He said hello. I said hello. Again. This time, we actually talked.
from Chapter 20.
The second meeting did not announce itself either.
It arrived sideways—through other people, through the gentle insistence of friends who knew me well enough to notice when I was withdrawing too far.
I had been pulling back again. Not from Second Life exactly. I was still taking photographs, hosting, doing the things I enjoyed.
I was pulling back from people. Declining invitations. Spending more time alone.
Wain had other ideas.
He was a relatively new friend then, and his approach to sadness was fairly straightforward: get out of the house – or, in our case, the virtual equivalent of it.
Wain had recently convinced me to come back to Bloodlines, this time as Sophie. He wanted me to join the clan he belonged to, meet some people and have something else to do. Ken was one of the clan’s royal members.
Wain’s other strategy was simply showing up.
That was how Ken returned to my awareness—not as someone I was looking for, but as part of a group already in motion.
Sanctuary of Rock was familiar territory. I was working a hosting shift, welcoming people as they arrived, keeping an eye on local chat, talking with friends while the DJ did what DJs do.
Wain came by. Ken was with him.
I remembered Wain mentioning him wanting to meet me after joining the clan. We’d actually met once before, although I’d talked more to his girlfriend that night than I had to him.
He said hello. I said hello. Again.
This time, though, we actually talked.
Not alone. Not at first.
There were other people around us, conversations overlapping in local chat, jokes and comments about the music. Ken joined in.
He didn’t flirt with me. I don’t remember thinking he was interested in me. I certainly wasn’t looking at him that way.
I just liked talking to him.
At some point, the conversation moved into private messages. We talked about music. Work. Second Life. Nothing particularly important.
But the conversation was easy.
At some point, I asked about his girlfriend. How was she doing? Where was she?
They had broken up. I hadn’t known.
We kept talking.
I wasn’t trying to figure him out. I wasn’t wondering where the conversation was going. I wasn’t reading something into every sentence. I was having a conversation with a man I barely knew.
And enjoying it.
Time passed faster than I expected. Eventually, he said goodnight. Before he logged off, he sent me a friend request. He said it would make it easier to invite me along when the clan was going to parties or events.
I accepted.
Then he logged off.
I stayed a while longer before logging off myself.
I went to bed.
I didn’t lie awake wondering what any of it meant.
As far as I knew, I’d made a new friend.
