Page 179 of Let the Game Begin

You look bored…

I sat up and crossed my legs underneath me as I read the message, sent to me by an unknown number. I glanced around fearfully. Was someone spying on me?

Another message came in, drawing my attention.

Those awful pajamas again…

Now that message… That could not have been from anyone other than…

I lifted my head and instinctively looked at the glass doors that accessed the balcony, the only place someone could possibly be looking in on me and I saw…Neil. I saw him in all his cursed beauty, leaning on the balcony’s railing with a lit cigarette hanging from his lips.

What was he doing out there?

How was he not freezing cold?

Neil was now wearing another sweater and a pair of jeans that emphasized his tall, muscular form. It couldn’t be enough to keep him warm. He bent his head over his phone and tapped out something.

We have adjoining balconies.

It was strange to be texting when we were within just a few feet of each other, but then Neil and I had never been exactly “normal” together.

Wait a second…

How did you get my number?

The answer came shortly:I might have taken it from Logan

“Taken,” of course, not asked for.

I lifted my face and looked in his direction, beyond the large glass barrier, but he had vanished. Where the hell was he now?

I frowned and slid over the edge of the bed, leaving behind my laptop, because all of my attention was now fixed on the messy scene playing out on the balcony.

My phone vibrated again in my hands and my heart leaped.

Do you want to…talk?

I reread the question three times, and I still wasn’t sure whether he was sincere or just messing with me.

Either way, I needed to answer him. I could give in and say yes right away, or I could say no and forever deprive myself of the potential opportunity to communicate with him. Finally, I just typed:Why?

I looked out at the balcony again, hoping he might reappear. But he wasn’t there, and he probably wasn’t coming back, either.

My phone buzzed again.

Because today I told the Boy that there is a star in the sky for each of us, far enough away that our mistakes cannot tarnish it, and he seemed to agree. He would like to find it with you.

My heart throbbed as I read his response, so odd and profound.

I looked up at the glass doors and suddenly, Neil was there. He gave me a small smile, and just then, it felt like I had an entire colony of butterflies flying around inside my chest. I understood it then…

We weren’t nothing. We were something that could be seen, sensed, felt, something that did exist but knew no meanings or definitions.

There was no explanation for the likes of us.

I accept.

After typing out my answer, I lifted my chin to look at him and noticed an odd detail. Neil had a marker in his hand. He hesitated for a few moments and then rested the tip of the marker against the glass and drew a medium-sized star there. The lines were so perfectly symmetrical, I was enchanted by them. Neil really did have gifted hands and not just when it came to pleasuring a woman.