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That was probably fine for our first contact.
Doing anything fun tonight? she sent.
Oh. I guess she wasn’t done with me.
Now I had to decide if I was going to tell the truth, or if I was going to try and impress her. Lying would be better, but might come back to bite me in the ass later.
Just making dinner and working.
I stared at the message and then deleted it.
Trying to decide whether I should have soup, salad, or both for dinner. Opinions?
That wasn’t much more exciting, but at least it was the truth. I had a bunch of shit laid out on my counter and was desperately hoping it would make itself into something resembling food by magic instead of me having to do anything.
Both. The answer is always both.
I liked that.
Both it is.
I kept one eye on the phone and one on my fingers so I didn’t chop them off as I fixed a salad of lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, and radishes to go with some leftover turkey and rice soup I’d pulled from the freezer.
She didn’t say anything while I was making the salad, which was nice because then there wasn’t a ton of pressure to respond.
I washed my hands and put the soup in a pot before filling Potato’s bowl.
Is work busy? I asked.
I was guessing the phone policy at the bar was pretty lax. Plus, having their bartenders post on social was a good free marketing strategy.
Always. I’m up to my eyeballs in old guys who think they have a chance. If I was from the south I’d say “bless their hearts” but I’m not, so they can just pay their tabs and leave and if they have a problem with that, they can take it up with Batman.
In addition to being a bartender, Batman also served as a bouncer when needed. The mystery of his origins and real name served to terrify even the most confident person who thought they could get away with shit because they were on vacation. Sometimes he even brought in the huge dog, and that scared people too. Interesting fellow, that Batman.
I wanted to ask her if Wyatt was there, but I didn’t want to make her feel like a spy. I mean, if I really wanted to know where he was, I could check his social. I still hadn’t blocked or unfollowed him anywhere for some reason.
He was probably sucking Gretchen’s face off right now. Imagining it made me want to hurl.
You must get people hitting on you all the timeI sent, and then wished that I hadn’t. I was giving away my whole plan!
You have no idea
Fuck. I stared at my phone and then dropped it on the counter because the soup was boiling over.
Once I had dealt with that, I didn’t know what else to say to her. My oh-so-brilliant line about the cereal didn’t seem so brilliant anymore.
I didn’t want to bug her, so I didn’t say anything else while I had dinner and watched an episode of my favorite show. Potato situated himself in my lap and fell asleep.
I’d probably done enough tonight. Established the first contact and opened the line of communication. Not bad for a few text messages. I also had to leave her wanting more, and not make myself look too eager. Leave a little mystery.
* * *
I waselbow deep in a tub of mint chip ice cream when my phone buzzed a few hours later.
You awake?
It was nearly midnight. I kept telling myself that I was staying up because there was too much to watch, but really, I’d been waiting for another text from Esme.
