Chapter 45: Chapter. 45

Beep.

Diana pounced on the cell to see his reply.

*Thank you for the company. It’s been a long time since I’ve been with anyone who I found so interesting. And beautiful. These are for you.*

A cartoon deer trotted across the screen and lowered its head to place a red rose on the ground, before trotting off. The rose then leapt up from the floor, grew to cover the whole screen and shimmered at her.

It was corny and she knew it was corny, but after everything Diana had been though, corny and normal was really nice. She sighed and grimaced at the fact she really wanted to give in to temptation. “Lord I want to flirt back with this guy. I wish I could.” She whined and couldn’t decide how to reply. Diana chewed her lips and thought over saying thank you. But then that would be encouraging of her, surely? Diana gruelled over how to politely reply without egging him on. She was grateful for his assistance after all. Just as she prepared herself to just find the closest thing to a plain smiley face as a reply, he sent another text.

*I’m coming on to strong aren’t I?* Understatement of the year. *Alright I’ll dial it down. Like I said earlier I’m really good and figuring out what people want. I’m also really good at knowing and going after what I want too. But we’ve just met so I can be patient. Enjoy the rest of your day Diana.*

She smiled and if anything, wated to give in to him even more after his very understanding intuitive reply. Damn it he just made it even harder to say no to him. Diana went with her plan to not type a reply but send an emoji. She looked through the many plant based options and picked one of many smiling and waving sunflowers. She wondered why there were so many that all looked the same? They had a number icon 1-5 to distinguish them apart, but all appeared identical otherwise. She shrugged and decided to go for waving sunflower number 3. And send.

To her horror the gif didn’t play out completely in the preview she saw when she selected it. Once it was sent, the sunflower smiled, waved, and then blew a kiss… “No no no no crap noooo.” She groaned and banged her head on the desk.

Beep.

She resisted looking. She really did. For all of 3 seconds she remained strong and told herself that his reply was just a thumbs up or something none committal. Maybe a lol?

No such luck.

*Such a tease Diana? Alright. I accept your challenge. See you tomorrow morning.* He sent the cutest picture of one cacti with cartoon eyes reaching out to hug another one. “Ah nuts. Okay, tomorrow’s problem.” Diana sighed and shoved the cell into her handbag. She placed the borrowed credit card and receipts into the middle of the kitchen table and decided to go up to her room to make use of the internet on her cell. She didn’t dare go into her mother’s study without backup, but the internet had to be a safe bet, right?

She laid on her side on her bed and surfed online for any mention of any creature that her monster could be. Diana was overwhelmed with all the hits she got. Monsters made of shadows. With horns. Red eyes. Sharp teeth. If anything there was too many results to sift through. None of the creatures she found as she made her way through the search list matched her monster completely. Not tall enough. Not sentient enough. It only had one or two of the features of her creature rather than the whole eerie package.

Man this is going to take forever. None of these creatures astrally project out of their body. She sighed and moved onto what had to be the 20th cryptozoology website. I haven't seen his body in my flash backs yet so I can't even be sure if i'm on the right tracks or not. Diana yawned and found herself very comfortable on her nice warm bed.

So comfortable that she shut her eyes...for just a second…