Virtually Yours: A Virtual Match Anthology

by Kait Nolan

  Delia was happy to hear the usual tenacity in Grandma Elle’s tone. Close as they were, these two women fought like the sunrise depended on it. In this case, maybe it was good for them, in a twisted, dysfunctional family sort of way.

  Not that her family was any more dysfunctional than most.

  “Well, I wasn’t leaving while you were still in those tests.” Mom shuddered. “I hate hospitals,” she whispered, more to herself than to them.

  “Good of Delia to come keep you company, but you didn’t need to come down here, sweetheart.” Grandma Elle patted Delia’s hand.

  “Sure I did,” Delia protested.

  “She wasn’t alone,” Mom said.

  Delia turned wide eyes on her. She was not going to tell—

  Out of the corner of her eye, Delia saw Cole lurking just outside the doorway.

  She blushed, and realized she was clutching Grandma Elle’s hand.

  “Speak of the devil,” Mother whispered.

  Delia rolled her eyes, and told her grandmother she’d be right back. She could hear Mother whispering to Grandma Elle as soon as her back was turned.

  “Sandwich for your mom,” Cole said, handing it over like it was a hot potato.

  “Thanks. I know she appreciates it,” Delia told him. Her mother would never say as much. She was not outwardly appreciative often. She tended to use that space to make new demands.

  “I’ll wait out here.” Cole retreated to the waiting room, with Delia watching his back, a little surprised he was staying and seemed to think nothing of it.

  She took the sandwich to her mother, and Grandma Elle burst out laughing, sounding nothing like an invalid who needed to stay in the hospital.

  “I swear you two are like middle-school girls sometimes,” Delia scolded. “Come on. He’s just visiting.”

  “...Your elderly grandmother, at the hospital?” Mother snickered. “He’s practically ready to propose marriage.”

  Blood rushed to Delia’s cheeks, and Mother saw instantly that she’d gone too far. Delia knew by the look in her eyes. But as usual, she didn’t retreat, she pressed on. “You do know how this will look, don’t you?”

  Grandma Elle burst in. “Come now, Patty. Leave the girl alone.”

  Mother laughed roughly. “She’s not a girl. She’s a grown woman who can’t seem to keep a man. Seriously—two divorces?”

  Grandma Elle looked shocked. “No, don’t say—”

  “It is okay! I am okay!” Delia burst out. Cole could probably hear her out in the hallway, which was mortifying, but she wasn’t going to let Grandma Elle worry about her, not while she was in this hospital bed. “I can take a little ribbing from my own mother. And yes, I know how it looks for Cole to be here at the moment. I don’t really care.”

  Mother drew a shocked breath. She hadn’t moved to open the sandwich Cole had brought for her. It rested in her lap.

  “Are you going to eat that?” Grandma Elle asked her, pointing to the sandwich, eyebrows raised.

  “Are you hungry, Grandma Elle?” Delia took her positive cue and called the nursing station, requesting a meal. “They’ll be here in fifteen minutes or so, with dietician-approved food.” Delia made a face, and Grandma Elle smiled.

  Grateful for the subject change, Delia stood around making small talk until the cart arrived with Grandma Elle’s food.

  “I’ll be back tomorrow, Grandma,” she told her. She barely spared a glance for her mother as she left. Inside she was simmering with anger. But who did she have to blame besides herself? As her mother had said, it was now two divorces. There might be good reason for one...but two divorces for someone so young had to say something about that person, didn’t it?

  She was still stewing when she came upon Cole in the waiting room, and had to stop and grin.

  He was snoring. Stretched out as much as he could in the tiny waiting room chairs, his chin on his chest and head bobbing with each breath.

  Delia looked at her watch. It was almost 10:30. And he’d probably been up early for work.

  She hated to wake him with how soundly he seemed to be sleeping, but the waiting room of Mercy General was no place for a nap.

