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It didn’t help that the picture of Mac and me was opened in another window on my computer, and I kept clicking over to it. I found myself looking at his expression and the half smile on his face as he looked over at me. I would take in how his eyes were bright with something I couldn’t place, and how our hands were out towards each other and they were almost touching.
I don’t remember putting my hands out like that, as if almost subconsciously I was moving towards him. In the picture, my body was angled towards him too and I had a smile on my face that could almost be seen as seductive, something I never would have used to describe myself.
The advice from Faith kept running through my head and I almost called our other sister, Grace, to see what she thought. I could already hear her telling me to go for it, to have some fun and live a little. She would tell me how hot Mac was and that I should definitely take any and every opportunity to be with him if I could.
All things that were completely and totally true, but I didn’t know if I actually could. Could I call Mac up and tell him I thought we should start dating for real? Or pretend to date and make everyone think that we were in the hopes that something might come of it?
I still had a hard time believing he would date me, much less want to spend any time with me. All I had to do was look at the picture and I would start to imagine and think what it would be like if we actually did.
When my phone rang late in the afternoon, I welcomed the distraction. I pushed myself away from my desk from the screen, hoping for any distraction from looking at Mac and me. I didn’t recognize the number, but I was willing to deal with a telemarketer if it gave me a moment of distraction.
“Hello,” I said.
“Hope?”
“Speaking,” I answered.
I didn’t hear the sound of a bunch of other people or phones in the background which made me think it wasn’t a telemarketer.
“Hey. I, uh, wasn’t expecting to get you. It’s MacKinlay Bennett.”
“Hello, MacKinlay Bennett,” I replied.
I couldn’t help but smile at him being so formal with me, and I thought for sure I could hear a hint of nervousness.
“Excuse the formality. I wasn’t sure how many other Macs you might know, and I didn’t want to be confused for any other Macs,” he said.
“How many other Macs do you think are in New York?”
“Quite a few I would imagine. Do you not know any other Macs?”
“I might have had a fellow student in my grad program named MacKenna but that was it. You just have to accept that you’re a unique individual.”
“Thank you. I will take that as a compliment.”
“You would,” I said.
“Was I not supposed to?” he asked with a laugh.
“No, that’s exactly what it was. I just didn’t expect you to be so obvious about it.”
“I’ll try to remember to be more subtle about things next time.”
“Please, don’t be anything other than yourself when you’re around me. The world is full of enough people playing a part or trying to convince people they’re something they aren’t. No matter what, promise me you will always be honest and forthcoming with me about everything,” I said.
Mac didn’t answer me for a moment, and I was trying to figure out what I could have said to offend him or why he would hesitate when he said softly, “Absolutely.”
“Good. I’ll do the same. I’m glad you called me. I was actually going to call you.”
“What were you going to call me?”
“Ha-ha, very funny. I wanted to talk to you.”
“About?”
“The picture of us that ended up on social media and a few gossip columns today.”
“Which picture was that? I hadn’t seen anything. I’m kidding. I saw it. You looked incredible.”
