Plopping down on the edge of my bed, I pulled my knees up toward my chest, heels on the mattress side by side. I tried not to wonder what he was doing right then, what he looked like, what he was thinking… and I failed. Like usual. “What would you need a warning for?” I asked, almost hesitantly but definitely a little distracted.
There was another soft chuckle. “For that voice. Jesus, Ru. You told me you were worried I wasn’t going to like you, so I had this plan in my head for how I’d get you to talk to me in case things got awkward. And you start giving me shit thirty seconds in,” he argued. “You threw my game off.”
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 the phone—”
He choked again. “I thought I had enough time to use the bathroom—”
“How long does it take you to use the bathroom?”
Aaron shouted out a laugh that pulled at the corners of my mouth.
“I ran up the stairs to call, and I was dying, then you start messing with me—”
“I told you I thought it was going to take a minute for you to warm up talking to me.”
“—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 was nervous.”
“You didn’t have anything to be nervous about. It’s just me.”
Just him. Why did he have to keep saying that to me? Like he wasn’t aware….
“I know everything I need to know now,” he stated evenly.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“We get along fine.”
“We’ve been on the phone—” I pulled it away from my face and watched the counter on the screen. “Five minutes.”
“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 and added, “Us.”
“Where?” I regretted it. Like there was somewhere else he’d invited me to.
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 else would have.
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. For real.
“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 your sleep.”
That made me snort. “I wasn’t thinking that.”
“You could have your own room. I’m sure there’s a lock on it.”
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 his friends.
Meet him. Meet Aaron.
Meet this person I thought the world of who had basically called me his little sister.
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? What if—
“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’re asking me?”
“Yeah,” he said, but it really came out more like “duh.”
“We’ve never met in person.”
“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’t think so?”
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 really do, but—”
His voice was soft and determined. “I would never do anything to you, or let anyone do anything to you.”
“It’s not even that—”
“I know I’m coming on strong, but the more I think about it, the more I want you to come with us. The entire time I was in Scotland, I regretted not inviting you to come when Max bailed. I wish I would’ve invited you even if he hadn’t bailed.”
He had?
I blew out a breath and curled my toes together once more. Why did every single cell in my body get excited at the idea of going to Florida with someone I didn’t know that well and other people I didn’t know at all? If my best friend were to tell me she was going to meet up with her online friend at a cafe by herself, I would tell her she was out of her mind and that her body was going to show up on the nine o’clock news for being a total idiot.
But my brain rebelled against that completely.
Completely.
Some part of me deep down knew that Aaron wouldn’t hurt me. I didn’t know how I knew that, but I did. I really, really did. And I did love going to Florida…
“Look, I don’t have any money. I have a lot coins saved I can go get cashed and I have some money, but I shouldn’t be blowing it on a ticket that’s probably going to be crazy expensive because it’s so last minute—”
That calming voice cut me off. “I got your ticket.”
I felt myself scrunch up my nose and groaned. “You can’t pay for it.”
“You just said you don’t have any money. I’m the one who wants you to come…” He trailed off. “If it makes you feel any better, I can afford it.”
“I have to leave next week for California—”
“I’ll make sure you’re back before you have to leave.”
I was making a terrible mistake, wasn’t I? Who the heck goes to a beach house with strangers, one stranger I was pretty much totally in love with who had no idea because I’d never even seen his face—
I’d thought about it. He could basically look like a troll and chances were, if he was as wonderful in person as he was online, I would still be in love with him. Beauty fades, a good personality and chemistry doesn’t.
“I can afford it, Ruby, and I’ll make sure your flight gets you back home before you need to leave. You’ve sent me hundreds of dollars worth of stuff while I was deployed—no, don’t say you didn’t because we both know you did. I can cover your ticket. You’re the one doing me a favor.”
“How am I doing you a favor?” I asked him in a mumble.
“Because I could’ve had a better time in Scotland, and I’m being selfish inviting you to come to Florida because I want to be around someone….” He trailed off again. “I want to meet you, and I’m not giving you any time to think about it. You’re telling me you’re worried, and I’m pushing you into it. That’s selfish, and you know what, Rube? I don’t give much of a shit.”
Was I dead? Was this a dream? Had my mom baked mushrooms into dinner last night and I was still on some sort of weird trip?
I moaned. This was crazy, and I told him exactly that.
“So what? It’s crazier for me to think about a girl your age going places by herself,” he said. “I’ve got you, Ruby Cube.”
Ruby Cube. It had killed me the first time I read it and killed me every time since then when I saw the RC he wrote me. I was so dumb. So damn dumb to fall into this position again. Even knowing I was dumb didn’t change anything.
“I want to tell you yes.” How could I explain this to him? “I really do. I’ve only gone places by myself for work without my family. They’re going to think I’ve lost my mind if I tell them I’m going with you.”