There's a pause.
Cursive&Caffeine:I'm terrified.
Wild@Heart:Me too.
Cursive&Caffeine:What if it's different in person? What if this…doesn't translate?
I stare at the screen. My chest aches. I've been thinking the exact same thing. What if the chemistry just isn’t there?
It would be devastating.
But we’ll deal with that when it comes. For now…I want to believe. I want to think that what we have is meant to be.
Wild@Heart:It'll translate. Because what we have is deeper than the physical.
Wild@Heart:I want to meet you. I want to see your face when you laugh at my jokes. I want to see you bite your lip when I call you trouble.
Cursive&Caffeine:I want that too. All of it.
Wild@Heart:Then let's do it.
Cursive&Caffeine:Okay.
Wild@Heart:Okay?
Cursive&Caffeine:Yes. Let's meet.
We pick a date and confirm. And suddenly this thing that's been living in the safe space between our phones is about to become real.
I'll finally see the woman who's been slowly, methodically, and beautifully dismantling me piece by piece.
Later that night, we’re in rare form.
Maybe it's the adrenaline of saying yes to the retreat, or the weeks of tension that’s been building between us like pressure in a pipe.
Or it could be that now there's nothing left to hold back.
Whatever it is, the flirting that night catches fire.
It starts the way it always does…playful, warm, and toeing the line. I say something about how I can't wait to see her. She says she's nervous about what to wear. I tell her she could show up in a burlap sack and I'd still be entranced.
Cursive&Caffeine:Smooth talker. What if I show up in sweatpants?
Wild@Heart:Then I'd peel those sweatpants off you like it was the most expensive lingerie.
Cursive&Caffeine:Promise?
Wild@Heart:I don't make promises I can't keep.
Cursive&Caffeine:You know what I keep thinking about? That night you talked me through undressing. I think about it constantly.
Wild@Heart:Constantly?
Cursive&Caffeine:I've never been so turned on by words. And I read romance novels religiously. You made me feel things I forgot I could feel.
Wild@Heart:I have to confess I think about it all the time, too.
My heart is pounding now. I shift in bed, the sheets suddenly too warm.
