Meeting Miss Mystic Read Online Free PDF Page B

teachers was summer camp, but that wouldn’t be an indoor job.
    The only thing that bothered Paul about the e-mail was her use of the term “pen pal.” He sat down at the foot of his bed, clasping the warm phone between his hands as if it were an actual link to Holly.
    Pen pals.
    Ugh. It had to be the internet-dating equivalent of saying “Let’s just be friends,” and maybe it didn’t make any sense at all, but Paul didn’t want to be “just friends” with Holly. Looking at her picture made his blood heat up, made him feel longing, hope, excitement. He’d only known she existed for a handful of hours, but he didn’t think of her as his “buddy,” and that’s not the road he wanted to walk down with her. He wanted to leave the door open to a good deal more than that. It was absurd and defied explanation, but he just had a feeling about her that he couldn’t shake. Being pen pals didn’t figure into it.
    He plugged his phone back in and finished shaving his face, nicking himself twice in the process. His instinct was to write back something along the lines of “I’m not looking for a pen pal,” but he cringed at how bald and pushy that sounded. He didn’t want to push her away. He wanted to get to know her.
    And then it occurred to him: maybe saying she wanted to be pen pals was just her way of saying she wanted to get to know him too. Maggie had found Holly on a dating website, right? Called “Meet the One,” for heaven’s sake. So certainly she wasn’t just interested in making a faraway friend. If that were the case, she would have had an account on “Meet A Pen Pal.” He decided to turn up the heat a little in his next message and see what happened. He’d try to make it clear that he was looking for a little more than friendship at this point in his life.
    He pulled on a pair of jeans and a clean white t-shirt. His days of jeans and t-shirts were dwindling now, he thought. In a few weeks, he’d be back in suits and dress shirts with a different tie every day. He had amassed quite a necktie collection over the years as principal of Gardiner High & Middle School; it had become the go-to gift from most of the kids and he tried to wear all of the ties at least once a year.
    Checking his phone, he realized he had just enough time to write one more message to Holly before Lars picked him up. He poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down at his kitchen table.
     
    Dear Holly,
    What an awesome surprise to get your message. I was just about to head out when my phone pinged to let me know you’d written. I think that’s about to become one of my favorite sounds.
    I know Rhode Island well. I went to Brown and spent many sunny afternoons in Newport sailing with friends and carousing there on summer nights. It’s always been one of my favorite places in the world and I still try to get there every summer. I wonder if I ever bumped into you. Nah, couldn’t be. I’d have remembered a girl as pretty as you and definitely would have tried to get your number.
    My favorite line from TPB is “Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it a while.” I know it’s ridiculous in theory, but I love the intention of the words—the hope, the absoluteness. (Now I’m getting poetic on you! Watch out!)
    My favorite scene is—brace yourself since my brothers informed me a million times with their fists that boys weren’t supposed to like the kissing scenes! —in the very beginning when Westley pulls down the jug for her, and he stares into her eyes, and they realize they’re in love and kiss on that hill while the sun sets. I guess that means I’m a romantic.
    Probably showing my cards a little too much here, but why not? Wouldn’t it be amazing to start a relationship with someone based on truth? Based on how you really thought and really felt and not have to backtrack later? This is who I am, for better or worse.
    I hope I hear from you again.
    —Terrible at Poker, aka Paul
    ***
    Zoë was just