The stark truth is I’ve never even come close.
She's the one to reach out and touch me, placing her hand lightly over mine. “I'm sorry, Max. I took that too far. Sometimes I say things without really thinking about the effect they might have on a person.”
“No. You’re right.” As I look into her eyes, my heart tells me that maybe, just maybe, she might be the one I’ve been looking for. The thought settles into my chest like a warm ember, both hazardous and beautiful. It's the kind of realization that could change everything for me. She's not just someone I want, she's someone I need, someone who makes me want to be the man she sees when she looks at me the way she is right now in this moment.
I want to ask her so many questions about herself, but her words echo in my mind.
There are things you don't know about me.
But I want to know. All of it. I want to learn everything I can about this woman who’s bewitched me.
“How do you know so much about having to grow up too fast?” I ask, and instantly her demeanor changes.
“I don’t. I’m just observant, that’s all. Part of the job description.”
She’s not telling me the truth. She’s hiding something from me.
“What other completely useless apps do you have on your phone?” she asks, changing the subject.
I allow it to happen. I’m not going to force anything with her. “I have many.” I scroll through my phone until I find what I’m looking for and then show it to her.
“Sock Matchmaker,” she reads. “What is that?”
“You use your camera to scan socks to find their ‘soulmate’ pair. You can also watch them date other socks if you’ve lost one.” I turn the phone so she can see the app with its bright pink screen and dancing mismatched socks.
“Sounds very useful.”
“So useful. Then there’s this one. It’s a reverse fortune cookie app.”
“What does it do?”
“It gives you bad advice, like telling you to text your ex at 2 AM, or to invest your life savings in a Ponzi scheme.”
“A reverse fortune cookie app? That isnota thing.” She takes the phone from my hand, and as she does her fingers brush against mine, sending a ripple through me.
This is torture.
I watch as she studies the screen. Her blonde hair is illuminated by the light from my phone, her big eyes scanning as she pulls her brows together in concentration. She looks impossibly gorgeous.
Suddenly, I’m finding it hard to remember why I need to hold myself back.
She taps something out and then blinks at the screen.
“What did you ask it?”
She works her throat. “Whether I should be alone in a fort with a prince.”
“Really? What did it say?”
She clicks the phone off, shaking her head. “I’m not going to tell you.”
I chuckle. “Because it said it was a good idea, didn’t it?”
“You’ll never know, Max.”
“Is that so?” I click the phone back on, and as I read the answer to her question, something warm and urgent spreads through my chest, kicking up my heart rate. “Aslong as you make sure to kiss him,” I read aloud, returning my gaze to hers.
The atmosphere around us shifts, and in an instant, this fort we’re sitting in is no longer like an innocent game, but something a whole lot more intimate. So much more adult.
