Page 17 of Texting My Valentine

Valentine Stranger:I can’t afford to live in the moment. I’ve got a career that demands a lot of my time. I’ve got family responsibilities. It’s not just myself I have to worry about.

I want to ask more about him, but I’m getting too invested. It’s like he’s trying to force me to take an interest. And I am, which is bad. I’m not going to fall head over heels over the freaking phone.

“He’s mentioned his personal life,” I murmur.

“Ask him about it,” Lily counsels.

“Tell him to put a sock in it and hurry up with the dick pic.”

“Cleo!” Lily says, but she’s laughing.

“That’s less ‘casual’ and more ‘end up on a list,’ Cleo,” I say.

My phone vibrates again.

“Silver fox update,” Cleo says. “He just typed loads then put his phone down… right when your phone screen lit up.”

Butterflies swirl in my belly as I pick up my cell to read his next text. What if it ishim? I almost don’t want it to be. If it’s somebody else, I might have more chance of keeping things casual.

When he looked at me, I don’t know, I felt like… Ah, there it is—that nasty, defeatist, not-very-Cupid-like thought. I feel like Mom: a sucker waiting to be taken advantage of.

CHAPTER 6

ALEX

“Why are you being so grumpy?” Julian asks in an exasperated tone. “How many times have you told me you want to find love? That’s why you didn’t want anything to happen with those chicks, right? Because you think it’d be cheap. Well, if you don’t try, you’ll never find the real deal.”

“You’re drunk,” I mutter, looking down at my phone.

My last text reads.

Alex:So there you have it. I can’t be casual. I can’t be fun. It’s the wrong holiday for it, so you can call me Scrooge.

“I know that look on your face. You should go and talk to her.”

“Who?”

Julian rolls his eyes. “What’d you mean,who? The woman you saved, the one you keep looking over at every couple of seconds.”

He’s right. I can’t help it. Sitting at the table with her friends, Tori is fascinating.

She makes me ache just by looking at her, imagining tearing her sparkly top away, revealing her tender mounds, her eager nipples, her eyes growing wide, but not with fear this time—with the same hunger burning in me and making my pole stiff.

“I’m busy trying to make my secret Valentine texter understand I’m not who they want.”

Julian points his finger at me. From how it wobbles, he won’t win the ‘I’m not drunk’ argument anytime soon. “Listen, I can go along with it most of the time.”

“With what?”

He grinds his teeth. “With your you-don’t-give-a-damn act. But there have been many, many times, Alex. Maybe you were overworked, a little tipsy, or sleep-deprived when you made these admissions…”

“You’ve already forgotten what you were going to say,” I mumble.

He covers his mouth to hide a burp. “I haven’t.” He snaps his fingers. “You’ve told me many times you want something real. Well, this is your chance.”

“You’re being overdramatic.”

“You’re trying to hide how you really feel,” he snaps back.

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