  A nudge on his shoulder and he jolted awake, gray-blue eyes wide. “Jeez.” He ground his palms into his eyes, and rose from the chair, stretching. “Sorry. Guess I was out.”

  “Yeah. Maybe I need to drive.”

  “Nah. I got this.” He smiled at her as they walked toward the elevator. “Your grandma okay?”

  An alert on her phone made Delia stumble over her own feet. She pulled it out and stared at the screen.

  CRAIG: You’re out late. Want to get together?

  A chill made her hair stand up, her scalp prickling.

  Was she being watched?

  Chapter Five

  Delia turned around slowly, but she and Cole were the only ones in the hallway, besides an orderly wheeling a cart from a room far down the hall.

  Without a word, she turned the screen so Cole could see it. He stared hard at it, and then snatched it from her hand.

  He looked into the settings as she watched, clicking into privacy, then location services. When he clicked on something called ‘share my location,’ Delia’s breath hissed through her teeth.

  “He didn’t!”

  Two email addresses were listed there. Shaun’s gmail, and an address Delia didn’t recognize.

  “He wouldn’t have shared my location with this boyfriend service thing—he wouldn’t.” Delia blinked. Shaun might hate her after her decision to divorce him, but would he really go to these sorts of lengths that could make her actually unsafe? Was there a stranger out there able to view her current location? And if he was willing to do so, what sort of a creep was he?

  Cole wasn’t saying anything. His jaw was clenched, and he stared down at the phone like it was a mortal enemy.

  “You don’t want your phone sharing your location with anyone, correct?” he asked.

  “No! Please, get rid of it!” She flicked her hand at the phone, silently cursing herself for not being more in control of her own devices. She’d just never been great with the technology, and it was something new to learn all the time. She hadn’t realized Shaun could track her movements with her phone.

  Why was he doing that?

  Why did he share the information with a hired service?

  Delia’s hands clenched into fists, her nails biting into her skin. Shaun would not get away with this.

  It only took Cole a few clicks to remove the location sharing. Delia didn’t bother with a sigh of relief. Cole looked at her. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fucking pissed, Cole!” she growled.

  He smiled. The expression didn’t reach his eyes, which were cold, angry. “Good. Let’s get out of here. I hope the fucker is in the parking lot waiting.”

  Delia shivered. “I hope not.”

  No one was waiting in the parking lot of the hospital. This section of the facility was quiet, with visiting hours at an end. The emergency department was clear on the other side of the building.

  Delia felt like she was walking through a fog. What was she supposed to do?

  Cole drove her home, and as they approached, Delia found another reason to worry.

  A news van from a TV station was parked across the street from her building.

  She clapped her hand onto Cole’s arm. “Don’t park here. Oh, shit.” She hid her face in her hands.

  “Do you think he called them?” Cole asked.

  “Doesn’t really matter now, does it?” She watched out of the corner of her eye and saw the reporter on the sidewalk outside her building give the car a firm stare as they drove by. A photographer stood further back on the sidewalk, fiddling with his camera.

  Just one reporter. That was good.

  “Turn right here,” she told Cole.

  He turned at the next street.

  “Now go left at the next street and then park. There’s a side entrance.” Delia’s voice wavere
d, and she cringed inwardly.

  “We don’t even know they were there for you.”

  “I can hope they weren’t,” Delia agreed.

  He parked and killed the engine. Then he swiveled to face her, his expression serious. “Do you get harassed by the press often?”

  She shook her head. “I am the press, silly.” She laughed, but the sound rang hollowly in the car’s interior, small and frightened. “No. I don’t give them reason. Dad makes enough press without the rest of us landing in the papers.”

  “Crap,” Cole whispered. “I am so sorry. I shouldn’t have come tonight.”

  “If my ex-husband wasn’t such an asshole, it wouldn’t have mattered.” Delia shrugged. “Not your fault. I only went out to see my sick grandmother, and if that is worthy of news coverage, I’ll be damned.”

  Her phone chimed, inside her purse. She glanced at Cole, and reached for it.

