Call Me Maybe - A Novel

By: Cara Bastone

Published by Random House, 2026-07-14

The longest customer service hold in history leads to a love connection that no one could have called in this laugh-out-loud romance from the bestselling author of Ready or Not and Promise Me Sunshine—first time in print in the U.S.!

Paints her toes. Picks up the wrong coffee and bagel order. Drives from Brooklyn to Jersey in traffic so slow she want to tear her hair out. It's amazing all the useless things Vera can accomplish while on hold for three hours with customer service. Three hours when she should be getting the Date-in-a-Box website ready to launch at the big business expo in a few days.

Except her shiny new website is glitching, and her inner rage-monster is ready to scorch some earth...when he finally picks up. Not the robot voice she expected but a real live human named Cal. He's surprisingly helpful and really knows his stuff, even if he's a little awkward...in an adorable way.

And suddenly she's flirting with him? And it seems like he's flirting back. And suddenly it's been hours, and they're still on the phone talking and ordering each other takeout while he troubleshoots her website. And suddenly they're exchanging numbers and sending texts and DMs every day, leaving voice mails (who even does that anymore?!). And suddenly Vera's wondering if it's possible for two people to fall in love at first talk.

Because she's falling…hard.