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Sarah just laughed. “In all seriousness, do you have feelings for Mason?”

I closed my eyes again and sighed. “I don’t know. The whole thing is so confusing.”

I opened my eyes to see Sarah staring at me with a huge grin on her face. “Well, either he’s the best in the world at sending sexy messages, or you do feel something for him.”

“I really enjoy talking to him and I get excited when I get a new message. However, chances of anything happening beyond exchanging messages is slim to none.”

Sarah scrunched her face up. “Why?”

What did she mean “why”? It was obvious. “We don’t live in the same place.” Sarah looked at me like she expected something more. “He has his life there, I have mine here.”

That answer earned me an eye roll from Sarah. “Ever hear of moving? It’s this thing people do when they want to change the location of their life to somewhere else. I know it sounds crazy, but people do it all the time.”

“Ha ha ha,” I retorted back. I’d spent my whole life moving with Bev, so I was very familiar with the concept and how much I didn’t like it. I could tell by Sarah’s raised eyebrows that my tone was harsher than I intended. I took a deep breath. “It’s just…well, being with Mason would require a whole lot of changes. Making a bunch of changes for a relationship didn’t work out so well before.”

Sarah quickly shook her head. “Not the same thing. We’re talking about totally different types of changes. For Mason, it would be changing your location. For Oliver it was…well, it was changing who you were.” A look of disgust flitted across Sarah’s face as she said Oliver’s name.

“Yeah, maybe,” I responded vaguely. Bottom line was it would require change and I wasn’t sure I was ready to make a bunch of changes for a relationship, no matter what kind they were.

“Have you guys exchanged pictures yet?” Sarah asked as she took a sip of her coffee.

“Nope.”

“Gosh. A guy who gets you this hot and bothered when you have no idea what he even looks like? Yeah, your life is really awful.” Sarah snorted as she rolled her eyes again.

“You know what? It doesn’t even matter at this point what he looks like,” I said as I noticed the classroom starting to fill up. I reached down into my bag and grabbed my materials for class.

“You say that, but do you really mean it?” Sarah raised her eyebrow. I pondered Sarah’s question for a moment. Did it really matter?

I thought about what Mason had said earlier about me and all the things he thought made me attractive to him. None of them had to do with looks. I felt the same about him. I liked his quick wit, his supportiveness and interest in my photography, his sense of humor and the fact that he seemed to really care…and those were just some of the qualities I found attractive in him. I turned to face Sarah. “I really mean it,” I said with complete conviction.

“What about Liam?” she asked.

Luckily, at that very moment the professor walked into the classroom and started the lecture. I was relieved I didn’t have to answer Sarah’s question because, right then, it was one I didn’t have an answer for.

Chapter 9

What a Night

THE FOLLOWING FRIDAY NIGHT I was in my room getting ready for my date with Liam. I ran the flat iron through my hair and stared at myself in the mirror. I let out a deep sigh at the face I saw staring back at me.

I had to admit, there was something that drew me to Mason. We connected on some level unlike anything I’d ever experienced with anyone else. The problem was, there were no signs it was ever going to be anything more than what it had been—flirty and fun over text. Text messages…that was all. It was a friendship. Nothing more. Given our circumstances, it couldn’t be anything more. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I realized neither one of us had ever given any real indications we wanted our relationship to be anything other than friendship.

I’d decided I needed to put more of an effort into seeing where things went with Liam. He’d laid out his feelings quite clearly, and I’d committed to giving whatever may happen between us a chance. I enjoyed spending time with him, and needed to give our friendship an opportunity to turn into something more. There was a level of comfort, security, and familiarity with Liam I really liked. In fact, if I were to list all the things I liked about Liam, it would be a long list. I just hadn’t found any of the spark I was looking for. Yet.

I added another coat of mascara to my lashes before putting my sleek black top and dark wash jeans on. I zipped up my black boots and added a flashy pair of large gold earrings. I was giving myself one last look over in the mirror when my phone chimed. I grabbed it off the top of my dresser and swiped open the message from Mason. “Hey! What are you doing tonight?”

“Going out to dinner. What are you doing?” I felt weird making my answer purposely vague.

“I still have a couple of hours left in my workday and then I’m going to see a local band with a buddy of mine.”

I put on some lip gloss before I responded. “Sounds like fun! Be safe tonight. Text me tomorrow? With the time difference, I’m sure I’ll be in bed long before you’re home, party animal.” That was one of the millions of things that sucked about our situation. There was a three-hour time difference between us, so by the time he was rolling home, likely after midnight, it would be after three o’clock in the morning for me.

I sighed at my phone as I read the next message from Mason. “Who are you going to dinner with tonight? Girls’ night?”

“Not exactly.”

“Are you going on a date?” His response came through so fast I knew he’d typed it out before I even responded to his last message. I felt a familiar knot in my stomach every time the subject came up. Which, in my opinion, was far too often. We needed to be realistic and keep that friend-zone boundary.

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