You Had Me At Christmas: A Holiday Anthology(37)

She hoped John wasn’t one of those men, but she didn’t want to risk losing his attention.

Just someone I work with, she typed.

Tell me more.

Kate read the last message and struggled with what to say.

About what?

Anything. More about your work, your life, your shoe size. I want to know it all.

I’m a size seven and a half, although I’m convinced my one foot is slightly bigger than the other. I’ve never told anyone that before.

Excellent. That’s exactly what I want to know. Okay, you have rabbit cheeks and a distorted foot. Left or right?

Right. And it’s not distorted, it’s just slightly, ever so slightly, bigger. Now you tell me something.

Sorry. I don’t have any deformities. No animal parts or strangely sized appendages.

Kate took a sip of her wine and could feel the warmth of it in her cheeks now. Talk about having liquid courage.

Really? You’re a man and you admitted you don’t have any large appendages? That’s really brave of you.

Oh CRAP! One. One VERY large appendage.

I’ll have to take your word for it.

Please do not make me send you a dick pic. I think there is something so humiliating about pointing a camera at your cock and thinking yeah, she wants to see this pop up on her phone. I’ll never understand the women who opened Anthony Wiener’s texts.

Kate chuckled, because she thought the same thing. Then she read the message again and found herself squirming over the word cock. A little rough. Maybe crude. Still, just the word affected her. Yeah, it had probably been entirely too long since she had sex.

Fine. Then no boob picture from me either. Although they are very nice.

I bet they are. That’s a secret I can tell you. I really miss breasts. I miss the way they feel in my hand, the way they taste. I think I could get off on that alone, sucking on a woman’s nipple, I’m so desperate.

Kate felt a jolt of desire in her stomach. The idea of a man holding her breasts, sucking her nipple. Not any man. This man. The man in the picture who liked to look at the ocean.

She started to type something, something that might take them down a different path, when she saw another message from him.

I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gone there. I don’t want to scare you away. I was being inappropriately honest…

Kate undid what she was writing and answered him instead.

I’m not scared. I like honesty.

It was an opening. A provocation and she knew it. Maybe it would scare him away. Maybe he thought she was some slutty person who used this app for one-night hookups, and he was just one of many guys in a long line of conquests.

She hoped he didn’t think that. She hoped on some level he understood that this was different for her. Heck, she hoped it was different for him too. It was so hard to know when it was only a picture and some words.

Had they been standing together at a bar she might be able to read him better, get a sense of who he was, pick up on signs the phone didn’t allow for. But she didn’t know where he was or who he was. If she was going to do this, she supposed she had to take a leap of faith.

Talk to me, Kate. I’m not great at games. Just tell me what you want.

Maybe it was the wine, or maybe it was the damn holiday, or maybe she was fed up with herself and her structured little life. Whatever the reason, Kate decided to be honest with him.

I think I want you.





Chapter Two





Kate stared down at the message on the phone and waited for his response. In fact she realized she was holding her breath.

Then we’re in luck. I want you too. I want to kiss that smile. I want to take it inside of me, let it feed me. Where did you come from, Kate?

Your phone.

I f*cking love my phone right now.

Should we talk? Do you want my number?

Is that what you want?

Kate didn’t think so. Talking would make it all too real. What if he had a squeaky voice? What if he sounded like a total douchebag? In the written word he was perfect. Funny, charming, intelligent. Maybe a little wistful. A lot romantic. That was who she wanted. The picture and the words. Only more of them. Her very own fantasy come to life.

I like this. I like talking like this. No pressure.

Okay. No pressure. Can you tell me though what you would taste like right now if I kissed you? If I slipped my tongue inside your mouth?

I imagine I would taste like the red wine I’ve been drinking.

Delicious. Are you tipsy, Kate?

A little bit. You have to know… this, talking like this, it’s not something I do all the time. At all really.

Me either. You’re the first person on this app I’ve messaged with. Mostly I thought it was just a silly game to give people a boost of confidence every now and then.

Do you need that boost of confidence?

No, I already told you I have a VERY large appendage.

Sorry I forgot. :)

Oh no, don’t go all smiley face on me. Once we descend to emojis, there is no going back. I prefer words.

I prefer your words.

I’m going to kiss you on the side of your neck now, Kate. Your hair in your picture is red, is that the real color?

Yes.

There was no reason to tell him about the color she used to cover the gray. There was honesty and then there was a woman’s prerogative to not divulge certain secrets.