Page 1 of Eddie
Chapter 1
Shelby
“Dear Fairy Godstalker.”
No.
“Dear Fairy Godhacker?”
Was that any better?
Were they supposed to be two words or one?
“Okay, there has to be a cute way to address this letter.” I’d started out with Sir and had deleted that so fast my Word doc had glitched. “One that doesn’t make him sound fictional or like I’m using some kind of derogatory slang.”
I was pretty sure my hacker-stalker/behind-the-scenes friend was male and gay but that was mostly instinct and good gaydar.
My ability to detect deadbeat assholes was horrendous, but my gaydar was on point and could pick out a closeted guy a mile away. Unfortunately, the combination had led me into a variety of terrible dates and incredibly unhealthy relationships until I’d just given up trying to meet anyone.
Which was probably why every ad I’d gotten for the last month was for a dating app or matchmaking service. It was clearly an order to get out more but I just couldn’t, and it felt liketime to explain that before he did something drastic like trying to sign me up for one of them.
It would end up being like that box meal service disaster all over again…but only with people I didn’t want to actually date.
Having instructions didn’t make me a chef and going out to dinner with someone didn’t make us compatible.
“Okay, I can do this.” Eventually. For the moment, I simply pushed away from my desk and started wandering around my apartment.
It was too small to really work off any frustration but it felt like I was doing something productive. “You’ve got this. It’s just Henry the Hacker. He’s nice. He’s helpful. He got your revenge porn pictures off the internet really fast. He’s not going to think you’re weird for wanting a Dom.”
Maybe?
Hopefully?
Ugh.
“Aside from all those articles about making good decisions in dating popping up, he never said I was at fault and didn’t seem to think it was weird.” That asshole’s ability to tie me up and make me look pretty had been the only good thing about that relationship.
I just shouldn’t have let an asshole tie me up.
It sounds obvious but it wasn’t back then.
“But Henry the Hacker fixed that and has been helpful ever since.” He liked being helpful and was kind of pushy, so I figured he had latent Dom instincts at the very least. “So he’ll understand even if he doesn’t realize why.”
It felt like a lot of people I’d met online started out as giving off Dom or sub vibes before they realized what they were, but since I hadn’t actually met my hacker friend in person, it was just my best guess.
“He’s helpful at the very least.” He really liked making things easier for me…even if I didn’t want the help. “You just need to figure out how to ask for what you want.”
Henry was really good at reading my mind…and possibly my search history and the books on my e-reader and the dirty book I’d tried to write that was still saved on my computer.
But he was helpful?
Maybe.
Pushy was a variety of helpful at the very least.
“It’d be different if I was upset about how helpful he got.” Then it would’ve been something negative like stalking. That wasn’t what our situation was, though. “I like helpful people.”
One of them, at least.
