It started the night after Emma Harlow burned down her apartment building in downtown Chicago. 

As she stood there staring at what she had just caused, she wondered how she could possibly hit rock bottom so quickly. Only being able to think of calling her brother Jack to ask for help because she could NOT call her parents.

 Sitting on top of the fancy granite island in Jack’s kitchen, inhaling a bag of Lays chips, while systematically chugging the bottles of alcohol in his fridge the phone starts to ring. 

“Hello?” said Emma

“Emma, it’s mom. Your brother told your father and I what happened. How could you possibly burn down an entire apartment building?” Asked Emma’s mom.

“Mom there's a completely logical explanation if you let me exp-”

“EMMA. there’s no excuse for burning down a building, especially one that we paid for,” yelled Mrs. Harlow through the phone.

Listening to her mom yell at her through the phone, Emma moves from the kitchen island to the table with a bottle of whiskey in hand. Just as she was about to respond to her mother's screaming, the door opened, and in walks Colin Beck. Colin has been Jack’s best friend since grade school who’s been set for life with the inheritance of his father's law firm and money. 

“Mom I gotta go,” Emma says, abruptly hanging up the phone on her mom.

“Emma, what are you doing drinking my 300-dollar bottle of whiskey? That was a graduation gift from my dad,” Colin said.

“Oh please, Beck. Why would anyone spend 300 dollars on alcohol?” asked Emma.

Colin walks over to where Emma’s sitting grabbing the bottle from her hand.

“Jesus Christ, Emma! How did you drink that entire bottle? You've been here for like 2 hours, do you have a drinking problem or something?” Colin questioned in disgust.

“No, I don’t have a drinking problem, I have a LIFE problem. After your life falls apart right before your eyes there’s not much deeper you can go after hitting rock bottom. So don’t go judging me now,” Emma replied.

“Ok, never mind,” said Colin, turning around to go into his bedroom.

As Emma sat there in her high school softball sweatpants and Mickey Mouse t-shirt, two of the few items of clothing she had left from the fire she questioned all of her life choices, she sat down on her inflatable mattress on the office floor that she had now claimed as her bedroom. Jack made a deal with her that she could only stay for a month or else she had to go home to her parent's house in the suburbs.
As Emma’s laying on her uncomfortable air mattress on the floor, full-on ugly crying her phone buzzes, halting the meltdown she was in the middle of having. A number she didn’t recognize appeared:

Wrong number: What are you wearing right now?

“A pervy wrong number?” a small laugh comes out in the midst of her crying, she wiped her nose and typed: Your mom’s old prom dress and her favorite red lipstick

No more than 5 seconds went by before Mr. Wrong Number replied: Um what?

Emma replied: Seriously? I thought you’d like it, following with a cringy meme she found of an old lady in a wedding dress.

Mr. Wrong Number: Um, what is happening right now?

Would you prefer something less mommyish? Emma replied

Mr. Wrong Number: Oh no - sounds totally hot. Are you cool with me rocking cargo pants, an old Metallica band tee, and Crocs?

Laughing, Emma put her phone on the charger on the desk above her mattress, still feeling the buzz from all the alcohol she downed, she tried to fall asleep. But two hours later, she was still wide awake, staring at the ceiling through puffy eyes and replaying over and over, and over again all of the terrible things that had happened before she fled Chicago. The layoff. The cheating. The breakup. The fire. 

The next morning…

*Beep, beep, beep, beep* 

The alarm on Emma’s phone blares across the room waking her up.

“God, I have the worst headache” Emma complained, attempting to crawl off the mattress that was slowly deflating under her.

Reaching for the phone to turn off the alarm, Emma turns and grabs her laptop off of the floor, opening it up to the search engine. 

“Jack! What’s the website for job searching? I can’t remember what it’s called” Emma screamed across the apartment avoiding getting out of her “bed”.

Jack walks into the room in his suit, with freshly wet hair and an un-done necktie, getting ready to leave for work. 

“I think it’s ‘Indeed’ but I don’t know for sure, you know, since I haven't burned down any buildings and been forced to flee the city, and have kept a stable job for the past three years,” Jack says laughing at himself.

“Ok shut up jerk, don’t make me feel worse than I already do” Emma responded angrily.

Jack leaves the room.

Typing Indeed into her computer, a loud rumble comes from Emma’s stomach, forcing her to get up and attempt to find food in the kitchen. Right as she starts rummaging through the fridge Colin Beck walks out, shirtless with just a towel around his waist. Unable to stop herself from looking past his wet hair and beautiful blue eyes, she looks down at his body as if it were sculpted by a god trying to hide the fact that she enjoyed what she saw of her older brother’s annoying best friend.

“What are you looking at Em?” asked Colin laughing.

“What? Oh, um nothing,” Emma said in shock.

“Do y’all not have any real food in this apartment? I’ve been looking and all I can find is bananas and protein bars. Speaking of which, who keeps bananas in the fridge” Emma says, trying to change the subject from her staring at Colin’s body.

“We haven’t gone shopping in a few days, not to mention you ate all the food we had left on your little bender you had last night” replied Colin.

