Look at You

Chapter 19

19

Callie isn't in the office again on Tuesday. I texted her yesterday around 9:30, a very casual WHERE ARE YOU? Apparently, she was taking a sick day. I am ill, dear boy. Hold down the floor (& Cam?) without me!

WHERE ARE YOU? I text her again today. I add, no seriously. like where are you. need to talk to you more than a fish needs WATER.

She FaceTimes me instantly. I curse, mute the volume on Apple's "Opening," then sprint for the conference room.

"Tell me right now." I barely have time to shut the door before she's screaming.

"Oh my god, Callie." And I do. I describe Saturday's game, the Sunday after, yesterday's intimate dinner, the almost kiss outside of Weaver's, how terribly awkward the whole thing was the rest of the night.

Callie is speechless. She has had her hand to her mouth the whole time. The only thing I watch change are her eyes—which consistently get wider and wider as the story goes on.

"Simon... He loves you."

"He ran away from kissing me!"

"Oh my god, he did not run away."

"You weren't there. I nodded. NODDED, CALLIE."

She waves her hand at me. "Odds are he didn't even see it. Si, he's into you."

Didn't even see me two inches from his face. Yeah right.

"Yeah, maybe," I agree instead. "But what the fuck was that? He dropped me right off at home, too. No asking if he could come in or anything to try and fix it."

"Well boys are idiots."

"He is not a boy. He is almost 30."

"Men are stupid!" She corrects. "All I'm saying is—"

"Shit Cal! I forgot to tell you the weirdest part!"

"Spill, please, now!"

"At the end, yesterday, in the car," for some reason only now am I conscious of how loudly I'm talking. I bring my voice lower. "Right as I'm about to leave, he says, let me take you out to dinner on Friday. Like the whole thing hadn't been a natural disaster."

Her eyebrows raise. Her lipstick-less lips curl into a smirk. "He knows he fucked it up."

"You think so?"

"Yes, Si. He wants a do-over. He wants you. And preferably naked, I'd guess."

"Down girl." At this, she cackles. "Ok, well, fine. Say that's the truth. Say he was nervous or being stupid or something, and now he wants to try again."

"Go on..."

"How am I supposed to act? What am I supposed to do now?"

"Babe! You just be you. Let it roll off your back. You guys already have plans, so clearly everything is fine. It was weird, sure, but you move on. And then next time, you let him plant one on you."

"Callie. I don't think letting Cam kiss me is the issue we're facing."

She rolls her eyes. "You know what I mean. You put the charm on. Be your sexy self. He'll be drawn to you like a fly to honey."

"What a creepy expression," I mutter.

"I could have used like a pig to shit!"

I'm laughing too hard to respond to her. I have to wipe visible tears from my eyes before I focus back on the screen. For the first time during our ten-minute and fifty-second call, I see she's in a set of white flannel pajamas with tiny pink hearts everywhere. "Girl what are those jammies."