Nick:Correcting all the errors on your last quiz takes a long time.
Ramona:I studied for that one!
Nick:Kidding. I haven’t gotten to yours yet.
What would you usually be doing on the weekend?
Ramona:nothing as scandalous as you’re probably thinking. I haven’t been on a date since before I retired.
what about you?
Something about her makes him want to be honest. Maybe it was the way they were at the mall and at the taco truck, but there’s a complete lack of judgment there. A confidence he thinks he has, most days, but he might be faking that too.
Nick:I tried a little, but I’m so out of practice. If you can believe it, the dating landscape has changed dramatically since I was in college.
Ramona:you started dating your ex in college??
Nick:Sophomore year.
Ramona:ah. wow. so it really has been a while.
you could practice on me. give me a compliment
He rolls his eyes. Takes another sip of whisky, the amber liquid stinging as it hits his throat. On the record player, Lou Reed sings “Sweet Jane.”
Nick:It’s not going to feel genuine if you’re the one soliciting it.
Ramona:I don’t mind
you don’t find me attractive?
That sounds like a trap.
Nick:Weren’t you one of People’s most beautiful women of 2024 or something?
Ramona:2023, but I wasn’t asking about people magazine. I’m asking about you.
are *you* attracted to me, professor?
Yep, it’s definitely a trap. He waits for a long while, knowing full well that he shouldn’t engage. He even leaps up from the chair too quickly, strains a back muscle, and hobbles into a stretch, because thirty-six hits him hard some days. Speaking of attractive…
He’s been trying to deny these feelings because it’s not unique, being attracted to Ramona. Of course she’s gorgeous, but she’s also brash and slyly funny in a way that makes him hyper-alert. Like he never knows what she’s going to say or do next. Then there are those freckles on her shoulder he’s been trying very hard not to think about.
Admitting he has a crush feels beneath him, somehow. The professor and the pop star. Ramona Wilder, slumming it with a mere mortal. He almost snorts at the absurdity of it, because whatever this is he feels, there’s no universe in which it’s mutual.
That and the Macallan must be why he decides, fuck it. They’re not living in the real world right now anyway. For all he knows, she’s sitting there drinking too.
Nick:Yes.
Very.
He isn’t sure why he adds theveryin a second message, and already regrets it, as though he’s given up something she can use as ammunition. When he goes to delete it, he realizes she’s already seen it. Well. Changing his name and fleeing the country is always an option.
Ramona:so tell me. what would you do if you had an attractive girl there with you right now?
Nick:Depends on whether she’s attracted to me, too.
Ramona:let’s say she is.