“Okay, can you blame me? My entire life fell apart right before my eyes two nights ago. I have NO clothes except the old trash bag of clothes my mother kept from high school, no job, and I’m sleeping on my brother’s crappy air mattress in his best friend's luxury apartment. My life literally could not get worse right now,” Emma said on the verge of tears.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Look I didn’t mean to upset you, it was just a joke. I’m going to the store today after work, is there anything you want me to get?” asked Colin.

“You’re being strangely nice to me Beck,” Emma said, “I’ve known you for like 17 years, and in all that time we’ve done nothing but bicker and argue with each other.”

“It’s early, and you're clearly very upset. Don’t get used to it trainwreck” Colin said walking out of the kitchen, and into his bedroom to get ready for work.

Emma was baffled by the fact that Colin had just called her a trainwreck. She knew her life was a mess, but no one had ever actually said that to her face. Even knowing it was a joke and was coming from Colin Beck, who she has never once in her life cared about what he thought of her, it still stung.

Once Colin had left for work, Emma sat on the couch with her computer on her lap to try to get going on the job search. 

“Okay, I have a degree in journalism,” Emma said out loud while typing it into the “qualifications” text box on the ‘Indeed’ website. 

As she waited for the results to load, a text came through to her phone from the same number as the night before.

Mr. Wrong Number: What are you wearing?

“Is this guy serious?” Emma said to herself, “What a loser.”

Haha, did you actually take that seriously last night? Emma replied.

Mr. Wrong Number: No, but it was funny and I’ve had a stressful day at work so needed a good laugh from my misdial.

After the short text chain, Emma continued her job search, finding a few freelance jobs to get by until her applications were accepted by real companies for interviews. 

Two weeks later…

After the job search, Emma got an interview with a few companies in the area for magazine columns. She felt that she was slowly starting to get her life together. With the upcoming interviews, the new clothes she had finally ordered after all her old ones were destroyed in the fire, and her new fun text relationship with Mr. Wrong Number, Emma’s life was decent. What she didn’t know was that the wrong number that she’d been casually flirting with over the phone was Colin Beck.

As Emma is in the kitchen of Jack and Colin’s apartment attempting to cook a decent dinner for the boys to thank them for letting her stay at their place, Colin walks in the door. Dressed up in his fancy suit and tie, briefcase in hand, Emma couldn’t help but stare at her newfound attraction towards him.

“Are you trying to cook right now?” asked Colin as he walked up to the island, setting down his phone and briefcase on the countertop.

“Shut up, I’m a good cook Beck” Emma replied.

Once Collin left the room, Emma picked up her phone and sent a text to Mr. Wrong Number: Don’t you just hate people who constantly mock you? LOL.

The second she sent the text, Colin’s phone lit up. Emma noticed and curiously walked around to see what it was since he’d left it on the counter.

Miss. Misdial: Don’t you just hate people who constantly mock you? LOL.

Shocked that Emma’s wrong number text-relationship was actually Colin this whole time she gasped out loud, causing Colin to come out.

“What's wrong Em?” Colin asked.

“Colin. You need to sit down,” Emma explained with a concerned, but confused look on her face.

Colin sat down at the table confused.

“Ok Beck, you know how you’ve been texting with a wrong number for a whi-” 

“Hold up, how do you know that? Are you spying on me or something?” asked Colin, cutting her off.

“Colin, I'm your wrong number, and you're mine. The only reason I found out was because I sent Mr. Wrong Number, you, I guess, a text and I saw your phone light up the second I sent it” Emma explained.

“Emma, I don't understand. The girl I’ve been texting I thought I really understood, and I kind of liked her too. There’s just no way it could be you,” Colin responded.

“Look, you’re just as shocked as I am. But, I can’t deny the fact that I enjoy talking with you, even though in person you’ve always been a brat to me” Emma said, questioning all of her life choices that had brought her to this point.

“I’m not going to lie and say that I don’t find you attractive and enjoy talking to you but you're my best friend’s little sister, I don’t know what to do,” Colin said.

“You think I’m attractive?” asked Emma curiously.

“I mean yeah, I always have a little bit, I guess I just never noticed it until recently,” said Colin.

“I-I don’t even know what to say,” said Emma, “I think you’re attractive too but it’s not like there’s anything we can do about it.”

“What if there was…” Colin said, moving closer to Emma who was standing across from him.

“Col, what are you talking about? There’s obviously nothing we can do-” Cutting her off, Colin starts kissing her, losing all his self-control in an instant.

They begin to kiss hungrily, both unsure of what is going on, but just as things start to get more intense, Jack flings open the door to the apartment, walking in to find his best friend and little sister making out in the middle of his kitchen.

*Gasp* “Jack, I can explain!” says Emma quickly pushing Colin off her and wiping her face.

“Are you serious?! Colin, how could  you possibly go for MY little sister!” Jack screams.

“Jack, I like her. I don’t know how, or why, or when it happened, but it did. I’m sorry man,” Colin replied sorrily.

Jack, unsure what to say, walks away into his bedroom across the hall.

“Beck, we messed up. This is bad, what are we going to do?” Emma asked, stressing out about what had just happened.

“I’ll talk to him, but honestly Em, I think we should give US a chance,” said Colin nervously and hopefully.

“For the first time in my life, I actually agree with you on something,” Emma said, unable to hide her smile and happiness from what she had just heard.

“Well, Miss. Misdial, let’s just see what happens,” Colin replied with a sly smirk across his face.