First-Time Caller

After they arrive at Aiden’s house, he cryptically tells Lucie to wait. As she stands in the foyer, Lucie realizes how little she knows about Aiden. She asks about the necklace he always wears, and Aiden reluctantly explains that it is a personal charm. Lucie teases him, as she knows he has often insisted there is no such thing as fate or luck. He shows it to her, revealing an empty key ring on a chain. He explains that it was a gift from his mother during one of her hospital stays; keeping it with him typically resulted in better medical news. Lucie reflects that Aiden is truly sentimental and compassionate: “He cares deeply. He just doesn’t know how to share it” (328).

Lucie is excited to explore her sexual chemistry with Aiden but pushes those thoughts aside to ask why she had to wait outside. Aiden sheepishly gestures to a fort he has built in his living room. Lucie realizes he meant to recreate her date fantasy of having a picnic After they finish their pizza, Lucie asks Aiden to kiss her again. Aiden encourages her to communicate openly because he is invested in her full consent. Lucie tells him, somewhat breathlessly, “I want you to press me down into this very nice couch fort and make me come. More than once, if possible” (334).

In the show transcript, Lucie asks Aiden for coffee and a cookie, assuring him she is never hesitant about what she truly wants. There is an awkward pause.

After agreeing to her proposal, Aiden pulls Lucie into his lap and kisses her passionately. Aiden brings Lucie to orgasm and says that he masturbated after their encounter in the station closet. He then brings her to orgasm again. Lucie asks him to go get condoms. After he returns with them, Aiden is overcome watching Lucie. He realizes, “I’ve never had anyone look at me the way Lucie does, like the want is tangled up with the comfort and the affection” (345). Aiden and Lucie have passionate sex.

In the transcript, Lucie and Aiden are evasive when a caller asks when Lucie will end her time with the radio show.

The next morning, Lucie returns home, full of thoughts of Aiden and their night together. Grayson announces his presence and immediately declares, “Oh my God. You had sex” (354), while Lucie reminds him that Maya could overhear. As Lucie reluctantly admits that she spent the night with Aiden, Patty rushes in carrying champagne. As Grayson and Patty push for details, Maya arrives and notices that Lucie is wearing Aiden’s sweatshirt. She asks if this means they are a couple, and Lucie tells her it is not serious. She says her earlier demands for epic romance were rooted in a kind of self-protection since waiting for perfection was a way to hold on to hope. Lucie tells Maya, “I think it’s time I made my own magic, kiddo” (360).

Lucie arrives at the radio station and is nervous about how to interact with Aiden. When he asks how she wants to behave at the station, Lucie suggests being discreet. Later, she thinks back and wonders if Aiden hoped for another answer.

During the show, Aiden admits he is developing a fondness for pineapple pizza.

Lucie notices her daughter seems unusually self-satisfied. Maya explains that Lucie has surpassed all her plans when she called the radio show. Maya says she did not expect Aiden, and Lucie thinks that all love is unexpected, like the bond that she has developed with her daughter. Maya reminds Lucie that she has always insisted their lives are full of love, declaring, “I thought maybe just this once, you could have all the love you deserve, too” (370).

Later, Lucie arrives at the station. She hears Maggie upbraiding Aiden because he has still not designed an exit arc for Lucie. She worries she has become unwelcome but enters the office and calmly suggests that Aiden could discuss the plan with her directly. Maggie leaves them to talk. Aiden confesses that he is not ready to stop seeing her. Lucie suggests that her exiting the show does not have to end their relationship, but Aiden remains awkward with her.

During the broadcast, Aiden is distracted but insists on taking calls. The first one is the man with the Chevrolet truck from the auto shop, who introduces himself as Colin. He reveals that he sent flowers to the shop, but Lucie admits that she gave them to a coworker, assuming they were misdelivered. When Colin suggests that he play a song for Lucie, Aiden sarcastically says that Colin’s choice proves the two are meant to be.

During the commercial, Lucie is upset that Aiden tried to arrange a date for her. Aiden insists Colin is sentimental. Lucie is furious at his attempts to distance himself, but he points out that she did not want to disclose their relationship. Lucie insists she only wanted some privacy and says that he is only trying to protect himself from the emotional pain of caring about someone. She tells him, “I won’t sit here and listen to you diminish what I feel because you’re scared of what might happen” (380). Lucie tells Aiden she loves him but that she needs to hear from him that he is ready to accept it. When Aiden says nothing, Lucie says she will not come back to the station but that she hopes he will consider what he truly wants.

Aiden gets back on the call with Colin. He awkwardly explains that Lucie has left and that he has made a mistake.

