Page 34 of Love Unexpected
It was a relevant question. I leaned back in my chair and shrugged. “I guess I just want to know what she looks like.”
Jade pursed her lips. “You couldn’t just ask her to send you a picture?”
I could. But there was something about not having our pictures involved in getting to know each other. We’d talked about how old we were, and she’d given me a vague description of herself, but I hadn’t really felt the need to make it an issue.
“I feel like it’ll ruin things.”
“But seeing the photo she sent mewon’truin things?”
“I don’t mean seeing her picture will ruin things. I meanaskingfor it might. I get the sense that she appreciates that I haven’t asked for one. That it isn’t important to me.”
Jade rolled her eyes. “Easy forherto feel that way. Your face is all over the internet. You have the right to ask her to send a picture, Isaac. It’s only fair.” She stood up and pushed her hands into her back pockets. “Honestly, I’m surprised you haven’t taken the plunge before now. You can’t have a relationship with a faceless person forever.”
“No, you’re right.” I shook my head. “Forget it. It doesn’t actually matter. I’m going to meet her regardless of what she looks like. Going in blind will probably make things better anyway.”
“Isaac,” Jade said, her tone serious. “What are you planning?”
I grinned and headed toward my office door. “I need to go buy a car.”
“Isaac,” Jade called after me as I headed across the warehouse.
“Tomorrow,” I said, turning and taking a few backward steps. Jade stood in my office doorway, her arms folded across her chest. “I’ll explain everything tomorrow.”
“I’m calling Alex,” she said, loud enough for the entire warehouse to hear, but I didn’t care. Alex was the one who had given me the idea in the first place.
In the elevator, I pulled out my phone and messaged Ana.
@RandomIOfficial: So...I’m going to be in Kansas next week. Can we meet?
Chapter Thirteen
Rosie
I set my phone down on the bathroom counter and sighed. I’d gotten Isaac’s last message the afternoon before and I still couldn’t figure out how to respond. I’d thought about calling Marley but had decided that was the last thing I wanted to do. She’d tell me in no uncertain terms that I had to tell Isaac the truth. But how?
It wasn’t that I hadn’t known this moment was coming. But the moment had become more than just me finally admitting to Isaac who I was. It was also me admitting to Isaac why I’d been lying to him for over a month. Well, almost lying. I’d been very careful to choose my words wisely and avoid telling outright lies, but that didn’t mean Isaac hadn’t made some erroneous assumptions. It wasn’t so much that I was scared Isaac would be mad that I hadn’t been forthright about my identity. He wouldn’t be. He’d proven himself over and over again to be the kind of man who simply rolled with things. He was, in every sense, unfailingly optimistic.
But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be disappointed when he learned that Ana was actually Rosie the web designer. Disappointed that I wasn’t leggier or blonder or whatever. There was nothing mysterious about Rosie the web designer. I was just me. Andmewas rather ordinary.
There was also the issue of what I actuallywantedin a relationship. I’d been thinking a lot about the public nature of Isaac’s life. Navigating the whole situation with him sharing my stuff on the show, cleaning up my social media profiles, worrying about strangers finding out who I was...it had given me a lot to think about.
Maybe it wasn’tjusta matter of what Isaac would want once he knew the truth.
It was also a matter of what I wanted.
No matter what, the truth would force our relationship to change. We lived in the same city. Worked in the same building. There was no way things could stay the same. The thought of things changing, of possibly losing the friendship that we’d built, left me feeling untethered in a way I didn’t like.
If things didn’t work out, would I leave Charleston? Tuck tail and move home to Kansas?
Pay cut aside, I really liked my new job. Greta and Vincent, Jade and Diedre, they’d all become really good friends. And even if the city was getting hotter by the minute as summer approached, I was in love with having the ocean so close. I didn’t reallywantto leave.
Still, I couldn’t stay silent. Otherwise, Isaac would show up in Kansas expecting to meet a woman that didn’t actually exist.
Reggie rubbed against my leg, his meow insistent enough that I knew his food bowl had to be empty. Tugging my towel closer around me, I followed Reggie to the kitchen, jumping back when I came face to face with my landlord, Joe, the door to the cabinet below the sink in his hands.
My half-gasp, half-scream must have startled him because the cabinet door nearly slipped out of his hands; he struggled to catch it before it dropped onto the floor, or worse, onto his toes. When the door was safely in his hands once more, he lowered it onto the floor and leaned it against the wall. “Sorry, Rosie. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
I tucked my towel a little closer around me. To Joe’s credit, he kept his eyes trained directly on my face. “What are you doing here?”
