AllFreeNovel
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Catlover99: Hey, this sucks and I’m really sorry, but I can’t talk tonight. I hope you can forgive me and that we’re still on for tomorrow at 11? I’m really looking forward to it.
I hit send and hear the telltale swish of a message zooming through the cyberverse.
And then I hear the familiar ping of a message being received. I look over to see Ash’s eyes dart to her phone. Then they dart back up at me.
What. The. Fuck?
There’s no way.
My mind racing and my fingers shaking, I type out a quick text.
Catlover99: Where are you right now?
There’s that ping again. She looks at her phone, types furiously, then looks at me as my phone dings with a message.
Seriousley617: Stuck in a storage closet with you, apparently.
As realization dawns, I feel my body melt against the wall and drift to the floor. “You’re Seriousley617?”
“Yea. Think about it. I’m a serious person. My name’s Ashley, with an l-e-y, and my birthday is 6/17,” she explains, clearly still processing.
I laugh, though nothing about this situation is remotely funny. “It’s you. Oh my God, of course it’s you. The whole freaking point of this,” I hold up my phone, “was to get the hell over you, so of course the girl I fall for online is the one I can’t stop thinking about in real life.” I scrub my hands down my face. My dumb, stupid fucking luck.
“What?” She says, the word barely a whisper.
“The universe is a fucking asshole.”
“What did you say?”
“I said the universe is a fucking asshole,” I tell her, pinching the bridge of my nose to stave off the headache that is quickly descending.
“Before that,” Ash says, joining me in my pity party on my section of the cold floor.
I can feel her gorgeous blue eyes on me, but I keep my gaze trained on a tear in the carpet. I wish I could avoid the question, but we’ll be spending the next twelve hours locked in a room together, so I basically have no choice. “You want me to repeat the part where I explain that I crushed hard-core on you? You want me to tell you all about how I walked into Wolfie’s two and a half years ago, saw you, and was done for? You were sitting there with half the hockey team, and I couldn’t take my eyes off you. I joined the group and was instantly hooked. You were funny and smart, and I was about to ask you for your number when Schuler slid into the booth, kissed your cheek, and introduced you as his girlfriend. I sat there the rest of the night thinking, fuck my life…”
I turn toward her, ready to gauge her reaction. Is she totally freaked out, or will the next dozen hours just be an awkward purgatory?
But she doesn’t look freaked out or pissed off. If anything, she looks a little dazed.
“Look, Ash—” but I don’t get a chance to finish my thought because she leans forward to press a kiss to my lips. Her body melts into mine and I lose myself every sensation. Her fingers tentatively brush my cheek, my shoulder, my arm, and though I want to devour every inch of her, I need to know what she’s thinking.
“Ash?” I say, pulling back.
“Yes, Neil,” she answers, her voice sweet, but sure.
“What’s…I can’t. God, you in my arms? My name on your lips? That’s all I’ve wanted for way too long,
but—"
“But what?” she says, moving so close that’s she’s practically sitting in my lap.
“I need to know what you’re thinking.”
She presses a sweet kiss to my lips. “I think it’s pretty clear what I’m thinking.”
“Not at all. I need to know. I need to hear you say it.”
“Are you the guy who sent me funny wake up videos every morning? Who talked me off a ledge when I thought I bombed my Calc midterm? The one who just texted to say he couldn’t wait to meet me for coffee tomorrow?”
