Page 3 of Love Around the Corner

Still grinning, he typed back:You got time to chat?

“So youdoactually smile then?” Dee’s amused voice cut across Bing’s crooning and Leo’s sappy thoughts. “I was beginning to think ‘moody’ was the only setting on your dial.”

Leo rolled his eyes. He hadn’t made many friends in New Milton since he moved here. Okay, scratch that: he hadn’t madeanyfriends, but Dee tried her best. She ran New Milton’s only coffee shop and was a mainstay of the town with her spikey burgundy hair, pink framed glasses, and nose for gossip. He liked her, despite himself.

“I was just texting my boyfriend,” he said primly, setting his phone on the counter.

“Uh-huh.” Dee looked at him over the frames of her glasses. “This would be your online ‘boyfriend’.”

The quotation marks were so heavy they practically hit the floor. It was an old argument. “You know, he is an actual human being. We communicate online, but he doesn’t live ‘online’. He’s a man, just like me.”

“So he says.” Dee snapped the lid onto Leo’s reusable coffee cup. “You ever heard of catfishing?”

“Oh please!” His phone buzzed, and he snatched it up before Dee could see the message, ignoring her pointed look.

Camaro89: Taking a break. What you up to?

He smiled.Wishing it was 7pm already

Camaro89: Counting down the hours

The message came complete with a smiley face and a pink heart.

In his chest, Leo’s actual heart performed a somersault worthy of a cheerleader at the Super Bowl. Such a dork, but for once he didn’t care. He was in love—he was allowed to be a dork. Turning back to Dee, he said, “You think I don’t know him after twelve months of intimate conversation? I know him better than I’ve ever known anyone.” He put a hand to his chest, pressed it over his heart. “I know his soul.”

Dee leaned on the counter, skeptical eyebrows raised. “But you don’t know his name,” she said. “Or what he looks like, or what he does for a living.” Leo shifted, made an attempt to reach for his cup, but Dee held it back. “That doesn’t strike you as strange?”

It really didn’t. They’d talked about exchanging photos and personal information early on in their friendship, but both had enjoyed the freedom of anonymity—their relationship was a pure meeting of minds, of ideas, and conversation. Unlike Leo’s most recent relationship disaster, born of his bad habit of falling for beautiful awful guys, his relationship with Camaro89 felt fresh. Pure, even. It wasn’t about any of the exterior stuff, it was only about them—two men who’d fallen in love over literature.

It was the most romantic thing that had ever happened to him. And they were about to take it to a new level. Feeling a twitchy smile on his lips, he said, “If it makes you any happier, I’m going to meet him soon. Tonight, actually.”

“Tonight?” From the narrowing of Dee’s eyes, he suspected thatdidn’tmake her feel any happier. “I hope you’re meeting somewhere public.”

“Why? In case he’s an axe murderer?”

“You shouldn’t joke about that stuff, Leo. Are you? Meeting somewhere public?”

He took his coffee from her resistant hands. “Top of the Empire State building. At midnight. I’ll have a red carnation between my teeth.”

“You’re a funny guy,” Dee said. “They’ll put it on your gravestone when this guy turns out to be some kind of—”

“We’re meeting at the Whiskey Jack.” He wrapped his hands around his cup, relishing its warmth. “It’s a pub in Manhattan. We’re going to have a drink there and walk the High Line afterward. Maybe get dinner if it goes well.” His stomach clenched at the thought, bringing a nervy laugh to his lips. “I’m sure it will.”

Dee’s expression relaxed. “Hmm.”

“He’s… We’re good friends, Dee. I feel like it’s…” Well, he wasn’t going to say ‘destiny’ out loud, but he couldn’t help feeling some cosmic force had brought them together in cyberspace, and now they were going to make that connection out in the real world. “I feel like it’s meant to be.”

“I can see it means a lot to you,” Dee said cautiously. “I hope you’re not disappointed.”

Leo gave a nervy laugh. “I hopehe’snot disappointed.”

“No danger of that. You’re cute as a button and—” A pause. “And if he’s got any sense, he’ll see beneath that prickly shell of yours.”

She wasn’t wrong. Leocouldbe prickly. But when you grew up too smart, too sensitive, and too gay for the tastes of most people, you learned to defend yourself. “Is it wrong,” he said, lowering his voice for the confession, “that I hope he’s hot?” He grimaced at his own hypocrisy. “I mean, obviously this is about a meeting of minds, but...”

“But you’d like it to be about a meeting of other things too?”

Flushing, he took a sip of his coffee. “Yeah.”

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