CHAPTER 1: STRANGER'S ORDERS
MAEVE’S POV
The first time I called the number, it was a joke. A dare from my roommate, Chloe, after we’d killed a bottle of cheap rosé and were feeling dangerously brave.
“Come on, Maeve,” she’d slurred, pointing a finger at me. “Ms. Corporate Litigation Lawyer by day… secret little phone slut by night. Do it. I bet it’s just some creepy dude in his mom’s basement.”
I was drunk enough to be reckless. I dialed the number she’d scrawled on a napkin—a number she’d gotten from some girl in her spin class who swore it was “life-changing.”
The phone rang, pressed against my ear, the sound syncopating with my hammering heart. My laptop was open on my bed, casting a blue glow over my bare legs.
Two rings. Then, a voice.
Not a creepy, nasal voice. Not a bored, a
