I get on my laptop and Freya hovers, instructing me to type every single word, which isn't much. Rebecca messaged me a few times when I was silent, asking me what was going on.
"Oh my God," Freya whispers when I pull up the message. "I know it's not her voice, but just seeing those words and knowing that she typed them." Her hand clutches my shoulder, and I can see goose bumps popping up.
"Amazing, isn't it?" That's how I feel when I look at pictures of my parents.
"Yeah," she breathes. "Okay, write her back. Give her my email." I turn my head so I can meet her eyes.
"Are you sure?" She traps her bottom lip between her teeth and nods. "Yeah. That's safer than giving her my phone number. Or meeting her in person, you know?" I agree. As exciting as this is, we still need to be careful. You never know about strangers.
"I'm scared and excited at the same time. I don't know how to feel," she says in my ear. "It's so much all at once."
I stroke her arm and type out the message, adding Freya's email address.
"Do you want me to tell her your name?"
"Just my first name. That's okay." So I add that and sit back. I guess I expect an immediate response, but ten minutes pass and nothing.
"The suspense is killing me," Freya wails. She's still clamped onto my arm. I'm losing circulation, but I'll be damned if I'm going to tell her to let go. I'll lose my fucking arm. I'm so honored that she's sharing this with me, especially now.
"Maybe we should step away?" I say. "A watched message doesn't boil." She narrows her eyes.
"It's a good thing you're hot." She kisses me and looks one more time at the screen.
"Am I?" I ask and she grinds her nails into my arm, making me yelp.
"Well, there's only one thing that's going to take my mind off this, temporarily." I pretend to think about it really hard.
"Is it something that involves both of us being naked and lots of tongue action? Because that's what I'm picturing." Her fingers dig in more, but for a different reason.
"Maybe. Why don't you show me what you mean? I don't have a clear picture in my head." I'm up from my chair in about three seconds, and she's over my shoulder in another, squealing as I walk us to the bedroom.
* * *
"Go look," she says a while later. "I'm scared to. I'm scared she's going to change her mind. I'm scared she's like, a murderer or something." Her head is on my chest and my fingers are combing through her hair.
"I'll look, but if she responds, I think you're going to want to respond back." Her face tilts up at me.
"What if she doesn't like me?" she whispers.
"I'm not worried," I say, kissing her forehead.
"No, but really. You're partial. What if she meets me and then is like 'oh, yeah, that's why I gave her up.'?" I sigh.
"I guess that's just a risk you're going to have to take. Is the potential for the opposite to be true worth it?" She thinks about that for a minute, her fingers walking their way up and down my chest.
"I think so. I hope so. I feel like I've gone too far now to look back. And I want to thank you for being with me. And for helping me." I kiss the top of her head.
"I would do anything for you, Luna. Absolutely anything." A grin breaks out on her face.
"Call for a pizza?" I laugh.
"You got it, baby."
* * *
We're in the middle of eating pizza when Freya's phone gets a notification of an incoming email. She looks at me before reaching for it where it's sitting on the coffee table.
She takes a breath and reaches for my hand as she reads it. Tears start to fall from her eyes as I wait. I can tell she reads it more than once.
"Well?" I finally ask.
"She wants to meet me."
Her entire body shakes.
"She said that she's been thinking of me for my entire life and that she really wants to see me and explain everything. Fuck, Rhett." She leans into me and I catch her in my arms.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck." She sniffs and I hold her. "I feel like I've cried more in the past few months than I ever have in my entire life. I don't like it." I pat her back as she lets it out.
"Fuck," she says again, sitting up and wiping her eyes. "Should I do it?"
"That's not something I can answer for you. This is totally and completely up to you. But if you want to, I'll go with you, just to make sure you're safe." She kisses my shoulder.
"That would be good. I'd never go alone. I don't know what I'm going to tell Tobi and everyone." I wrap some of her hair around my fingers.