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Except for the fact that she probably hated him.
Sighing, Nate tried to push that thought out of his mind.
Napper:You’re not the only one who can’t wait
Napper:And it’s 17 days
Napper:Should we start planning our first date?
Napper:Or does that make ME sound desperate?
Napper:Because I am
Napper:Are you a dinner and a movie kind of girl? Or something fun like mini golf or bowling?
Nate tucked the phone back in his pocket and swallowed down stray worries. He hadn’t told the guys when he started talking to Colby—aka Sewzy—through the app. They probably would be happy for him, except for the timing of the launch. But he couldn’t lose Colby again.
It was his fault. Or, the fault of his stupid anxiety. After waiting all semester to ask her out, terrified she might say no, Nate finally got up the courage. But an anxiety attack happened the day of their date, just before the presentation he was supposed to give with Todd and Zane. He’d been too out of it in the hospital to message her, and then too ashamed afterward.
She called and texted for a while, but he couldn’t bring himself to respond.
People might talk more about mental health now, but it still carried a huge stigma. Especially for a guy. He was supposed to be strong, not have a breakdown over stuff in his head. Why would she want to be with someone who broke under the pressure of presenting his senior project? She deserved someone better. Someone she didn’t have to worry about or worse—pity. He told himself he had done her a favor by not responding. She would think he was a jerk for standing her up and move on to someone who could love her better.
Now that he was in a better place with his anxiety managed, he recognized that he should have at least called her. At the time, he was too overcome. He had moved home to Dallas with his Nana, who had raised him after his parents died in a car accident when he was barely old enough to remember them. He was in a totally different place now, but still only Todd, Zane, and his late Nana knew about his anxiety.
Seeing how the app matched him with Colby, he had to take a risk. The only problem was that he hadn’t fully thought it through. What if she was still angry with him all these years later? Or angry to find out that he knew her identity? He still had two weeks to figure it out. Seventeen days. He would have to be fully honest about his anxiety, a thought that still terrified him. Colby was a romantic at heart, so he was trying to think of some grand gesture for their first date. A way to surprise her and apologize to her and win her back all at once. So far, he had no good ideas.
Nate made his way up the sidewalk to a ranch house with a turquoise door. A tire swing hung from a live oak and a tricycle looked like it had been abandoned mid-ride on the front porch. A small sign by the doorbell read, Children Napping! Ring Doorbell Under Penalty of Death. All of this—the toys in the yard, the quirky sign—made his chest ache. He wanted this. At twenty-six, he had hoped to be married by now. Maybe if things worked out the way he hoped with Colby, it would be sooner than later. Just the thought had him smiling again.
This house had two packages. Eyeing the sign, he knocked softly. At training, one of the other mail carriers had whispered to him that they never actually got anyone to sign for things, even if it was required. But Nate was a stickler for order and for rules.
He knocked again, still trying to keep it at a level that would be heard by an adult, but not wake a napping baby. When the turquoise door swung open, Nate almost dropped the packages.
Colby stood in the doorway, looking down at her phone.
Her brown hair cascaded over her shoulders almost down to her waist. Her dark lashes fluttered over her cheeks as she typed something. She smiled at something on the screen and the dimple in her left cheek appeared. It sent his heart sprinting away in his chest. She tucked the phone into her pocket as he felt his own phone buzz with a message.
Nate drew in a breath as she looked up. His stomach clenched.
Colby’s eyes popped with recognition and her mouth dropped open. “Nate?” She didn’t speak his name so much as whisper it, like he was a ghost.
He stood there, unable to respond or speak, his eyes locked on hers.
And then she had vaulted through the doorway and grabbed him in a hug. She didn’t wait for him to lift his arms, crushing them into his body along with the mail. His hands opened, releasing the package, but it held between their bodies. This was a moment he had dreamed of for years, but he couldn’t shut down the anxious thoughts swarming in his brain.
What is she going to say when she finds out I’m the one she’s talking to on First Sight? How can I tell her now?
And if she’s happily married with kids, why is she on the app at all?