  CRAIG: Are you playing hard to get now? I know where you live.

  “Ah!” Delia dropped the phone and it clanged against the gearshift as it fell.

  Cole reached for it and read the message.

  “Maybe we need to go to the police,” he said slowly. “What the hell is up with this guy?”

  “I don’t know! I haven’t even replied a single time.”

  “But he can see it when you read his messages. So he knows you’ve seen them. And he’s been able to see your location all day, but that just gives him a dot on a map, so the thing about knowing where you live might just be a guess. He might just have the block.”

  “Or Shaun could have given him my exact address, too. Why not if he was going to share my location digitally?”

  Cole clenched his jaw, his brow furrowed as he searched for a solution.

  Delia wrapped her hand around the pendant she wore, tugging lightly in frustration. It was as hot as if it had just been in an oven, and she dropped it, blowing on her fingers reactively. She touched the stone again, but it was cold—unalive. She looked down at it, but all she found was a pretty stone.

  Her imagination playing fun tricks was just the way to top this day off.

  “Let’s go inside. There was just the one reporter out front, so we should be able to get to my condo without having to deal with them.”

  Cole walked close to her as they crossed the street, like he was trying to shield her with his body.

  Delia wanted him close. Sure, his presence was causing a minor complication or two, but what would she do if he wasn’t here?

  Her key card opened the side door, and they slipped into a dim hallway. The stairs were right next to them, so up they went, undetected. Delia breathed a sigh of relief as soon as they reached the second floor landing, though she was regretting the stairs by the fifth floor.

  Inside her seventh floor condo, silence reigned.

  Shaun might be able to mess with her outside of this place, but this was her castle, and she’d be damned if she let him rule her thoughts here.

  Delia kicked off her shoes, and went to the stereo to turn on her favorite Pandora station.

  Cole was already back in the kitchen, and she heard the click as he turned the stove back on, and the refrigerator door opening. So apparently he planned to stay for a while.

  Should she call the police? That seemed like an extreme step for what was essentially a very creepy situation, but one that hadn’t been directly threatening so far.

  If she knew Shaun, he’d called the reporters as soon as she was away from the apartment. Let them know the mayor’s daughter had divorced him and that he suspected Delia was out with another man right now.

  And then he would just hope she’d crack under the pressure of scrutiny.

  What was Shaun getting out of this?

  He’d already taken a sizeable amount of alimony, based on her personal wealth, of course, not on her salary as a journalist. He wasn’t going to get anything else from her.

  Did he want to ruin her reputation? Did he just want to scare her?

  She hated to admit it, but if that was his goal, he was succeeding. The idea of some stranger out there, with her information and who knew where she lived was terrifying.

  “Delia?” Cole asked from the other room, shocking Delia out of her thoughts. “You want another glass of wine?”

  “Yes, please,” Delia answered. She rejoined him in the kitchen, and watched him move confidently about her space. He seemed to have found everything he needed. The vegetables were back on the stove, and a pot of water was about to boil.

  “Sit. Dinner in fifteen.” He nodded at one of the barstools next to the peninsula.

  Delia sat with a sigh. Her belly rumbled. How long had it been since she ate?

  Lunch. She’d eaten a salad for lunch after Shaun had left the restaurant. Many hours ago.

  No wonder she was feeling off.

  He handed her a fresh wine glass, and she saw the other two sparkling on a dishtowel beside the sink. Gosh, he was helpful.

  “So…” Cole turned to her after adding wine to his glass, too. “First things first...is your grandma okay? I have yet to get a straight answer.”

  “Honestly, I was super freaked when I heard the word stroke. But she seemed in good spirits. She hasn’t lost her speech or movement or anything. She seems like her normal self. Mom said they suspect it was a small stroke. They’re waiting for more test results.”

  “Well then...second things second, I’m staying here tonight, or we’re calling the police about your stalker situation.”

  “Whoa—you are overreacting.”

  “At least I’m reacting. You can’t let him treat you this way.”

