"Are you still mad?" Ben asks that night at my apartment.
He came over after work, just like we talked about this morning with more amazing takeout from another Chinese restaurant I didn't know existed in my neighborhood. I buzzed him up wondering how I was going to handle the whole I still don't have my boyfriend's number thing. I mean, assuming he is my boyfriend, which is not that clear to me at this point.
Anyway, the answer is, not that well. It burst out of me as he walked through the door, all attempts at coolness about not having his number evaporating like the water on the sidewalk after a hot rain.
We talked it out, ate our dinner, and are now ensconced on the couch, our legs tangled together, but with our backs on different ends. Normally, I would be content with this. Ben, here, in my apartment! A great dinner in my belly and the potential for great sex hanging in the air.
But right now, it feels like I have butterflies in my stomach and I'm not sure what to do about it.
"I'm trying to get over it," I say.
"It was an honest mistake."
"I know."
He pulls my legs into his lap and starts to rub my feet. If he's trying to distract me, he's doing a good job. "It could be super romantic."
"How?"
"It's only one digit, right?" He'd said that when I showed him the number earlier, that it was one digit off. Not which digit, mind. "So, that's totally findable. You could work it out and have my number in no time."
"Um, no." I take out my phone and Google it. "There are ten billion possible combinations for a 10-digit phone number."
"Wow, that's a lot." He thinks about it for a second. "But if you already have 9 digits, it must be less."
"Maybe only a million combinations now? But I don't even know which digit is wrong."
Ben's fingers focus on a tender spot on my foot. It makes it hard to concentrate.
"It's not the area code."
"So that's brought it down to seven."
"Easy, then."
I cock my head to the side and pull my foot away. I need all my faculties for this conversation. "Why are we talking about this? Are you not going to give me the correct number?"
He smiles seductively. "It could be fun. Like a quest, or that movie, Serendipity."
"The one where John Cusack has to find a book and the phone number's inside?"
"Yeah."
"But it's the right phone number."
Plus, I hate that movie. I mean, I don't. If it was on right now, I'd get sucked in just like I do every time. But I'd be mad at myself afterward. Because we did they put up such obstacles to being together? If you want to be with something, just be with them already. Which I know is totally not the point of these kinds of movies. The couple can't get together until the end or otherwise it would be boring. But here, in the real world, that's what I want.
A boring, nice relationship without any twists in it.
Not anymore, I mean. Obviously.
"Where's your sense of adventure?" Ben asks.
"All taped out at the moment."
He reaches for my foot again and I give in. It feels too good to resist.
YOU ARE READING
CHLOE BAKER'S LOST DATE
ChickLit[COMPLETE] When Chloe Baker agrees to go on a blind date with her best friend's co-worker, she's only doing it to appease Kit. But then she and Jack hit it off and spend a magical day together. That is until he's suddenly unfindable after the date's...
