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Swear to god, if his next message was to tell me he was wanking, I was throwing this phone out the window.
Me:I’m glad to hear it….I knew I had to ask, so I gulped and typed the next words….What are you doing?
Hacker:Watching videos of your last concert.
Please don’t say you’re wanking, please don’t say you’re wanking, please don’t…
Me:That’s amazing. That concert was a lot of fun.
Hacker:I can tell. You’re tearing up the stage. I think you’re a bit like me.
Oh, here we go.
Me:Tell me more.
Hacker:You have a gift.
Me:That’s a nice thing to say.
Okay, so maybe this was amazing. Being able to keep him on the hook for this long was a good thing. Even if it made me wanna projectile vomit. At least my hands had stopped trembling.
Hacker:Your songs…they move me. You are very talented. And beautiful.
I frowned, pursing my lips. He sounded kind of innocent. There didn’t seem to be an ounce of sleaze in him. What did that mean? Was he really young?
Holy fuck. Imagine if the guy giving everyone this monumental run around turned out to be a fourteen-year-old kid. I’d have laughed if it wasn’t so goddamn serious.
Me:Thank you. I’m very touched.
Hacker:I have to go.
Dammit! Just when I thought I was getting somewhere.
Me:Will you text me again? I like talking to you.
You bet I just threw up in my mouth.
Hacker:Yes.
Totally worth it. I resisted the urge to type back, ‘when’, wanting to leave the ball in his court. But just the confirmation was enough to get me out of my funk and up off the couch. Things were happening. And the sooner this was resolved, the sooner I’d be able to see Grayson again.
An hour later, the aroma of perfect red sauce wafted up to me and I sighed in satisfaction. “Perfect.”
But then my body tensed when I heard a sound at the apartment door. Dammit, I needed to get a hold of myself. It was just Scarlett. I mean, of course it was. She lived here. I stepped out of the kitchen to see her coming through the door. “Hi.”
“Hi yourself! Oh my god, something smells amazing in here!” She kicked off her heels near the door and followed me into the kitchen.
“I hope you’re hungry. It’s spaghetti and meatballs and I might have gone a bit overboard.”
“All good, I’m starving. You want a glass of red to go with it?”
“Yes!”
Pouring out two glasses of wine, she took a seat at the kitchen counter. “Any fresh developments?”
I grabbed my phone from my pocket, opened up the thread with the hacker, and handed it over without a word.
“Oooh, he has been busy. This is so good.”