Act normal. Act normal. Don’t ask what his plan was. Don’t tell him you love his voice too.“You? I was nervous. I am nervous. My hands started sweating, then they started tingling, and then it took you half a year to answer thephone—”
He choked again. “I thought I had enough time to use thebathroom—”
“How long does it take you to use thebathroom?”
Aaron shouted out a laugh that pulled at the corners of mymouth.
“I ran up the stairs to call, and I was dying, thenyoustart messingwithme—”
“I told you I thought it was going to take a minute for you to warm up talkingtome.”
“—and then I learn my friend Aaron, who is basically my best friend, thought I was going to sound like Malibu Barbie, and I forgot I wasnervous.”
“You didn’t have anything to be nervous about. It’sjustme.”
Just him. Why did he have to keep saying that to me? Like he wasn’taware….
“I know everything I need to know now,” he statedevenly.
“What’s that?” Iasked.
“We getalongfine.”
“We’ve been on the phone—” I pulled it away from my face and watched the counter on the screen. “Fiveminutes.”
“I know and you made me laugh more in five minutes than I have with everybody else in the last year combined.” He had no idea how those words affected me. No idea at all, and I could never tell him. I squeezed my eyes closed without thinking about it. There was a pause on his end, and then totally seriously, he said, “Come with me.” He cleared that throat of his andadded, “Us.”
“Where?” I regretted it. Like there was somewhere else he’d invitedmeto.
He let out this huffing noise that was pretty close to a groan and had me wondering what face belonged to that voice and personality. It wouldn’t be the first time that thought had crossed my mind. “Florida, Ruby,” he said a lot more patiently than anyone elsewouldhave.
It was my turn to groan as I rolled onto my back on the bed. Something on the mattress dug into my shoulder, but I ignored it. He really was inviting me out.Forreal.
“I’ve been thinking about it for a while. Since before we left for Scotland. I wanted to invite you, but…” He trailed off. There was a sound I couldn’t figure out before he said in a totally confident tone, “I want to meet you.” Just like that.I want to meet you. He let out a soft breath over the phone. “I’m not going to kill you in yoursleep.”
That made me snort. “I wasn’tthinkingthat.”
“You could have your own room. I’m sure there’s a lockonit.”
Anxiety and stress and nerves and vomit all rolled around in my belly. Go with him. To Florida. By myself. When I didn’t technically know him or hisfriends.
Meet him. MeetAaron.
Meet this person I thought the world of who had basically called me his littlesister.
What if he didn’t like me in person? What if I liked him even more once I met him in person? What if I liked him even more and he decided he didn’t like me for some reason once he met me?Whatif—
“Yes,then?”
Yes? My heart rate sped up, excitement and nausea and something I couldn’t completely identify filling my veins. “Aaron, do you understand what you’reaskingme?”
“Yeah,” he said, but it really came out morelike“duh.”
“We’ve never met inperson.”
“So? We e-mailed each other back and forth for nine months. I talk to you more than I do my family and friends.” There was a rustling sound in the background, and I swear I heard a door close. “It’s only weird if you make it weird, and we wouldn’t make it weird. We already hit it off.” Neither one of us said anything for a moment, but when he finally spoke again, it made the hairs on my arms stand up. “You don’tthinkso?”
Did I not think so? Was he insane? I groaned and brought up a closed fist to my eye socket. “Look, I want to go with you. I reallydo,but—”
