Betting on You(55)

“Any movement with him?” he asked, pulling off his sunglasses and dropping them onto the dash. “Conversations that felt promising, looks exchanged, anything like that…?”

“Actually,” I said, “I don’t really ever see or talk to him.”

“What?” His face got all screwed up. “How are you hung up on him if you never see or talk to him?”

“I’m hung up on the memory of him,” I said, wondering why it felt more comfortable trying to explain it to Charlie than it did to Nekesa. “And the fact that we aren’t done.”

“Yeah, I’m familiar with that last part,” he said, reaching out to flip the radio even though it wasn’t his turn. “But how are you ever going to reconnect if you don’t have any contact?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m sure we’ll run into each other sometime soon.”

“Do you have the same friends?” he asked. “I see Bec all the time because we have the same friends.”

“No, um,” I said, not wanting to sound like a dork. “We kind of hang in different crowds.”

“He’s not a super reader with a billion online buddies?”

That made me look over at him in surprise, because I’d never told him about my bookstagram account. “Are you on Instagram?”

He grinned but didn’t answer, instead saying, “Why? Do you want to be my friend?”

“I’m already your friend, moron,” I teased, a little shocked that he’d obviously found me on social media.

“Coworker,” he corrected. That made me roll my eyes, which made him chuckle.

Just then my phone buzzed. Nekesa.

My parents are treating me like I killed a man.

“I feel so bad for her,” I said to Charlie, “that she’s not on the trip.”

“But if she were here, you wouldn’t have me,” Charlie said, driving with one hand draped over the wheel.

“True,” I said, texting her back. “At least she’s got Aaron and Theo to text and keep her company.”

Charlie made a noise, and I looked over at him. “What?”

He shrugged and said, “Do you like Theo?”

“I mean, yeah,” I said, even though I found him to be a little annoying. “He’s fine.”

“I don’t really trust that guy,” Charlie said, which surprised me. He and Theo always seemed to get along when we all worked together on the weekends.

“Is this about the bet?” I asked.

“What?” he asked, his voice rising a few octaves. His eyes narrowed as he glanced away from the road and at me. He looked… I don’t know, different when he said, “What are you talking about?”

“THE bet…?” What the hell was that? “Hello?”

“Right, right,” he replied, in a much calmer tone, “but what would my not trusting him have to do with that?”

I shrugged and grabbed my drink. “No idea.”

“So… you should text Zack.”

“What?” That brought my eyes right to his face, but he continued to drive as if he hadn’t just bombshelled the suggestion that I text my in-a-new-relationship ex-boyfriend.

“You should text him right now, while I’m with you, so you don’t lose your nerve. Why wait?”

“Why wait?” I turned my body so I was fully facing him in the front seat of the car, so he’d have no question about the What the hell expression on my face. “Well, for starters, he has a girlfriend.”

“So?” he said with a shrug, looking wholly confident that the girlfriend wasn’t a concern. “You’re not asking him out. You’re just going to reach out to him as a buddy.”

“We aren’t buddies. I’ve never been his buddy.”

“Quit being literal and quit being scared. Text him something chill like Do you know my Netflix password?”

“Why would he know my Netflix password?”

He gave his head a shake, like I was an idiot, and said, “He doesn’t. But he doesn’t know that you don’t think he might.”

“I’m sorry—how is this going to help things?”

“It’s the reconnection,” he said, sighing. “You text him what I said, and he responds that he doesn’t. Then you say Dangit—I didn’t think so but I thought it was worth a shot.”

I still didn’t see how that would help anything.

“He will—of course—give you a Sorry bro, and then you have the chance to say something funny and make him think about you.”

“Think about me how?” It was a pointless plan, an idea without merit, but still.

“That is up to you. Send him the first text,” Charlie said, “and I’ll Cyrano the rest as we go.”

“No,” I squealed, not at all interested in involving Charlie with Zack but for some reason giddily excited about something. “It’ll never work.”

“It will absolutely work for its purpose,” he said, staring out at the road in front of him.

“Which is…?”

“Which is reminding him that you’re funny and interesting.”

“Charlie—”