Dear Heart, I Hate You

“Seriously. Where did you come from?”

“Bob and Lila Cheng. Why do you ask?” she said matter-of-factly as she mentioned her parents’ names.

“Because sometimes I think you came from Mars. Or Pluto. Or some other planet.”

“I’ll let my parents know you think so.” She gave me a sassy grin before tossing back the rest of her wine.

My phone rang and I moved to grab it, not quite sure who it might be. Tami peered over, and when she saw Cal’s name, she whispered, “Does he call you every night?”

I nodded as I answered. “Hey,” I practically purred into the line.

“Hey, babe. Guess what?”

“What?”

“Thirteen days,” he announced excitedly.

I squealed. “I was just talking to Tami about that. We’re super excited.”

“Tami’s excited too?”

Cal knew exactly who Tami was. I’d filled him in on more than one occasion about her and her antics, the same way he’d shared Lucas’s latest dating disasters with me.

When I thought about, it amazed me how much we now knew about each other’s day-to-day lives. It was incredible what you could learn about a person when you did nothing but talk to them on the phone, rather than see them. Seeing someone could be distracting, but if you took the physical stuff out of the equation, you were only left with the rest.

“I can’t believe he actually calls you,” Tami said, seeming flabbergasted by the very idea.

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“What’s she saying?” Cal asked, his tone amused.

“She said she can’t believe that you call me,” I told him.

“As opposed to what?”

“Texting? I don’t know.”

He huffed. “I’m a man, Jules. Tell her that real men know how to have conversations on the phone, and we use ours for more than just text messages.”

When I lowered the phone and started to relay the message, my best friend groaned. “Oh, just give me the phone.”

She pulled the phone out of my hand.

“Hi, Cal Not-Klein,” she said, trying to sound composed and not tipsy. “I know. It’s impressive. Guys really don’t call anymore. They text.”

My eyebrows shot up at how her voice completely changed. He’d already charmed her through the damn phone. I sat there, listening to the one-sided conversation and wondering exactly what Cal was asking her, or saying to her. My heart raced as I listened to my best friend chat up my . . . well, my Cal.

Tami giggled, said good-bye, and handed me back the phone.

Cal chuckled when I was back on the line. “She’s a nut.”

Laughing along with him, I said, “You have no idea.”

“I’ll let you go since Tami’s there. Call me later if you want, or I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

I didn’t want to get off the phone. I never wanted to, but he was right. Tami was here tonight to hang out with me, so focusing on her was the right thing to do.

“Okay. Thanks for calling.”