Page 70 of Black Reign

Then pushes the plate closer.

Something inside me aches.

I'm lonely.

There.

Ugly truth.

Not alone.

Lonely.

There is a difference.

I have contacts.

Colleagues.

People I can drink wine with.

Men who ask me out.

Women I trust enough for dinner.

But nobody gets all the way inside.

Nobody except a man whose name I don't know.

Maybe that's why the wedding invitation scares me.

Because if Ghost is terrible in person, I lose the illusion.

But what if he isn't?

That possibility is worse.

What if he's everything?

My eyes drift back to his abdominal photograph before I stop myself.

Intelligence.

Humor.

The strange flashes of kindness he thinks he hides beneath sarcasm.

A body that appears promising from the limited evidence available.

What if his voice is deep enough to do something unfortunate to my nervous system?

What if he smells good?

What if he looks at me the same way he writes to me?

What if I walk into that wedding and know him immediately?

My tooth catches my lower lip.