Birdie
A week later, I sat on my sofa, with an episode of Gilmore Girls I’d seen a hundred times playing on my television screen. I idly thumbed through a book on my e-reader, nothing capturing my attention. The events of the prior week had felt like nothing more than a dream.
I hadn’t spoken to Lu-Lu. Though I wanted to. I wanted to ask for her workplace directory so I could scan the pages of her corporate job for someone who looked like Jax… but I decided against it.
Jax knew who I was, had all of my information, and hadn’t reached out.
The sting of rejection welled tears in my eyes more often than I wanted to admit.
So, instead of doing anything at all… I did nothing.
I worked, I came back to my apartment, and I mindlessly watched old shows and scanned smut books I couldn’t wholly focus on.
My own adventure was over… and I was right back where I started.
Just as I was about to drift to sleep, my phone vibrated on my coffee table.
Unknown Sender
Hello, player. Meet tonight at midnight. Come masked and ready to be caught.
My pulse quickened as I held my phone in my palm — frozen.
Would Jax be there? I thought these parties, these games, only happened on Halloween?
It was eleven o’clock at night, and I was in footie pajamas with a moisturizing mask on.
A far cry from the cat eared, fishnet wearing vixen I’d disguised myself as a week earlier.
Should I risk going and Jax not being there? Would it be worth it to be rejected twice? What if she were there and didn’t want me? Maybe the game was just that to her… maybe we only existed within the confines of predator and prey and nothing more.
Despite the risk… all I wanted to do was find out for certain.
I quickly washed my face and pulled on jeans, a corset I’d tried on once and never wore out, and flats.
Waiting anxiously in the backseat of my ride, the drive let me out into a gravel parking lot.
I secured my mask and looked around. No lines, no shoulder to shoulder mask-wearers, it was only me in an empty gravel lot.
Fear set in.
What if I’d been tricked?
I hadn’t given a second thought to coming to a random location at midnight… and I was by myself and vulnerable, with no one to know for days if I went missing. In panic, I pulled out my phone to call for another ride when footsteps crunched behind me.
Turning on my heel, the night illuminated in green, and two familiar X’s for eyes looked down at me. “Jax?” I asked, as if to check to see if she were really real.
“Birdie,” she answered, walking up to me. “Thanks for coming.”
“What’s happening?” I asked.
Jax rubbed the back of her neck. “I thought this would be a fun way to… well… to ask you on a date.”
A small laugh left my throat. “By scaring me senseless in an empty parking lot?” It was only then I noticed all the train tracks around us. This wasn’t the theme park from before, but something like a train station or intersection.
“It’s more interesting this way, don’t you think?”
“Take off your mask,” I challenged, fighting my smile.
Jax hummed, and I could hear her smirk in her reply. “No, I don’t think you’ve earned that yet. You haven’t answered my question. Will you go on a date with me? Right here, right now?”
Considering for a moment, my answer was easy. “Sure.”
“Sure?” she asked hopefully.
Somehow, I’d found freedom in confinement, I’d found security in the chase, I’d found Jax in the mystery and heat of finding adventure again. I couldn’t pass that up ever again.
“But…” I amended slowly, before my heart pounded, and I turned on my heel.
“YOU’LL HAVE TO CATCH ME FIRST.”