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He had said 6:00 and it was 6:07 Sevenin terht now each second felt like torture and 420 tortures were adding up to one big ball of fear And it all rested right in her gut where desire should be right nohere happiness should be right nohere joy and, well – not quite love, but at least lust should be residing
Not this pit of despair
It’s only seven minutes Laura, it’s only seven minutes Laura, she said to herself The seconds ticked on until her sht ht ht minutes A thin bead of sweat burst under her lip, and on her cheeks, and in that valley between her breasts in a way that only the cold irrational anxiety of dating could bring out in her
Oh, fuck this, she said to herself I don’t think I can do this anyhter isn’t worth this I’o home and have a date with Ben and Jerry – that’s ht there baby Maybe the most dependable men on Earth because this, this is bullsh –
Zzzz, the phone buzzed suddenly She had it on vibrate and she startled and it fell out of her hands, clattering to the ground
"Shit," she shouted, reaching down, scra that the screen hadn’t broken Luckily, she had a protective case on it, and grabbed it and slid her finger across the screen to answer the call
"Hello? Hello?" she said, trying desperately to keep her eagerness out of her voice
"Hello," a deep reeted her, with a friendliness that he had no right to offer her right now – yet she was so glad he did "Uh," he hesitated, "is this Laura?"
"Yeah Yeah, it is," she answered brightly, her voice a little too high-pitched, her anxiety a little too intense right now, but she trudged on
"Oh, yeah, really?" The voice stammered "Yeah, this is Dylan I am so sorry," he said, and she hoped that the sincerity was true Hoped it was true, needed it to be true with a part of her that knew…that knew that there was no way of knowing
"I’ doelfth Avenue right now, and, in fact, I can see the entrance to the restaurant and, wait a minute, ooh, I don’t know" A lohistle "I don’t know if I’ to be able to make it"
"What? What? What did you say?"
"Yeah, there is this gorgeous wo out there and, and I don’t know, Ia fuzzy sweater and a dao on forever And, I don’t know, you know, Laura – I ht instead of you"
She nearly dropped her phone again Oh,like a rat stuck in a cage with Napal down instantly Oh, oh, he was couy?
Now she could see hi around Being playful Nottoward her with a swagger, with a confidence she didn’t see indown the street like he had all the ti her up She could feel it from a block and a half, now a block and a quarter away
She was giving it right back
Her heart was beating a million times a minute from the fear about his joke, and the anxiety that the joke had triggered But now – but noas like the electrons were playing between the millions and millions of miles a second between the two of the to do when they actually stood two feet froht there, right then on the street, public indecency be damned
Pretty soon, just seconds later, he was down to a block, half a block, and he took his hand out of his pocket, giving her a wave And she realized that he had been talking to her the entire ti
"Laura? Laura? Hello, hello – are you there? I can see you and you’re just standing there I aht now… Laura, have Ior are you a really hot store , Dylan told himself Recover from the terrible joke
"Or part of souys like e? Or is this some sort of flash mob set-up and nineteen naked members of the Pirate Party are about to appear and don Mickey Mouse eopolitical protest?" She suddenly folded and bent over laughing He breathed a sigh of relief Sweet!
That was it – she was forcing hi brain cell in his body to process basic bodily functions as every red blood cell rushed to his groin He couldn’t stop raking her body with his eyes He couldn’t stop eating her with his retinas She was sonet Her entire appearance was luscious and her eyes – as he got closer he saw the kindness, the sweetness in theeousness about her that made him hard instantly