Page 47 of A Very Snowed In New Year
“Did you meet someone in New York?” Tracy asks, and it’s weird that it didn’t even occur to me that I could have met someone over the holidays this year.
“No. Well. Sort of. I was in New York when we first started emailing. And so was he. And emailing counts as meeting online, so yes. I met someone in New York. Three years ago.”
“Wait. You’ve had an online boyfriend for three years, and I don’t know this?” Lainey seems offended. “I don’t understand anything anymore. Explain.”
“Well…I don’t know who he is exactly and we had no contact at all for almost three whole years, but it’s a really cute story because his little sister is a fan of my writing.”
Lainey instantly appears relieved to understand the world again. She and Tracy get comfortable on either side of me with their own glasses of wine and listen to the story of how I lost myExtra Super Secret Diary when I bolted out of a cab to try to get a glimpse of Holden Archer and Journal Guy found it.
They were quietly supportive and enraptured, even, all the way up until I told them he just messaged me to say that we should meet.
“You told him you want to meet him, right?” Lainey asks, squeezing my arm so hard it actually hurts.
“Ow. Not yet. Wait. Did I? Where’s my phone?”
“You two thousand percent have to meet him, Piper,” Tracy says, jumping up off the couch. “Tomorrow. Even if he isn’t The One, he’s A One.”
“Yeah,” says Lainey. “A bird in hand is worth way more than a movie star in my sister’s bush.”
I scrunch up my face and shudder at that image.
“Sorry. What I mean is—any guy would be lucky to be in your beautiful hand. You just have to give someone a chance. And it sounds like Journal Guy deserves one.”
I guffaw at that. Actually guffaw. I know fifteen different synonyms forlaugh, and what I’m doing right now is guffawing. “Literally every guy I’ve ever met has had a chance with me.”
She shakes her head and chortles. Or maybe she’s chuckling. “You really have no idea, do you?”
“About what?”
“Oh, my dear, sweet Poops. So astute when it comes to other people. So blind when it comes to your gorgeous self.” She leans in, her face inches from mine, and says, “Guys have been tripping over themselves trying to get to you for years.”
Tracy giggles. “So busy checking out guys’ butts, you don’t even realize they’re ogling yours.”
“Exactly,” Lainey says. “You’re a smoke show, babe. When you finally realize it, the entire male population is going to be in so much trouble.” She sits back and pats my knee. “But first, you need to get into some trouble with Journal Guy.”
She takes the empty glass from my hand, pulls me up off the sofa, and points me in the direction of my bedroom, where my phone is.
This is it. I take in a deep, shaky breath. This is another character-defining moment in the story arc of my life.
I sit at the edge of my bed, pick up my phone, and open up the Google Chat app.
ME:Hi. Yes. I would like to meet you in person. Bit i don’t even know one if your named. E. Is that even teh fist initiative of one id your name? Or sid you accidently hit the e key once?
ME:Yikes. Typos. Sorry.
ME:Just a little bit tipsy. You are in my contacts as Journal Guy.
JOURNAL GUY:“No specifics, remember?” —quoted from One of Your Favorite Movies That’s Not a Documentary.
JOURNAL GUY:Also, please refer to: “Well, it isn’t as romantic if there’s no surprise.” —quoted from a message you wrote to me on Christmas.
ME:
JOURNAL GUY:Are you free tomorrow?
ME:I have to do something for work in the morning. And I’m supposed to go to some parties with my roommates tomorrow night. I’m in LA, by the way. How will this even work? Aren’t you in New York?
JOURNAL GUY:Thanks to an amazing new invention called the airplane, I will be in the Los Angeles area. I was planning on staying at my uncle’s cabin in Big Bear Lake for a few days, actually. Is that far from where you are?
