Swipe Left for Love
told Guy it was fiction, and a small part of it was. The part that Lauren’s car was a few years old. Everything else was true.I loved that truck. But what would it have felt like to get a car? Or anything for that matter? My mom did her best, but there wasn’t enough to go around. That might be too much detail, but there have to be plenty of people who were raised by just their mom. On campus, I mean. It’s just a way to show the difference between me and my friend. Her parents are happily married. The whole American dream thing with a white picket fence and two-point-five kids seems like a myth.
Is there really someone out there who’s my soulmate? Does that really exist?
Sorry to get so philosophical, but I’m in deep-thought mode. It’s one thing that drives people crazy about me. Well, that and my constant sarcasm. I don’t deny it. I have a sharp tongue and a quick wit. Someday I’ll learn to use it for good instead of evil. ;)
Your cabin sounds like a small piece of heaven. I can tell you love it. It’s too bad we tend to let life get in the way of living, you know? I hope you get there sooner rather than later.
Macie reread her message. She hadn’t gotten this emotional in anything she’d sent him before, but melancholy had been her friend the last few hours. Especially since Lauren and Ford asked her to get along with Zac.
If she was going to offer to meet Guy in the next few weeks, then she needed him to see this side of her. His reaction would be the tipping point of their anonymity. If his response didn’t feel genuine to her, she’d keep it platonic. If it felt real, she’d offer to meet him.
Everything was riding on his response.
Macie ordered another microbrew, the strongest on the menu. She needed the liquid courage. Then she hit send.
CHAPTER FOUR
Zac read her second message. The first had been a blow off note, but then a second lengthier one came in while he sat at Crafts. He read it again. Then again. Each time his pulse kicked it up a notch. As much as he wanted to respond immediately, doing so with Macie sitting across from him felt wrong. This was intimate. Most of what they’d written had been just skimming the surface of their personalities, but mystery girl had opened a vein and let herself bleed. He’d wanted to shout ‘Yes, and I’m right here’ but that wouldn’t have gone over well at Crafts. Or any other place for that matter.
He looked at his half-finished pint. Eight bucks for something that tasted like gym socks. What a waste. At least he’d tried something new this time. Zac was a creature of habit. He wore the same brand of underwear as long as he could remember. He woke up at the same time almost every day. He drank the same beer since he tried it at fourteen. Everything had a place and everything was in its place.
One of the last lines of mystery girl’s letter came back to him.
It’s too bad we tend to let life get in the way of living, you know?
Was that what he’d been doing? He’d made an effort to try new things lately. His last girlfriend had told him he was stale. He’d laughed at her, but over the last few months her words haunted him. He went to a Thai restaurant, tried a yoga class, and even went to a clothing optional party a couple of towns over. Each was a fail, at least by Zac’s standards. The Thai food was too spicy, the yoga too boring. And the party, well, the party wasn’t what he’d expected. He preferred meeting people with their clothes on. He liked the mystery, the discovery as he took each article off one piece at a time until the blessed fleshy reveal. Besides, staring was rude and near impossible not to do when everyone was already naked.
Zac glanced at Macie. She was lost in her world of who knew what. Probably the wedding. The only thing he’d ever liked about her, besides her body, was her loyalty to Lauren. If he was honest with Macie, he’d confess that he thought she was gay for the first year. Actually, he thought Macie was in love with Lauren. When Macie dated a football player during sophomore year, Zac realized he’d been wrong.
Macie sighed and closed her laptop. She left it on the table as she scurried toward the restrooms.
He leaned back in his chair and started his response.
I’ve been contemplating this for a long time, myself. If I hadn’t seen true commitment, true compatibility, true (dare I say it) love in person, I probably would agree more with you. My parents are one example. My grandparents another. And I have a few friends who are so madly in tune with their significant other that there are times they just don’t speak. They have these mental conversations and it drives me insane. Not just because I don’t have a clue what’s going on, but, to be brutally honest, because I’m jealous.
The truth is I’ve been looking for her, for the proverbial ONE, and I haven’t met her yet. But I know she’s out there.
As for the cabin, you’re right. I need to get there soon. It’s only a few hours away, and I could use a break from the reality of life about now. Maybe I’ll take off this weekend, spend some time with the wilderness. It wouldn’t hurt to stay away from the internet, either. LOL
It’s time I start living more and going through life less.
I’ll start, though, with this.
When can we meet?
Zac’s finger hovered over his screen. He wanted to send it. He wanted to meet her and see if she was everything he believed her to be. But what if she