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The date must have gone well, not that she expected anything different. They might not have met in person until tonight, but Moby and Staci had gotten as close as you possibly could get via video chat.
Reese unlocked their apartment door and left it slightly ajar. She brushed her teeth and put on pajamas, wanting to disappear before the lovebirds got there. Staci would probably want to talk after Moby left to gush about the date. Reese didn’t know if she could handle that. She was happy for Staci. Or she would be. But tonight, her heart didn’t feel like a strong muscle. It felt more like a weak, soft mess.
Sighing, she got into bed and turned out the light. Staci wouldn’t be deterred, but she had a better chance of avoiding the conversation if she pretended to sleep. Or actually went to sleep.
But sleep did not come.
She heard the door close. Some giggling, then some bumping around. Were they rearranging furniture? Playing tag? Reese groaned and put the pillow over her head, hearing Moby’s low voice and then more giggling.
This was going to get old quick, having to be the third wheel to a super happy couple hanging out in the apartment all the time.
There was a knock at the door. “Come in, Stace,” Reese called. No response.
Sighing, she opened the door. No one was there. But she could see flickering from the living room and smelled the distinct smell of matches. Had they lit candles? And if so, why did they want her to join them?
“Staci?”
Still no response. Reese hesitated in the doorway. This was … odd. Where did they go? She needed to make sure the living room wasn’t on fire.
Reese walked through the open doorway into the living room and stopped. It felt like her feet had suddenly been cemented to the floor. She could not move them. Or her legs. Or any other part of her body.
Sterling James sat on the floor on the other side of the coffee table, grinning at her. He looked amazing. He had decided to stop shaving close to the end of the tour and had more than a five o’clock shadow gracing his jaw. It suited him. In the flickering light of a few dozen candles, he looked dashing and handsome and maybe a little mysterious. He had never looked better.
“You …” Reese started, but she didn’t know how to finish her sentence.
“Will you play with me?” Sterling asked. His eyes were pleading.
Only then did she notice that he had set up a game of Double Solitaire. Reese sat. He shifted and now his knees touched hers under the table. He smiled at the contact. Her heart fluttered.
“Ready?” he asked.
She held the cards in her hand. “Sterling, what—”
“Go!”
Reese swallowed down her confusion and her questions as they started the fast and furious game. It was hard to talk while playing and she couldn’t even sort out the questions in her head to start. Why was he here? How was he here? What did this mean?
Above all the confusion, Reese felt an overwhelming sense of hope. Her instinct was to choke it out. She didn’t want to have hope. Hope hurt. But seeing Sterling across the table, slapping cards down, feeling his knees touching hers, even smelling his familiar scent—all of it had her heart overriding her head.
“I won.” Sterling grinned at her from across the table. “Again?”
Reese wanted to understand what he was doing here. Why were they playing Double Solitaire by candlelight in her apartment like this was some normal occurrence? But just as she hadn’t wanted to burst the bubble in California, she didn’t want to do that now. He was here.
She had thought about this and wished for this. Many times she had prayed about their relationship. It was hard to know exactly what to ask for, but she prayed for a second chance with Sterling. If it was something God wanted. Reese had not lied when she told Sterling that she didn’t want to fix him. She didn’t expect perfection. But he had to be open to God and to growth. This seemed like an impossible prayer. She kept praying it anyway.
Now he was here, but she had no idea where he stood. About her or God or anything.
Reese slapped down her final King on the pile of Aces between them. “I won!”
“Best out of three?” Sterling asked. Reese nodded, and they began shuffling again.
Her sense of competition reared up in the last hand, but his did too. A few times they slapped each other’s hands in a race to lay cards down on the Aces. She was giggling, and he was too by the time Sterling slammed down his final King.
“Yes!” he shouted. “I win.”
“Congratulations.” Reese set down her cards. “Now do you want to explain what’s going on?”
In a swift move that startled her, Sterling picked up the coffee table and moved it to the side so that it was no longer between them. He sat down again, their knees touching. “Is it wrong that I wanted to see my girlfriend?”
