Page 32 of Phoenix Chosen 2

“But it’s not what’s bothering you right now,” he says.

Dammit, it’s not. We owe Jeff for saving our asses today and for risking his neck by putting us up at his place, but I can’t help the way I feel.

“Seeing Jeff brings up a lot of complicated emotions,” I say. “Irritation, mostly. I guess it’s not so complicated. It’s just that, after meeting you, I realized how much time and emotional energy I’d poured into a man who was never good for me. A good friend, but that’s where it should’ve ended. And I’m a little pissed that I was never able to see that.”

“Pissed at Jeff?” Kalistratos asks.

I rub my eyes with my palms. “I know. I only have myself to blame.”

“Blame the Gods if you must, but there are certain things that are out of our control. We can’t choose who we love.”

“I don’t know. I think we’re responsible for handling our emotions.”

“Did you choose to fall in love with me?”

“You’re different,” I say.

“How?”

“Fate and destiny and all of that.”

He laughs. “So you admit it. It’s out of your hands.”

“I guess so. But for Jeff…I was never really in love with him. I was in love with my idea of him, or with the idea of what our relationship could be. That wasn’t the work of a god. That was just me, lacking awareness. A god might create a spark, but we’re the ones who fan the flames. We always have a choice. I wish I’d been more aware of how my choices were hurting me.”

“Perhaps you’re right. Then can you be sure you’re not simply in love with your idea of me?”

I smile. “I have no preconceptions of what our love should look like. What I do know is that you’re here for me. I’ve seen it again and again. Even when you barely knew me, barely even liked me, you were there.”

He huffs. “I know. What was I thinking? I rescue you from capture and now I can’t get away from you.” Then he chuckles and kisses me.

Jeff returns with his computer and puts it on the coffee table. There’s a website open on the screen. “Alright, so I made posts across multiple subforums, including paranormal studies and lost civilizations,” he says. “All of them got zero hits. No replies. Except one.”

“Okay, which one?” I ask.

“Geoguessing,” he says with a satisfied smile.

I was expecting something much more exciting, like aliens or ghosts. “Geoguessing. Isn’t that the thing where people look for hidden treasure using GPS maps?”

“That’s geocaching,” says Jeff. “Geoguessing is where people look at a photo and figure out where it was taken based only on what they can see in the picture. Here’s the post.”

I scroll through it. The first few responses are just people making a bunch of dumb jokes, but then there’s a reply that catches my eye.

“It looks like this,” the comment says, and below it is an image of a much more polished version of my crude drawing, like a corporate graphic logo.

“Hm,” I say. “It does kind of look like it.” I turn the computer to show Kalistratos.

“What is this symbol?” he asks.

“There’s nothing else. They didn’t give any kind of information.” I look at Jeff. “I mean, it looks similar, but I have no idea what it means.”

“I thought the same, so I did a little digging myself. Did a reverse image search of that logo and,bam. Found this. An address.”

“Is this a company?” I ask. “What is it?”

“Ahh, I forgot to write that part down,” he says, turning the computer back. “Let me see, it won’t take me more than a few seconds to look it up again.”

“Maybe it’s just a coincidence?” I say, still skeptical. “I mean, what if Nelly was just a crazy guy who happened to see this logo, and?—”

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