Chapter 8
EIGHT
GRACIE
With you, once will never be enough.
What the hell is that supposed to mean?
I have so many questions, and I suppose what he said is true, it would have been easy for him to find my number, there’s just something not quite sitting right with the entire thing, but I’m probably just being paranoid.
I bite my lip and type out a response.
Never? What happened to being anonymous?
I don’t have to wait for long for his reply, since it pops up almost instantly.
Unknown
I’m still not going to tell you who I am, but you better believe it wasn’t just a one-time thing.
I hold my breath as I stare at the message and then stare at it some more.
He wants to see me again but also wants to continue wearing the mask. Does he plan on meeting me some place? Coming to my dorm? One of the reasons I don’t date is because I freaking hate the buildup to everything, and his message is threatening to have my anxiety spiraling.
What am I supposed to say to that?
Am I supposed to flirt with him right now?
Do I even want to see him again?
This entire situation is so far out of my comfort zone that I have no idea what to do with myself, and I’m honestly just debating blocking his number and attempting to forget about the whole thing.
Before I can act on it though, another text pops up.
Unknown
Don’t worry, babe. We don’t need to make any plans right now. I’ll come to you when the time is right.
I read the message three times before my fingers fly across the screen in reply.
How do you expect to do that?
Unknown
There’s a lot you don’t know about me, love.
I huff out a sardonic laugh.
I’ll say.
Including your name, so what the hell am I supposed to call you?
I definitely can’t keep calling him ‘him’ in my mind or I’ll go insane.
Unknown
How about you just call me ‘the anonymous guy in the mask who made me come so hard I saw stars?’ I think that’s pretty fitting, don’t you?
An actual real laugh escapes me as I read that. At least I know he has a sense of humor. I click on the contact name and add him to my contacts under the name ‘anonymous’, since he seems dead set on not telling me his name. I take a screen shot of it and send it to him.
Anonymous
Seriously? That’s the best you could do?
Tell me your name and then it won’t have to be so ridiculous.
Anonymous
Soon, babe. Soon.
Banging on my door rouses me from my sleep and I check the time, only to see it’s still early.
I grumble to myself as I drag my ass out of bed and head to the door. I don’t bother checking who it is first, since there’s only one person who would be knocking on my door at this time of day.
Freya stands on the other side looking bright eyed and bushy tailed with two to-go cups of coffee in her hands.
I make a grabby hands motion. “Gimme.”
She laughs as she walks through the door, only stopping long enough on her way to my bed to hand me one of the cups.
She climbs under the covers and pats the bed for me to join her.
Once I’m back in bed, I turn to face her, waiting for her to say what she came here to say.
“You hooked up with someone,” she states, not bothering to phrase it as a question.
She’s always known me better than anyone else, so it doesn’t surprise me that she already knows.
“Did I?” I ask slowly, blinking at her in innocence.
“I watched you wander off with someone,” she deadpans, and I go to say something, but she cuts me off. “And then an hour later, you came back flushed, telling us you were going home.”
An hour? Is that really how long we were in that room?
I try to think of something to say that will explain me following him from the bar and coming back flushed, but I come up with nothing.
It’s not that I think Freya will judge me, it’s just this is something Misty or someone else would do, not me.
And definitely not Freya.
She is the epitome of a good girl. Then again, I always thought I kind of was too.
I sigh and tell her about the conversation we had at the bar before I asked him to go somewhere more private.
Freya’s eyes widen once I get to that part, probably surprised that it was me who initiated but I keep going, not pausing to let her get a word in.
I tell her about the room and give her a brief run-down of what we did before telling her about him leaving.
“And that’s when I came to tell you guys that I was leaving, and I came back here alone.”
She’s silent for a moment, no doubt going back over my words in her mind.
“And that’s it? You haven’t seen him since?”
Seen him? No.
“I haven’t.”
She scrutinizes me and clicks he tongue. “You’re not telling me everything.”
I groan internally before fishing my phone from the nightstand. I pull up the text thread with him and hand her the phone.
Her face stays neutral as she reads the messages between us and locks the phone. She stays silent as she hands it back to me and I wait on tenterhooks for her to say something.
“Something about this entire thing feels off, Gracie.”
And there it is.
I’ve been waiting for her to say aloud the one thing that I already know.
I don’t know why, but the entire thing feels weird and it’s starting to make me feel… uncomfortable?
Freya’s compassionate eyes meet mine, worry swirling within them. “You should tell someone, just in case. And I don’t think you should speak to him anymore.”
I’ve been debating the same thing, wondering if I should just block his number, but hearing her say it has my gut clenching.
Something is seriously freaking wrong with me, because I know that deep, deep, down, a part of me likes it. Likes the fact I have no idea who this guy is while he knows me.
“I won’t speak to him again,” I agree.
And I mean it.
“And you’ll report it if he starts getting… out of hand.”
To the police? Yeah… no.
Luckly, she didn’t specify.
It’d be much more practical to report it to my brother.
“I will, I promise.”