Virtual Crush
Be careful, you might get what you want, and you will wish you never met me.
They had never had a conversation in person. From the time Mason swiped right, everything with Riley had been his virtual obsession. She was mysterious and sexy, and he could never quite keep up with her. It took him days for her to show a picture of herself to him.
Even more to see her face to face virtually.
He was nervous–he had never been so nervous about a woman. But wasn’t it his style to obsess over a woman who had limited availability to him?
Why do you keep everything such a secret? He texted her while he was at work because he could stop not thinking about her. There was not much else he could do so he might as well text her.
He had a full range of availability to her online — all her social media platforms, her phone number, and he face-timed her.
But she felt so distant.
Be careful, you might get what you want, and you will wish you never met me. What if I just showed up somewhere, and you were not expecting me? she teased him with her text.
Idle threats Riley, you would never show up. Or you would have by now.
I never make idle threats Mason.
He put his phone down and bit his lip–he could only wish.
So in a stalker kind of way–just a little bit–he went to one of the coffee shops she frequented. Mason knew the interior because she took a lot of pics of teas that she had had there.
Her signature order was an earl gray tea and mushroom coffee latte with oat milk. It was not something he would have ordered but he wanted to know why she liked it so much. He sat here and sipped it. It was doable. Fingering his phone he could not help but text her. At first he was going to text her after he left. Instead, he texted her, his fingers moving across the screen like a Ouija board:
I came to your favorite spot hoping to see you and am drinking your special latte–not bad! But you’re not here so I am just gonna go.
The bubbles on his screen let him know that she was texting him back.
And then they stopped with no message.
He got up and it was right then that Riley walked out from behind the door several feet from the counter.
Mason’s jaw dropped when he saw her. She was much taller than he expected even though she had told him her measurements. She was wearing a black sweater and short skirt with legs that went on for days.
“Mason?” Her dark eyes and red lips were captivating. He followed her when she gestured for him to follow her to the office. The office was so tiny, Mason was not sure how to control himself. He wanted her but he had just met her in person and did not want to scare her.
“Cat got your tongue Mase?” She asked, walking over to him and pulling her sweater over her head.
“You’re so beautiful…” he said, without thinking.
“You think so?” Riley questioned.
“I do,” he said, putting his hands on her bare shoulders.
“You want me?”
“I do.”
Riley laughed and turned around. He was confused as he watched her retreat. The intricate lattice of her bra caught his eye.
“Funny,” she said, turning around and looking at him.
“What?” he said, moving toward her but she moved away from him. “Riley?”
“Do you know my last name?”
Mason stared at her as if looking at her would let him know what her last name was.
“You never told me…”
“Turner,” she said as her eyes widened and darkened.
“I went to school with a girl named Riley Turner but she looked nothing like you.”
“No?” she said and stood before him. “I went to school with a Mason Stewart–he looked just like you.”
Mason was confused, because he did not think it was a coincidence.
“You do not look anything like Riley, and I knew what she looked like because I had such a crush on her.”
“What?”
Mason looked at her looking for any signs of the Riley that he had had a crush on. There was nothing about her that looked like his former classmate. Riley wore glasses, had braces and was a complete nerd.
“Riley was such a nerd, but I loved it. I had such a crush on her but I never told her or anybody. Once we were all playing Spin the Bottle, the bottle landed on Riley but the girl next to her insisted the bottle landed on her. That girl–I do not remember her name–”
“Audrey?”
“Riley?”
“You took Audrey Martin into the closet and I sat there thinking how you picked her over me by a fraction of an inch.”
“Riley, I wanted you…”
Riley put her sweater back on. Mason still could not see where she was the Riley he had a crush on in school even as he stared harder at her.
“I saw you online. I only chose you because I wanted you to want me like you had not wanted me during that Spin the Bottle game. I picked you because I wanted to make you want me and drop you. Ghost you.”
“And now?”
“I am ghosting you right before your eyes.”
“But Riley–”
She walked around him and before he even got a chance she walked back out into the cafe. He followed her —but she had disappeared.
Like a ghost.
Read Riley’s Story here:
This story was inspired by this Microcosm prompt:
You can read more of my stories here: