I threw my hand over my mouth, trying to stifle my giggle. He was so close to me now and probably already knew where I was. I think he just liked to make my heart beat faster. Dean always knew how to do that.
I was eight and he was ten now. Dean was getting so much taller than me, but I was getting tall for an eight-year-old, too. I think that’s why the three of us worked so well. It always bothered me to think that, one day, Ian and Dean would think I was too young to play with anymore. Sometimes it frightened me a little.
“Rosey,” he called out with a little hum in his voice. That had been my nickname ever since the day we first met and I felt my cheeks burning. It just stuck with me ever since.
“I can see you,” he whispered right in my ear.
I jumped, squealing, and ran out from my hiding spot behind the tree. Dean laughed, but caught me in his arms. “You can’t get away from me, Rosey. I’ve got you now.” He tickled me until I couldn’t breathe.
“Please, stop!” I shouted, giggling harder.
Dean stopped, then pulled me up to look at him. He searched my face and then smiled. “See, still rosey,” he said, stroking my cheek.
*****
Today was another good day. It was Friday, but what was so good about it was the untold amount of messages that had come in since my post in yesterday’s paper. Lots of people were thrilled about the idea. Some emails were a bit creepy, but the majority of them were messages of love. It was amazing how many people out there were secretly harbouring a crush of some kind.
Some of the messages were poems, some were little limericks. My personal favourite was from a man named Ned who was desperately seeking his school crush from twenty years ago. Her name was Melanie Cribbins, and she was his first kiss. Sometimes first kisses were just hard to let go of. I knew that more than most.
I was eager to get Ned’s message out there. I put it in the middle of all the others so it stood out for this mysterious Melanie Cribbins to see. It took me hours to go through all my favourites before submitting them to Andrew Walker for publishing.
He was happy with it, and also happy with the amount of responses I had since posting it yesterday. No doubt there would be even more messages over the next couple of days, especially if my first posting was a success.
This morning, I had left about five cookies for my stranger. Of course, by the time I came home, they were all gone and a message sat on my table, thanking me for the treat. If I thought things couldn’t get any weirder, they just did.
Dismissing it for now, I quickly got myself ready for my big night out with Louisa. I didn’t know why I accepted the invitation to go to Bo Jangles, but I guess I’d know later whether it was a good idea or not.
After taking a shower, I stepped into my royal blue dress and sleek black high heels. I always felt sexy, and rather tall, in high heels. Five foot five wasn’t exactly small, but I always wanted to be a bit taller. I just seemed to stop growing once I got to the age of thirteen. It was a little disappointing, but I quickly learned that high heels were my best friend.
Once I was ready, I called a cab. I know the club was only twenty minutes away by foot, but there was no way I was going to walk all that way in these babies. A taxi would do nicely. I got there and saw Louisa waiting outside the club. We gave each other a peck on the cheek and ventured on in. “You look amazing, Louisa. You always do, but damn!”
Laughing, Louisa grabbed my hand. “Thank you, sweetie. You look simply good enough to eat yourself. Nice choice on the little blue number.” She gave me a cheeky wink and smiled. “Now, let’s go find you a man!”
Feeling nervous as hell, I followed her in. We went to get ourselves some drinks and sat down at a table. I didn’t know why I let myself get talked into this but, in a sense, Louisa was right. It had been a while since I had a man in my life. My stranger was the only constant I had right now.
“What about him?” Louisa pointed to a tall man in his twenties with dark, spiky hair.
Sipping my drink, I shook my head. “Nah, not really my type.”
Fidgeting in her chair, Louisa looked around. “Okay, okay. What about him?”
I followed her finger to another guy of smaller height and build. This one also had dark hair, but his was slicked back. “Nope. Too small and skinny.” I was never a fan of skinny men.
Shaking her head, Louisa smiled. “Okay, let’s see.” She scanned the room again, while I sipped on my Margarita. It wasn’t long before her gaze fell on something she obviously liked. The way her lips curved up into a smile gave it away.
Following her gaze, I expected to see some boy band wannabe, as every other guy in here looked virtually the same. However, this guy stood out from the rest. He was tall and lean, with dark blonde hair and wary eyes. Not bad eyes, but sexy, dark eyes.