“Hi Claire, it’s me.”
I spun around the room excitedly, nearly tripping over my feet.
He did it! He called!
“Hi,” I timidly said after I decided that not moving was safer for me right now.
“Hi,” he repeated with amusement. “How are you?”
“Good.”
“Yeah?”
“Good, yeah. And you?”
“Good.”
“Good.”
He chuckled. “So we’re both very good, then.”
I chewed my lower lip. Now we are. “Yeah.”
“I’m sorry for calling so late –”
“That’s alright,” I interrupted. “I don’t go to bed until late.”
“Yes, well, I’ve just finished up some work and I’m finally free.”
Just finished up work? At midnight on a Wednesday?
“Is work what kept you away?” I found myself asking, feeling that excitement ebb away a little when I remembered why I’d been upset.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s been four days and no word from you.”
“Did you expect me to reach out sooner?”
I shrugged even though he couldn’t see it. “I would have thought, you know, that you’d strike while the wood is hot.”
“Iron.”
“What?”
He chuckled again. “Strike while the iron is hot, is the correct saying.”
“Right.” I smacked my forehead. Fucking idiot, Claire. “Well, you get what I mean.”
“Yes, I think I do.” He exhaled heavily. “I wanted to give you some space.”
“But giving me space for that long after what we did, you didn’t worry I’d lose interest?”
“Lose interest?” He paused. “Have you?”
“Well, no, but…”
“But what?”
I thought about it for a moment. Why was I pissed off again? Because he took four days to call me? Shit, that seemed bunny boiler kind of crazy, right? Oh, shit. Maybe I shouldn’t have acted like a drama queen and jumped to conclusions. He kept to his promise and contacted me, after all.
“So why have you called?” I asked, hoping he’d abandon the topic. I didn’t want to tell him I’d been going crazy, or debating whether to draw devil horns on his head just seconds before he called. That shit was padded-room type of psycho.
“I’ve been thinking about you,” he answered softly. “I want to see you again.”
I rubbed my chest, feeling that thread pull tight around my heart again. “I want to see you too.”
“How about dinner tomorrow? Unless you have plans or that’s too short notice.”
“No, I have no plans, Ben,” I told him honestly. I was not going to be playing hard to get to a man I wanted beyond words. “You were the first person outside of Emily that I spent time with for… many months.”
“Yeah? Well, you too, beauty. So forgive me if I fucked it up by not reaching out sooner. I’m not used to chasing a woman, and I’m a little rusty.”
I smiled and my heart swelled. “You don’t need to chase me. I’m not running.”
“Good,” he whispered. “That’s very good.”
“Tell me when you’d like to pick me up and I’ll be ready for you.”
“Six o’clock. I’ll have someone pick you up, and I’ll meet you in the city.”
Uh, what? He wasn’t going to pick me up himself? “Okay,” I said anyway.
“Alright. So how was your day?”
“Long. I was at Uni all day. Night class and all.”
“What time did you get home?”
“10:30.”
“Do you drive? I saw a car in the driveway when I was there, but you hadn’t driven it that night.”
“That’s my mother’s car.” Might end up being mine if she decided to live in Melbourne.
“So how do you get home?”
“I take the bus home.”
“Really, on your own?” His voice went hard, and I detected the concern in it.
“It’s not unsafe or anything.”
“But you’re beautiful, and you’re riding buses at ten at night, alone.”
“I’m not beautiful,” I retorted. Not anymore. “I don’t get hassled or anything. Believe me, it’s safe, and I only walk a block home when I get off.”
Please don’t be like those overprotective men! Please, please, please!
“Alright,” he eventually said, though he sounded entirely unconvinced. “As long as you’re careful, and you don’t talk to strangers.”
I let out a laugh. “That’s how I met you.”
“Yeah, but you kissed me. That makes me different.”
I blushed. “True.”
In a curious, hushed tone, he then asked, “Have you ever kissed someone in similar circumstances before?”
“No.”
“So why did you kiss me?”
“We had this talk before.”
“I’m not satisfied with the answer.”
I laughed. “I’m sorry, but that’s the only answer you’re going to get. Unless you find a way to convince me otherwise.”
He inhaled sharply. “Are you flirting with me?”
I twirled my hair around my finger, grinning so wide my cheeks ached. “Maybe.”
“Hmm.” I heard slight movement on his end before he said, “Have you thought about our time together?”
Um, every single second of every single day. “Yes.”
“Tell me exactly what you were thinking.”
Images of the way he took me whipped through my mind. I shut my eyes and my body shivered. “I was thinking that I’d like a repeat to refresh my memories.”
“It wasn’t memorable enough for you?”
I resisted laughing again. “Maybe it needs to happen frequently enough for me to remember it.”
“Is that right?”
“Yeah.”
“I think that can be arranged.”
I rested my back against the wall beside my doorway and struggled with everything inside of me not to jump up and down like a kid at an amusement park. The happiness was all consuming.