Behind the Screen

Chapter 6

After I was done talking to Emily, I looked at my phone and realized that I'd gotten a response after I fell asleep.

"Where's the next place you think you'll travel?"

"You must've passed out :) talk tomorrow."

I looked at the time on the messages, 2:30 AM. Shit, was I really awake that long? I must have been, but I didn't realize it had gotten that late.

"Morning, definitely did pass out on my couch. I'm usually not up that late," I sent.

I went into my room and plugged my phone in to charge as I got ready for the day. I didn't have much to do until I went over to Emily's, so I took my time.

Once I was showered, I got dressed and grabbed my phone off of the charger as I laid down on the couch.

I knew I was too glued to my phone and the stranger on the other end of it, but I was too intrigued to stop.

"Sorry if I kept you up, hopefully you don't have anything too important that you have to do today," she had sent.

"No it's fine, I have all day to relax :)" I responded.

"Good, I usually try to do something a little more exciting if I'm going to keep someone up late ;)" she sent.

I felt a flutter in my stomach as I read her message. She was definitely a flirt. I didn't even know who she was and it was already working on me.

"Sorry...had to," she quickly followed up.

"Why do I get the feeling that you're trouble?" I asked her.

I began to rethink it once I had sent my message, hopefully she knew I was joking...kind of. It was so hard to tell through a screen.

Before I could think about it any further, she had responded.

"Ha, maybe I am, guess you'll just have to keep talking to me to find out."

Damn it she was good at this. A lot better than I was, that's for sure.

"Well that answer didn't do much to prove your innocence, so I'll take that for what it's worth," I sent back.

"I would never try to prove I was innocent, don't you worry," she said.

I shook my head and grinned at my phone. If I got nothing else out of this, I could at least say that it was fun.

"Can I be the one to ask you a personal question now?" I sent.

"I'm a little upset that you don't want to talk about how innocent I am, but sure :)" she responded.

"There's obviously an age range on your profile, but just curious how old you are," I said.

It wasn't a huge deal to me because I knew she was somewhere close to my age, but I was curious.

"I'm 32, too much of an old lady for you?" She responded.

"I'm 30, so I hope 32 isn't considered old," I said back.

"Ooo, does this make me a cougar?" she asked.

I quietly laughed to myself at her response before I sent anything back.

"If you want to call yourself a cougar, I definitely won't stop you," I said.

A few minutes passed and she hadn't responded, so I set my phone down on the coffee table that was next to me. I felt my eyelids growing heavy, and I thought about taking a nap before I went over to Emily's.

Obviously it was a good thought, because I woke up about an hour later. I picked up my phone off of the table to check the time, it was about 4:30, so I'd head over to Emily's in a little bit.

In the meantime, I went back to the dating app to read my messages.

"Cougar it is then."

"Doing anything fun and/or crazy tonight?"

"First wild event of the weekend was the nap I just took :) just going over to a friend's house for a while, definitely not crazy," I said.

I set my phone down again after I sent the message, and I went into the bathroom to freshen up before I went to Emily's.

By the time I was done, it was almost 5:00, and I figured I might as well just go over to her house now.

"Care if I come now?" I texted her.

I waited for a few minutes for her response as I went and checked my other notifications.

"A nap sounds amazing, I should've done the same thing. And I can let you go if you're going to be with your friend," the mystery girl said.

I still needed something else to call her. The cougar? No...definitely not that. It was a work in progress.

"No it's fine, just will probably be a little slower to respond," I said.

I put my phone in my pocket after I sent the message and got ready to leave. Emily hadn't texted me back, but I knew she wouldn't care if I came over now.

I made the short drive over to her house and parked out front. I got up to the front door and knocked lightly. Usually I'd just go in, but I figured I'd wait since I was just a little bit early.

Emily came to the door a minute later and looked surprised to see me.

"Hey, you're early," she said.

"Yeah I texted you, I didn't think you'd mind," I told her.

"No I don't, it's just um - " she started.

Before she could finish, I heard a familiar voice coming from the living room behind her.

"Okay I'll see you guys later - oh, Katie, hey," Spencer said.

Emily mouthed "sorry" to me as a guilty look came across her face.

"Hey Spencer," I said quietly.

Emily and I both stepped aside to let him walk out of the front door.

"Yeah I'll um - bye guys," Spencer said awkwardly as he went to his car.

After he was gone, we went inside the house and Emily immediately started apologizing.

"I'm so sorry," she said, "I didn't know you'd be here early and I -"

"Emily, it's fine," I said, cutting her off, "I know you guys are all still friends, you don't have to be sorry."

"Are you sure? I feel bad that you two had to run into each other," she said.

"Positive," I nodded, "just give me a warning next time so I don't show up early."

I grinned at her and got a small smile in return as she seemed to relax a bit.

"Okay," she sighed, "well now that that's out of the way...Luke is just starting to make dinner, come on."

She waved for me to follow her and we walked towards the kitchen.

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