AVA'S POV
I stared at my phone for a few more seconds after sending my last message.
Goodnight... stranger.
A smile crept onto my face before I could stop it.
It was involuntary, a reflex I didn't recognize anymore.
I shook my head, the movement sharp in the quiet room.
"What are you doing, Ava?" I muttered to the empty air.
It was absurd.
I'd just spent the last hour talking to a man whose face I didn't know, whose name I didn't know... a complete ghost in the digital ether.
And yet, somehow, he'd managed to leave me feeling lighter than I had in days.
The weight that usually sat on my chest, the one I'd learned to carry like a second spine, was gone.
Just for a moment.
Ridiculous.
Absolutely ridiculous.
I placed my phone on the coffee table as if it might burn me and leane