  Delia shrugged, and started to laugh. But then she couldn’t stop. “Oh! Jeez...I think...I finally...get it,” she got out between laughs and gasping breaths. “He is actually trying to drive me crazy!”

  Cole rolled his eyes and took another swallow of his wine, as Delia lost her grip on the barstool, and slid from it, holding her belly.

  “Sorry,” she said, trying to get her breath and still giggling. “I don’t know what’s the matter with me.”

  “Better than crying, I guess,” he said with a saucy wink. He turned to stir the boiling pasta.

  Yeah. Laugh or cry. Two choices for a day like today.

  Delia suddenly felt very tired.

  The silence was only broken by Cole’s movements as he dished dinner onto plates. He set two places for them at the table.

  “Dinner, sweetheart.”

  It might have worked between them once, him calling her sweetheart. In a long-ago time and a place far away.

  Delia gulped back a sudden rush of emotion, and made her way to the place he’d set for her.

  She was just tired, and hungry. Her eyes feasted on the spread he’d prepared.

  “You’re handy,” she told him, attempting lightness.

  “Least I can do.” He stared at her for a second. “Hey...I’m sorry I didn’t call. Or show up. I’m sorry.”

  Delia swallowed, her throat tight. “I know. I think I get it.” She picked up her wine glass and gestured for a toast. “To a bright new future without my jerk ex.”

  Cole grinned. “To all that.”

  They clinked glasses, and each drank, watching the other.

  Cole was a good cook—the pasta was delicious, and Delia felt steadier after she ate.

  She finished her plate before Cole, and silently sipped her wine while he finished up. God, he still had the same mannerisms she’d found so endearing when they’d met in college. The quirky half-smile; the eyes that seemed to see inside her, not just her actions.

  “I missed you, you know.”

  He pushed back his plate and met her eyes, all serious. “Did you?”

  “Yeah. I did.” Delia broke eye contact and considered her nails instead. “I haven’t had a lot of friend time in recent years.”

  “Eh, happens to everyone. College is long gone. Can you believe how much time we used to waste?”

  “No,”
she said bluntly. “I have a lot of trouble wasting time anymore.”

  “Maybe you just need to get back in practice.”

  She shrugged. She didn’t really remember how to have fun. She’d been moving from work to stress at home for a year now. But it was a depressing thought and she didn’t want to share it right now.

  Cole cleared his throat. “I missed you, too, Delia.”

  She looked down, the silence drawing out between them. Things couldn’t get awkward, because she couldn’t take it tonight. He’d just come back—she didn’t want things to be awkward. But here it was, the tension of the unspoken between them, that always reared its head at the most inopportune moments.

  “Delia, I want you to know—”

  Her phone rang—the family tone—and two parts of Delia’s heart warred with each other. On the one hand she was relieved, because she wasn’t sure she could take whatever Cole wanted to say. On the other hand, the look of frustration and betrayal that flashed across his face made her hurt. Why did they always do this to each other?

  Chapter Six

  She shifted to grab her phone, avoiding his eyes after what she’d seen there.

  He took a drink of his wine and didn’t say another word. Maybe if she looked at him she’d find that he was avoiding her eyes, too.

  “Hi, Mom. Is Grandma okay?”

  “Yes. She’s sleeping, I believe. I wanted to let you know we’ve received a call from the TV news. About you know what.”

  “Yeah, I know what. There was a reporter waiting outside my building when we got back, too. Apparently someone filled them in on my personal drama.”

  “We?” Mother asked.

  Oh, why had she said that? She was too tired to be fending off so many complicated questions.

  “Cole is here. We just finished eating.”

  “And I assume he plans to leave shortly,” Mother said firmly.

  “Of course. He was very nice to stay and cook me dinner—and to drive me to the hospital earlier.”

  “Oh, do tell him I said thank you.”

  “I will, mother. I’ll be at the hospital tomorrow morning.”

  “I’ll probably already be there.”