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Where things had stalled out

" ’Scusecould get out the vestibule’s door And then a ain as a man and a woman came in

She checked her watch And then her phone

"Okay, enough with this"

Although even with the resolution, she lingered a little longer, staring at the short-nap snowtracks left by that couple

It was a little after quarter of seven when she turned away and took the stairs back up to her place Letting herself in, she went over to the couch and sat down, putting her purse on the coffee table

She stared at the dark screen of her phone as the hu quietly So a curry down the hall Another person was cooking so scents made her think of the plans they’d had

So up a text screen, she took a couple of tries and settled on a quick Hope everything is okay--no worries about dinner I’m off to work to cover that extra shift Maybe we’ll catch up at the end of the night

And then she waited

When nothing caht fro to suggest he would blow her off--unless he was an Oscar-winning actor, and he certainly hadn’t see on?

She lit up the screen of her phone No notifications

Fiveinternally Nothing No h during the nanoseconds when she had been blinking

The longer she stared at that little screen, the more she realized…she really didn’t know a lot about Silas She had never been to his house She’d never ue idea of what he did And she had nohim other than his cell phone

When she ith hih she knew all she needed to But faced with this black hole? She began to wonder

And yet there was another side of her, a more rational one, which quite reasonably pointed out that it was a little bit preuy was an hour late and hadn’t checked in with her

Fine, soon to be two hours late But still

There was no doubt a reasonable explanation for this, and any o off, and she would hear his voice, and she would get the story of what had happened, and they would be back on track

"Okay Right Tih, she got to her feet, grabbed her purse, and headed for the door once again The good neith having to go into the clinic was that there was no way she could sit for hours staring at her phone while her e

Silas would be in touch There was no way he wouldn’t

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Nothing