Page 8 of Bliss & Her Idols

Piper and I have pretty much adopted Lionzio into our pack. We tend to do that — save everyone around us.

Yet Cricket is my online best friend.

Sometimes, it feels like he’s much closer than that.

It’s funny how you can feel so close to a man who you’ve only talked to online.

Yet I’ve spoken to Cricket every night for a year now.

My heart beats faster. My stomach feels fluttery.

It’s deeper than looks with Cricket. I don’t need to have seen what he looks like to be connected to him.

Am I falling for him?

He has a strange ritual of only contacting me at midnight every night.

Why? What’s the mystery?

Is it a date?It feels like one.

If I don’t chat to Piper online at night because one of us is ill or I’ve been on a mission, I toss and turn in bed. My skin feels too tight. I’m too antsy to sleep.

The next day, I’m distracted and overwhelmed, until midnight.

I’m addicted to Cricket.

I need my nightly fix.

Yet I’m falling for who he is as a person.

You can be the most beautiful person in the world and be ugly inside. Getting to know someone online takes away the pressure of discovering if someone is a scent match or a soulmate.

I don’t even know if Cricket is an Alpha, Beta, or Omega.

All I know is his love for Jin’s music. How shy but also, smart he is. The love that he holds for nature.

That he’s an adorable geek.

And how difficult his home life is.

For the first time in my life, dynamics truly don’t matter.

It’s freeing.

“I trust Crick,” I reply, firmly.

Piper relaxes. “Anyone who makes you smile like that can’t be all bad.”

Am I smiling?

Embarrassed, I struggle to stop.

It’s easier than I think, however, when Piper moves back from me to hop onto the counter, then asks his next question.

“What I don’t understand is what your source could have shown you that has made your mission so urgent. What the hell’s his evidence?” Piper sprawls back on the counter. “You’ve been investigating the Idol pack and not getting anywhere for almost a year. What’s this new information?”

I glance around the coffee shop to make doubly certain that we’re alone, before I pull my phone out of my pocket. Then I switch it on and flip through my messages.

---