Chapter FortyFive

"Okay, spill. What’s going on with you and Mr. Tall, Dark, and Complicated?"

Annie’s voice reverberated from the speaker, crisp and humorous, just as I remembered it.

I reclined in my chair and gazed out of my apartment's large window, a small smile tugging at my lips. Even though the London skyline was in front of me, I felt as though I was sitting across from Annie in New York, holding coffee cups.

"Annie," I muttered, shaking my head as if she couldn't see me. "It's not that simple."

"It's always that straightforward. "You are either into him or not." I could hear dishes clinking in the background. She was presumably in the kitchen, multitasking as usual. "And I don't need to be in the same country to know that you're definitely into him."

I grumbled, twisting the phone chord between my fingers as if it could somehow bind my jumbled sentiments. "It isn't about being into him. It's more nuanced than that."

"Please enlighten me, sweetheart. Because, from where I'm standing, it soun