Besides, I told him that I was going to see Anne today, and that was exactly what I had intended to do.
I pulled out my phone and texted Anne.
Hey, was hoping we could hang out today since I'm in town. Are you working today?
A text came back almost immediately.
No! Come on over! I'm walking distance from James' place, here's the address.
Just three blocks away. I was feeling a ton better, no longer thinking I was going to throw up. I felt downright chipper by now. My breath was fresh, and I was newly invigorated by what I knew I would now refer to as “The Ghostly Second Line”. I texted back.
Great, see you soon!
***
The address led to the tiniest little yellow house I had ever seen. It was adorable and exactly what I expected from someone like Anne. I could see plants hanging in the windows and the exterior was beautiful.
I knocked on the door but she was already waiting. “Come in! I'm so glad you came by. I didn't have anything planned but playing my guitar today, so this is a nice surprise.”
I stepped into the warm house and loved it immediately. Pieces of art hung from every wall in the tiny living room. A staircase led upstairs to where I assumed the bedroom was, and a kitchen was at the far end of the house. It was incredibly compact, but everything was there.
Anne looked perfectly comfortable, wearing a pair of pajama pants and a t-shirt. “I already have some hot water on the stove, would you like some tea?” she asked, being the perfect host.
“I would love some,” I answered. She smiled and turned on a heel, going into the kitchen and getting out another mug. I kept looking around, admiring all the knick knacks. Anne looked young, certainly older than me at 18 years old, but I figured no older than twenty-two or twenty-three. Yet it looked like years of traveling had taken her to every corner of the globe. Maybe she just acquired these pieces off eBay or something. I had the feeling that wasn't the case, though.
I stood admiring one piece for a minute when she came up behind me with a mug. I smiled and took it from her. “You like this one?” she asked. I nodded. “I got it when I was in Haiti a couple years ago doing disaster relief.”
I was impressed. I took a sip of tea. It was unlike anything I had ever tasted before. It was sweet, but with a hint of something I couldn't put my finger on. “What's in this?” I asked.
She looked concerned. “You don't like it?”
“I didn't say that, it's just different is all.”
She smiled. “I'm afraid I developed a taste for it when I went to Amsterdam. I used to spend like half my paycheck importing it in before I toned down my habit.”
I hadn't realized it was so expensive. “Oh, I didn't mean-”
“Oh don't say that I shouldn't have. Your brother bought me this box of tea anyway.”
I laughed. “He does seem to try to keep you employees happy. So why don't you like him?”
She laughed back at me. “Are you kidding me? He's a riot. He's one of the only people I know who doesn't tiptoe around my sexuality. Even bigots feel the need to disguise their true feelings around me, but not James.”
I took another sip. “And what are James' true feelings about your sexuality?”
Anne shrugged. “They don't seem to matter to him at all. I hear he's very LGBT friendly. At least one of his lead programmers is a gay guy, and it doesn't bother James at all. Also,” she said with a conspiratorial nudge. “I've seen him out on a date with a couple of bisexual girls on more than one occasion.”
My stomach dropped a little without even thinking. A threesome was one of the things that he had mentioned in the shower with me. It had been said as if it was a joke, but then again, Nicole had been calling him Daddy over the Internet. Maybe he really did reveal all his fantasies to me.
“Gross,” I said without thinking. Anne gave me a weird look, as if I had just said something bigoted myself. “Oh, nothing against those bisexual girls, but that's my brother you're talking about.”
Anne looked relieved. “I swear you have a little Bi-rannosaurus just waiting to come out.”
I shrugged. The conversation didn't make me uncomfortable at all, even though I knew Anne had a thing for me. “I'd love to have a threesome someday, but I'd like to be in a committed relationship first. Then it's just a matter of finding the right girl.”
Anne lifted her mug in the air. “I'll cheers to that,” she said, sounding a little sad.
I turned and gave her a little bit of a wry smile. “Hey, how are you single, by the way? A girl as cool and as well-traveled as you should have girls lined up to hang out with you?”