Page 25 of The Pieces We've Lost

“I was going to wait so I could decide if it would be worth it,” I explained.

“Yeah, right. That’s just Ellison code for ‘I’m never going to text this poor guy,’ and now he’s going to forever wonder what could have been,” she scoffed.

“Remind me again why I let you come over?” I rolled my eyes.

“Because, deep down, you know the right decision is to text him too, Ells.”

Was it the right decision, though?I didn’t see the point in starting a relationship, friendship, whatever this was between me and Colter, when he was just going to leave. Not only did texting him break the main rule I had set for myself, it also ran the risk of me being dragged back into the world I had so desperately wanted to leave.

“Hypothetically, if texting him was the right thing to do, what’s the point? He’s not from here, Isa. After this week is over, he’ll leave. He’ll eventually go back to Montana and forget all about me anyway. What if he’s just playing the nice guy card to have a chance? It won’t end well.” I didn’t actually think Colter was faking being niceto have a leg up. I was picking at straws, trying to justify why I didn’t want to text him, when the real reason was simply that I was afraid.

“You’ll never know unless you try.” She handed me the phone, putting the power back into my hands.

Isa was letting me make the decision, but, just like my mother had taught me, I knew I would have to live with whatever I chose to do. Take a risk and potentially have my heart broken, or spend forever wondering.

“Fine, I’ll do it. But if this blows up in my face, I’m blaming you.” I copied his number from my notes and opened up a text message.

Hi it’s Ellison.

“See? That wasn’t so hard. You act like I’m trying to pull all of your teeth out.” She gave me an encouraging smile.

I added his name to my contacts as “Ace in the Hole.” It was enough of an identifier for me, but no one else would have known who it was if they happened to glance at my phone. It might have drawn questions, but I would deal with that when the time came.

Ace

Hey! That was fast. I guess you decided texting me was worth your time after all?

Don’t get your hopes up too much. I’m giving it a test run

Ace

Well, I hope I exceed your expectations and you don’t decide that you made a huge mistake.

We’ll see

“What is he saying?” Isa poked her head over my shoulder to look at the texts we had exchanged. “Why are you being so…”

“Honest?”

“I was going to say cynical but sure, honest works too.” She pursed her lips, deep in thought. “Let me have that.” She grabbed my phone again without warning, this time not giving me the opportunity to try to take it back. “Ace in the Hole? Never mind, I’ll address that later.” She started typing a few things. “There.”

I meant that I really enjoyed talking to you earlier. and I was wondering if you wanted to get together again sometime soon

Ace

…

“He’s typing. Thank me later. But you’re welcome by the way.” She grinned.

I groaned internally. That was literally not how I sounded. I had never texted someone anything remotely like the message she sent Colter, who was still essentially a stranger.

Ace

Did an alien take over your body?

I mean I’m not turning down your offer, I just…

That didn’t really seem like somethingyou’d say is all.

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