Call Me Maybe

Vera has a launch to get ready for. Her Date-in-a-Box website is due to go live at a big business expo in just a few days, and then it starts glitching. So she calls customer service and ends up on hold for three hours. She paints her toes, collects the wrong coffee and bagel order, and drives from Brooklyn to Jersey through traffic that barely moves, all while her temper builds into something she thinks of as a rage-monster.

When someone finally picks up, it is not the robot she expected but a real person named Cal. He knows his stuff, he is patient about fixing her site, and he is a little awkward in a way she finds adorable. Before she quite notices, she is flirting with him, and he seems to be flirting back.

The call stretches on for hours. They order each other takeout while he troubleshoots, and by the end they have swapped numbers. Soon they are texting and sending DMs every day, and even leaving voice mails, which hardly anyone does anymore. Vera starts to wonder whether two people can fall in love at first talk, because she is falling hard.

Call Me Maybe is a laugh-out-loud romance from Cara Bastone, the author of Ready or Not and Promise Me Sunshine. This is its first print edition in the U.S.