Chapter 2: Arrested by Fate

I quickly put my phone away. Yikes.

Help! My face is on fire! I wanted to crawl under the table and never come out. Why am I like this?

Change the subject, fast.

I was so obsessed with his looks, I forgot something important. Until my golden retriever showed up—yep, in a suit, holding roses—and I was completely floored. He hugged me right in front of Officer Grant. Like, right there.

“Hey, I’m Mariah’s boyfriend, Tyler Ford.”

"No...!" My brain short-circuited. No, no, no.

I watched Mason’s smile fade. The light in his eyes just… dimmed. Like someone switched off the porch light on Halloween. It hurt to watch.

At that moment, nothing is sadder than a dead heart. You know that feeling when you drop your ice cream cone? Multiply that by a hundred. Oof.

My mom asked how the blind date went. I just waved her off, wanting to cry but so dry I couldn’t even muster up tears. “He’s great, probably didn’t like me—he left without even getting my number.”

I didn’t dare tell her I sabotaged it myself. How do you admit to your mom that you fumbled the ball at the one-yard line?

I thought that was the end, but honestly…

Turns out, fate with Officer Mason wasn’t over. Unfortunately, it was kind of doomed.

Because after seeing the ocean, no lake will do—after meeting Mason, the rest of my dating pool just bored me. Every night when I closed my eyes, Mason’s face popped up. The way he earnestly pulled out that forensics atlas—so upright! I liked it way more than I should’ve.

Mason became the impossible crush I couldn’t get out of my head. My friends would say, “Girl, you’re obsessed,” and I’d just laugh it off, but it was true.

I turned Tyler down when he wanted to make it official and went to a bar to drink my sorrows away with my girlfriends.

When I was throwing up in a corner, I suddenly heard police sirens. Bam. Some guy bumped into me, yelling, “What are you standing there for? Want to get arrested? Run!”

Was he talking to me?

Run? From what?

My head was spinning, I couldn’t think. People were suddenly rushing out of the bar in a panic. Their fear rubbed off on me, and before I knew it, I was running too. My heels nearly snapped, but adrenaline does wild things.

Then—a police cruiser blocked the alley, cutting off any escape. A bunch of cops surrounded us, guns drawn. My heart stopped.

“Don’t move! Hands on your head, get down!”

My legs were shaking. What the hell just happened? It felt like I’d wandered onto the set of COPS.

My voice was all choked up. “I just came for a drink! What did I do? I’m a law-abiding citizen!”

The officer just rolled his eyes. “Yeah, they all say they’re law-abiding citizens!”

Huh?

I was stunned. The six of us who ran were put in separate cars. Great.

Guess who was in my car—Officer Mason Grant himself.

In the dim car, his profile was perfect. He saw me, froze, but said nothing. The silence between us was heavier than the Kevlar vest he probably wore. I could barely breathe.

I pulled myself together and greeted him sweetly, “Mason~”

The policewoman escorting me actually shivered. “Captain Grant, you two know each other?”

Mason’s whole vibe was nothing like the blind date—serious, cold, intimidating. The kind of tone that makes you sit up straight even if you’re innocent.

“We’ve met.”

Huh? People who almost got married are just ‘met’?

I’m so sad, okay!

The policewoman looked at me, then at Mason. “Then maybe we really got the wrong person.”

I nodded. “Told you I’m a law-abiding citizen.”

Mason looked at us, even more serious. “Reed, you can’t get emotional at work. Even cops aren’t always good people, let alone friends? We can’t arrest the innocent, but we can’t let the guilty go either.”

Friends?

Fine, one step up from ‘met’.

I sat next to Mason; he cuffed us together. He didn’t say a word the whole way. I called him ‘Mason’ several times. He only replied coldly once, “I’m working.” The way he said it, you’d think he was auditioning for Law & Order. Ha.

At the police station interrogation room.