Dear Aaron(67)

“I’ve been thinking about it for a while. Since before we left for Scotland. I wanted to invite you, but…” He trailed off. There was a sound I couldn’t figure out before he said in a totally confident tone, “I want to meet you.” Just like that. I want to meet you. He let out a soft breath over the phone. “I’m not going to kill you in your sleep.”

That made me snort. “I wasn’t thinking that.”

“You could have your own room. I’m sure there’s a lock on it.”

Anxiety and stress and nerves and vomit all rolled around in my belly. Go with him. To Florida. By myself. When I didn’t technically know him or his friends.

Meet him. Meet Aaron.

Meet this person I thought the world of who had basically called me his little sister.

What if he didn’t like me in person? What if I liked him even more once I met him in person? What if I liked him even more and he decided he didn’t like me for some reason once he met me? What if—

“Yes, then?”

Yes? My heart rate sped up, excitement and nausea and something I couldn’t completely identify filling my veins. “Aaron, do you understand what you’re asking me?”

“Yeah,” he said, but it really came out more like “duh.”

“We’ve never met in person.”

“So? We e-mailed each other back and forth for nine months. I talk to you more than I do my family and friends.” There was a rustling sound in the background, and I swear I heard a door close. “It’s only weird if you make it weird, and we wouldn’t make it weird. We already hit it off.” Neither one of us said anything for a moment, but when he finally spoke again, it made the hairs on my arms stand up. “You don’t think so?”

Did I not think so? Was he insane? I groaned and brought up a closed fist to my eye socket. “Look, I want to go with you. I really do, but—”

His voice was soft and determined. “I would never do anything to you, or let anyone do anything to you.”

“It’s not even that—”

“I know I’m coming on strong, but the more I think about it, the more I want you to come with us. The entire time I was in Scotland, I regretted not inviting you to come when Max bailed. I wish I would’ve invited you even if he hadn’t bailed.”

He had?

I blew out a breath and curled my toes together once more. Why did every single cell in my body get excited at the idea of going to Florida with someone I didn’t know that well and other people I didn’t know at all? If my best friend were to tell me she was going to meet up with her online friend at a cafe by herself, I would tell her she was out of her mind and that her body was going to show up on the nine o’clock news for being a total idiot.

But my brain rebelled against that completely.

Completely.

Some part of me deep down knew that Aaron wouldn’t hurt me. I didn’t know how I knew that, but I did. I really, really did. And I did love going to Florida…

“Look, I don’t have any money. I have a lot coins saved I can go get cashed and I have some money, but I shouldn’t be blowing it on a ticket that’s probably going to be crazy expensive because it’s so last minute—”

That calming voice cut me off. “I got your ticket.”

I felt myself scrunch up my nose and groaned. “You can’t pay for it.”

“You just said you don’t have any money. I’m the one who wants you to come…” He trailed off. “If it makes you feel any better, I can afford it.”

“I have to leave next week for California—”

“I’ll make sure you’re back before you have to leave.”

I was making a terrible mistake, wasn’t I? Who the heck goes to a beach house with strangers, one stranger I was pretty much totally in love with who had no idea because I’d never even seen his face—

I’d thought about it. He could basically look like a troll and chances were, if he was as wonderful in person as he was online, I would still be in love with him. Beauty fades, a good personality and chemistry doesn’t.

“I can afford it, Ruby, and I’ll make sure your flight gets you back home before you need to leave. You’ve sent me hundreds of dollars worth of stuff while I was deployed—no, don’t say you didn’t because we both know you did. I can cover your ticket. You’re the one doing me a favor.”

“How am I doing you a favor?” I asked him in a mumble.

“Because I could’ve had a better time in Scotland, and I’m being selfish inviting you to come to Florida because I want to be around someone….” He trailed off again. “I want to meet you, and I’m not giving you any time to think about it. You’re telling me you’re worried, and I’m pushing you into it. That’s selfish, and you know what, Rube? I don’t give much of a shit.”

Was I dead? Was this a dream? Had my mom baked mushrooms into dinner last night and I was still on some sort of weird trip?

I moaned. This was crazy, and I told him exactly that.

“So what? It’s crazier for me to think about a girl your age going places by herself,” he said. “I’ve got you, Ruby Cube.”

Ruby Cube. It had killed me the first time I read it and killed me every time since then when I saw the RC he wrote me. I was so dumb. So damn dumb to fall into this position again. Even knowing I was dumb didn’t change anything.