“Goodnight, Lily.” He smiled a little, and all intelligent thought ground to a halt.
“G-goodnight.”
Stepping inside, she locked the door, and, without even taking a moment to sit down, she flicked on the hall light and unfolded the paper.
Lily,
I thought about you all week. I realized my error in not getting your phone number, and I hope to rectify that now. If you would like to see me again as I would like to see you, I hope you will contact me.
Mist
P.S. I hope you enjoyed your ice cream.
A smitten smile spread across her face, and her heart began to race.He thought about me all week!And he’d come with his friends in the middle of the night to give her the letter. She clutched it to her chest like the treasure it was.
She didn’t have a lot of experience with men. Her body issues made her shy, and most guys weren’t into women that looked like her anyway. If Iris had been here, she would have told her to play it cool, but she wasn’t, and it was the middle of summer and too damn hot for being cool anyway.
She ran to the kitchen where she’d left her phone, opened a new text message, and punched in the number Mist had written at the bottom of the letter. She wrote,Hi, it’s Lily, with a smiley face and hit send.
Immediately, doubt crept in.Maybe I should have waited till morning.Would he think she was desperate for texting so fast? Was the alcohol clouding her judgment and making her think something stupid was a good idea?Oh god, what if I blew it—
Her phone buzzed. Her stomach backflipped when she saw he’d answered.
Hi, Lily.
Her smile returned with a vengeance. The phone buzzed again.
I would like to see you again.
She was pretty sure her heart either stopped completely or burst out of her chest and flew away to live happily ever after in the clouds.
I’d like to see you again too, she replied. Did she sound desperate again? What if he—
When?
She hesitated, thumbs hovering over the screen. If she suggested tomorrow, that would definitely look desperate. And if she said, ‘Any time, my schedule’s completely open!’ that would make her look like she had no life, and she didn’t want—
Tomorrow?
She stared at the screen. He actually wanted to see her tomorrow? Was this real? Maybe she’d fallen asleep and was dreaming because this kind of stuff did not happen to her. Gorgeous men she met in depanneurs didn’t leave romantic notes in her mailbox. Gorgeous men didn’t even go to depanneurs.
Suddenly, she didn’t care. So what if he wanted to see her tomorrow? Was she going to waste time questioning everything? She didn’t want to push away what seemed like a perfectly nice man solely because of her stupid insecurities.
So, swallowing her self-doubt, she typed,Tomorrow sounds perfect. :) How about you come over for dinner?
5
Dinner And A Demon
The doorbell rang at two minutes after eight.
“Crap, he’s here already! I have to go.”
“Okay, just don’t hyperventilate.”
Lily tried to laugh, but it was hard because she was doing just that. Her twin knew her too well.
“And remember to check in every hour or I’ll show up, guns blazing, to save you.”
