Stolen Heart

Chapter 4

The days that followed were a blur. Did I really give the guy my actual number?

Lana glanced at her phone every two minutes, replaying the incident in her head. Nothing was threatening about that weird thief in wolf's clothing. Truly, nothing bad had happened. He took barely forty dollars worth of junk and something else that Lana was just trying hard to stop thinking about.

But the man was so non-threatening that the cashier didn't even notify the police, deciding it didn't warrant the effort to file a report. Lana and the other woman happily agreed when they conversed about what to do. No one was in the mood to go through an endless amount of questioning that night.

The other woman even added fuel to the poor-judgment fire by including, "He was even quite nice actually. You might want to consider going on a date with him if he's handsome too."

That's stupid... right?

On Lana's way back home, she decided to call her best friend. "Hey girl, what's up?" Chloe said in her familiar sing-songy voice.

"Hey Chlo, what are you up to? Are you still prepping for the show?"

"I'm just finishing up now."

"Are you free to come sleepover tonight? I need to tell you about something big that just happened to me."

"Oh my gosh. I knew it would happen."

"What?"

"You caved and bought the air fryer."

"Oh no, not that. Well, actually yeah, I technically did that, but this is much bigger! Just come over, okay? And bring wine."

"Okay, can do. I'll be there in a jiff."

***

Chloe gasped after every sentence as Lana recounted the full story. They had already finished three-quarters of a 'Two Buck Chuck' Merlot bottle and half a Trader Joe's chocolate truffle snack box by the time Lana finished.

"You poor, poor thing! That is so awful! I'm so sorry you had to go through that!" Chloe bounced up and gave Lana a big hug. "But also, I must say I never thought you would ever be into bad boys. You are really turning over a new leaf, and I'm proud of you girl."

"Ha, ha, ha, very funny," Lana replied dryly.

"Imagine he texts you, and you find out he's actually the decent guy that he said he was, and he had a momentary lapse in judgment. And then you guys fall in love and live happily ever after and have cute, exotic babies."

"I think you watch just as many romcoms as I do."

"So, do you think you're going to report him when he texts you?"

"I thought of that, but we just sort of called it a day at the store, and it would be weird to say, 'Oh yeah, hey police, this thing happened a couple of days ago and I'm only just reporting it now.'"

"This is all very, very weird. I mean, you're a babe so of course he would ask for your number, but what is he thinking? Like, wouldn't he know you might report him if he did text you?"

The thought did occur to Lana, and it made her stomach turn. No text from Strange Thief Man means no box. Part of her hoped that he would reach out and that she could test out her key on it. But another part of her, the more comfort-loving part, wanted to just forget about the whole thing and continue living in peace.

"So, what do you think you'll do if he texts you? Are you going to go meet up with him?" Chloe's eyes grew wide as she spoke.

"I have no idea. What would you do?"