Attraction - 4. Chapter 4 – Non-calm before the storm

The city was enjoying sunny days and my disposition matched it. As temperature raised so did my anticipation of the upcoming date. Tuesday I think both Kent and I were trying to play it cool. We did not contact each other at all. I was too busy catching up with work to worry about it. One thing to note was that I had once again forgotten to look for ‘the’ guy in the morning.

Trevor had also stopped walking on eggshells around me and was back to his usual self. He said that Cara was happy that Kent was coming this weekend. She had also sent thanks for the lilies I had gotten delivered. I asked Trevor if he too had received my gift. When he frowned I clued him in on what I had gifted him. His blush told me all I needed to know. How lovely!

A few people commented on the spring in my steps and I did receive a couple of looks on the street. But my mind was blissfully empty. I worked till late and had a glass of wine before sleeping. All in all it was pretty much a Zen day.

Wednesday started with a message from Hot Shot.

‘Really excited about Saturday.’

That did me in. I responded immediately with a smiley and a ‘Me too’. For the rest of the day we exchanged texts constantly. He was apparently attending knowledge transfer sessions and in each break he’d tell me how the previous one went, joke about the business process he learnt and include various playful emoticons to convey his state of mind. For my part I stuck to reacting to his messages. He picked up on that and asked me what was on my mind. I said ‘nothing, just enjoying chatting with you    ’. He replied with a ‘  ’. And for no reason at all, that simple smiley gave me an incredibly heady rush. I just could not sit at one place anymore and started hopping about.

Generally such intense feelings were accompanied by dread and this time was no different. There was always a wind down from the peak which tended to throw me into either a phase of anxiety or depression. In this case I was afraid that the repercussions would send Kent scurrying off. Just one day of chatting had me hate the idea of ever losing him. Shit! This was bad. The wind down had begun.

I did not ignore Kent’s subsequent texts but my responses became slower. I was sending fewer smileys and perhaps the wit had dried up. He picked up on that too. When I was boarding the train back from work my phone rang. It was him. I answered the call but told him how noisy it was inside. He sounded tired but understood and asked me to call him back.

It is a twenty minute train ride plus ten minutes’ walk from my office to home. So by the time I called, I had worked myself into a right state. Fortunately he greeted me with a very warm ‘Hey!’ and that was enough to melt me.

‘Hey” I said.

“Made it back safe?”

“Yea” I paused for a bit, “did you?”

“I did, thanks for asking Jon. How was work today?”

“It was good. Nothing special.”

I bit my lip. My tone was too cold and sure enough Kent did not say anything after that. I guess he was waiting for me to pick up the conversation. Suddenly we both started at the same time.

"You go first" I said.

“Ok, I wanted to ask you something” he said.

“Go ahead”

“Did I? …. Did I say something?”

“What do you mean?”

“You seemed to lose interest all of a sudden, did I offended you in some way?”

“Not at all” I tried to reassure quickly.

“So all is fine? You’re still meeting me on Saturday?” he sounded so unsure. It was unfair. He had no need to be so. He should be confident and cocky and consider me a sure thing. That he was not was totally inappropriate in my mind. I decided to not piss on good fortune and tried to bring levity to the proceedings.

“If I said that my panties are all wet in anticipation of Saturday, will it cheer you up?”

I guess the dose of humor was too sudden because I received stunned silence from the other end. Then Kent laughed and God, was it music to my ears.

My ploy worked as we went on chatting through - dinner (we both ordered in from Dominos), TV (Sherlock Holmes episodes on Netflix), washing dishes, getting into bed. He told me a few things about himself. That he loved his parents but their family wasn’t too tight. Cara was apparently very protective of him despite being younger. He loved dogs and hadn’t had one since his lab died four years ago. He also mentioned loving the idea of raising kids. Okay, I said in my mind.

I guess he would have learnt how neurotic I was, but it did not seem to put him off. I told him about my happily divorced parents’ constant one-upmanship when it came to earning my affections. I narrated the incident from when I was in college and during my spring break both visited at the same time and stayed in the same hotel. They had made me run between rooms to ensure I spend equal time with each of them. He found it bizarre but pointed out that it meant they loved me a lot. It made me feel guilty about not visiting them in over a year.

As I got into bed, our conversation became a little awkward. I did not want to flirt given how comfortable our chat had been so far. Still, I wanted to get into frisky territory. Given how perceptive he had proven to be so far, it was no surprise that he smelt my horniness.

“Are you in bed?” he asked, his voice dropped octaves.

“Yes. You?”

“Yes.”

“Did you take off the wet panties?” he was sounding husky. I recalled my joke from earlier, but was he being kinky? I decided to play along.

“Yes, I took them off.” I whispered.

He raised his voice again.

“Disgusting, then you must be staining the bed sheets now.”

I did not find that funny. Apparently he did; as he could not stop laughing for about a minute. I guess he was picturing my reaction. After he had quieted down I said.

“That sounded like you peed your pants.”

“Baby, I’m not wearing any.” He retorted, once again resorting to the sexy James Bond voice.

It was too comical and I could not help my chuckle. We were behaving like we had known each other for years. Looking at the watch I realized it was past eleven thirty. How quickly time passes when it’s passing well!

“Don’t you think we should go to sleep now?” I asked.

“Nopes.”

“Come on! We’ve been talking for hours. I need my beauty sleep.”

“Okay fine, but give us a kiss first.”

“Don’t try the accent, it doesn’t work.” I commented at his bad take on Sean Connery.

“I’m serious. Give me a kiss.”

“What are we in high school now?”

“No. I still want one.” He sounded so cute that I actually considered it. Then suspicion arose.

“You jerk; you’re yanking my chain aren’t you?”

He started laughing.

“Come on! You know you want to. Alright, I’ll go first.” That was followed by a smacking noise.

“Eww, you gave me a wet kiss over the phone.”

“That’s what guys do after a date.”

“Was this a date?”

“Was it not?”

It dawned on me that he was right. If you ignored the fact that we were in different places, the evening had gone exactly like a date, and a good one at that. It was only natural then for us to seal it with a kiss. And we did; many times over.