Aiden sits alone in the station, castigating himself for his behavior with Lucie: “I sat in this chair while she held her heart out to me and I couldn’t scrape together enough courage to say a damn thing” (384). Aiden impulsively decides to call his father, confessing that he avoided coming on the trip to Acadia. Aiden explains that he has been deliberately distant, fearful of losing his mother again. Aiden, despairing, wonders if he is too damaged to connect to others. His father assures him that the trauma of his mother’s cancer is not his fault and that he can work through it. He tells Aiden that love has always been worth the pain for him and gently tells him that they will spend more time together; he also says that Aiden should see a therapist again.

His father asks if he called because of his misguided effort to set Lucie up with Colin. He tells Aiden, with humor in his voice, that he heard the show. Aiden’s father tells him that talking about Lucie is probably the first step to repairing things with her. Aiden confides in his father, reeling relieved.

Over the weekend, Aiden wakes up uncharacteristically early and knocks on Jackson’s door. He asks his friend to go running with him as a kind of atonement for not recognizing how important Jackson has been to him. Exhausted from trying to keep up, Aiden admits he owes Jackson an apology for his poor attitude, admitting that Lucie has changed his outlook and made him see that everyone around him deserves more from him. Jackson agrees to help Aiden apologize to Lucie in exchange for a cruffin and breakfast at Skullduggery, Patty’s shop.

Instead of a show transcript, Aiden composes texts he does not send, admitting to Lucie that he cannot stop thinking about her and that he returns her love.

Lucie’s coworker, Harvey, asks if she has listened to Aiden’s solo Heartstrings shows. Lucie has not listened and privately remembers the embarrassment of having to tell Colin she did not want to date him. Harvey urges her to listen to the show again while she repeatedly refuses. Other coworkers tell her they have noticed she is depressed and working more obsessively than usual.

Lucie’s boss tells her she should take Aiden’s car back to the station, promising to follow in his car so that she will not have to stay. As she drives, however, Lucie realizes she is alone—her boss has not followed. In Aiden’s car, she finds a list he made documenting her preferences and habits, including her favorite flowers and candy. At the station, Maggie greets Lucie and orders her to join the show, as Aiden is delayed and Jackson has begun monologuing about volcanic activity. Lucie becomes suspicious when Jackson does not seem to know why Aiden is late or remember Maggie’s story about why.

Nevertheless, Lucie picks up a call. She is instantly on alert when Maya answers. Maya assures her that Grayson is with her, so this is not a repeat of her earlier efforts. Maya explains that she is calling on behalf of someone else and assures Lucie that she loves her. Aiden then picks up and says, “I was hoping you could give me some advice” (405).

During the broadcast, Aiden says, “[W]ish me luck, Baltimore” (405).

Lucie lets Aiden talk about how he needs her help to “tell [him] what it feels like to fall in love” (409). He explains that he thinks about his dream partner all the time, including her laugh and her ability to love others and build a family he wants to be part of. Overcome, Lucie asks where she can find him.

Lucie joins Aiden in the parking lot, where he admits that his call was a ruse because he has no questions or doubts: “I know what falling in love feels like because I’ve been falling in love with you” (411). Lucie tells Aiden she deserved to hear from him sooner, if only to know he was processing what he needed to say. He agrees that next time he will reach out and communicate better. Aiden tells her he called in to bring their relationship full circle since it began with Maya’s call.

Lucie tells Aiden she loves him, and they passionately kiss, aware that Grayson, Mateo, and Maya are watching from where they’ve parked in the lot. Aiden tells her he feels lucky that he answered the station phone when she needed him. Lucie reminds him she did not actually call first and jokes about how much this will please their corporate sponsor, the tire company.

The Heartstrings transcript features Jackson and Maggie discussing Aiden and Lucie’s conversation and kiss, which they observe through a window. As things grow passionate, Maggie ends the broadcast.

Months later, Aiden, Lucie, and Maya go for breakfast at Skullduggery. Maya is on Aiden’s back and agrees to use her spare key to skip the line by sneaking in through the back door: The shop is crowded because there are cruffins. Aiden kisses Lucie before she goes to order their drinks.

Aiden reflects on the unlikely coincidence that Jackson also likes Skullduggery and that he went there not knowing Lucie’s connection to it. Patty appears and calls out “Brooks Robinson” for Lucie’s order instead of Lucie’s name, proving that she was in the shop the first day Aiden visited it. Aiden realizes this proves “apparently there was a little magic after all” (419), as he and Lucie were near each other before they ever met. Lucie asks why he looks contemplative, and Aiden tells her, “‘I’m thinking about you” (419).