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I didn’t want to fuck anything up with Marney. My bear was already smitten and had sent me messages through our bond. He wanted me to go get her right then and there.
He didn’t understand life sometimes. Animal.
Up before the sun, I watched as the morning golds and tangerines lit the snow, a stage light for another perfect winter day. The snow glistened and glittered under the praise of the sun’s rays, making me smile.
She hadn’t responded to the message. The knowledge burned in my brain, but I also knew that we had sent her the note late in the night. Perhaps she was sleeping or had some job whose shift carried her early into the morning.
Everything I wanted to know about her, I didn’t.
What I did notice was that her picture, rather what she was wearing in her profile picture, stoked questions about who she was. More specifically, why she was wearing a wedding dress or what resembled a wedding dress in her picture.
There could be a thousand reasons for her wearing a wedding dress, none of them having to do with her getting married.
Still, my bear and I didn’t like it.
Not one bit.
Sleepy and groggy, I made my way to the shower and took a long one, not wanting to get out of the hot water even though the winter called to me, in all of its chill, its comfort and sharpness. When I finally did, Riggs was already up. I smelled oatmeal and bacon, along with espresso. We only made the strong stuff when we were on deadlines or hadn’t slept at all.
I wondered if my best friend was plagued by thoughts of our maybe mate as I was. Plagued wasn’t the word. Haunted? Yes, haunted by someone I’d never met in this life but who I was already emotionally tethered to.
“Morning,” I said, standing next to Riggs who was stirring warmed milk into his almost-full coffee cup.
“Yeah,” he grunted. His hair was disheveled, and sleep creases marked his face.
“Didn’t sleep?” I asked, chuckling. I already knew the answer.
“Neither did you.”
I poured myself a cup and stirred the oatmeal. We both liked it nice and thick with plenty of peanut butter and honey in it. Calories were a must up here. With the temperatures and our shifter metabolisms, we had to pack them in.
“She messaged back.” He sipped on his coffee, nailing me with a stare.
“What did she say?” I asked, putting my cup down before rushing back to my bedroom for my phone. In my morning stupor, I’d been so caught up in my thoughts I’d forgotten to check the source of my overthinking.
“I didn’t check yet,” Riggs answered. “I…what if she doesn’t want us? What if she’s not interested? I’m working up to it.”
Oh, how the tables had turned.
“Riggs, you felt it, right? That instant attraction and longing when you saw her picture. We’d gone through hundreds of profiles, but hers was the only one that stood out. Why do you think that is?”
He laughed. “Because she’s stunning. Those eyes are mesmerizing, and I want to drown in her smile?”
“I thought I was the writer. You’re right but it’s more than that.”
Walking around me to check the oats again, he elbowed me. “Come on, Nacho. All of a sudden, you’re a believer in Fate?”
“It’s said she has her ways. Who are we to limit her to chance meetings at a bar or at the supermarket? Maybe this app is in her wheelhouse as well.” I stayed quiet while we made our bowls of piping-hot oatmeal and plates of bacon and fruit. “I’m checking the message.”
“She said it was nice to meet us and that she’s interested. She said very interested.”
“Are you serious?” My best friend’s face lit up like the times we won the three-legged race in school.
“What do I say?” I asked, knowing that Marney, our Marney, or so I hoped, would be waiting for a reply.
“Tell her that we want to video chat. Ask if she wants to.”
I typed out the message and had returned to eating breakfast when another beep came through. “It’s her.”
