why had I told him?
She stood suddenly and began pacing the room, her hands twisting around each other. Her bed was lined with stuffed animals that she held or fidgeted with when she was nervous or thinking. My bedroom didn’t contain a single stuffed animal—I hated clutter—so I held a pillow in her direction.
She waved it away. “Don’t make fun of me. You’re the weird one. Who doesn’t have something soft to hug?”
“People who don’t need hugs,” I said.
“Says the girl who found the perfect hugger.” She let out a frustrated sigh. “He seems like a really nice guy, Wren.”
“He is. And I’m going to tell him. I am. Maybe after I get Dale off the suspicion trail. Then Asher can just say we weren’t right for each other or something, not that he was fooled.”
“And if he falls for you in the meantime?” she asked, as if guys fell for me on the regular.
“Oh please. He won’t. We’re so not right for each other.” He’d already broken six of my rules and I’d barely known him for a week.
“Do you like him?” Kamala asked. “Is that why you’re doing this?”
“No! I just want to help him.”
Her worried expression turned into a disappointed one. “So you feel sorry for him? That’s even worse.”
“It’s not worse. That’s what good people with big hearts do.”
She pointed to me. “Was that a description of you?”
“I may keep it in a cage, but I have the biggest heart in this town.”
Kamala, in all her best-friend sincerity, said, “I know you do,” which made me laugh because I had been kidding. My heart was pretty shriveled. “It’s your brain I have a problem with. You can’t control everything, you know.”
“I know,” I said. But I could control most things.
“I’m just worried this is all going to blow up in your face and he’s going to get hurt.”
“I won’t hurt him. It’s Dale who wants to make a fool of him, with his recordings and plans for over-the-top humiliation. It’s hard to recover from that in high school. Do we really want people to always remember Asher as the guy who was catfished and had to run around some rich guy’s yard naked?”
She shook her head. “And what about Chad?”
“Weirdly, I think Chad’s more interested now that I’m sort of taken.” This really could be a mutually beneficial arrangement. “He was asking Asher lots of questions about me.”
“Uh, if that’s not a red flag I don’t know what is. I hope that’s in your little book of rules: Any guy who doesn’t ask me out for months and only acts interested once I’m taken is off limits.”
“That’s a solid rule.” I probably should add it.
“But?” Kamala said, knowing there was a but.
“But I didn’t really give him a chance. I was literally asking him out when Asher came. Maybe he would’ve said yes.” Maybe I’d read his reaction wrong.
“So you’re going to date both of them?”
“No, Chad can wait a few more weeks,” I said, warming to the idea as I said the words. “He’s waited this long.”
She made an exploding noise with her mouth as her fingers slowly opened. “Blowing it up.”
Rule: Never date someone impulsive.
“Your car is ancient!” Asher yelled from the passenger seat. Bean was sitting on his lap, his head out the window, his tail wagging so hard it was slapping Asher in the arm with every stroke.
When I’d shown up at work that day, Erin had stopped me before I headed to the back and said, “I have a special project for you.”
“I was supposed to help Chad with the new intakes today.” I tried to peer down the hall to see if I could catch a glimpse of him. I couldn’t.
“I’ll have Rodrigo help him.”
“Oh, okay. What’s the project?” I asked.
“It is your solemn duty to find Bean a forever home before the end of summer.”
Two months? I had two months? “What? How?”
“You think he’d still be here after two hundred and seventy-nine days if I knew the answer to that question?”
“Read his mind with your twin power,” Rodrigo said as he walked by.
“Bean is not my twin,” I called after him. “I just sympathize with his hatred of humanity.”
Rodrigo laughed loud and long before his laughter was swallowed up by the barking of dogs.
To Erin, I said, “Okay, I’ll come up with some sort of plan.” Preparation would be important for an assignment like this.
“Today. I want you to work on something today. That’s why I called in the volunteer of the month to help you.”
“Volunteer of the month? I didn’t know we had one of those.”