Hot Line | ✓

call #27

"hey."

"how was the rest of your date?" she asks, not bothering with a greeting.

"it was good. fun." he pauses. "how are you?"

"i'm all right."

"do you want to tell me why you were acting so weird the other day?"

"i was not acting weird." she laughs. "texts can be misconceived pretty easily."

"i don't know. you seemed upset."

"i'm fine, evan. so..." she says, looking for a way to change the subject. "is there going to be a date number two?"

he stays silent for a while before letting out a sigh. "yeah, next friday. she's cooking me dinner."

"dinner? fancy. i assume she's the dessert afterwards."

he laughs. "something like that. it's sort of weird sleeping with someone else. i'd only ever been with sarah."

"is sarah your ex?"

"yeah. you know what rhymes with sarah?"

"what?"

"bitch."

she laughs. "that doesn't rhyme at all."

"what about cheating bitch? is that better?"

"slightly."

"i'm a poet and i didn't even know it."

"you're getting ahead of yourself."

he laughs before letting out a content sigh. "we should meet one day."

she freezes, taken off guard by his forward statement. "what?"

"you and me. we should meet in person one day."

"you don't even know where i live," she says quietly.

"well our phones have the same area code. i assume you're also in the seattle region?"

"yeah..." she trails off.

"i'm in capitol hill. where are you?"

she pauses. "west seattle."

"see! not far at all. it'd be easy to meet."

"why do you want to meet me?" she asks in disbelief.

he laughs. "why wouldn't i want to meet you?"

"i don't know. it just seems weird is all."

"i think that talking on the phone multiple times a week with someone you've never met is a little bit weirder. especially when we live in the same city."

"i guess." she gulps nervously, her palms growing sweaty at the thought of meeting him face to face.

"what are you so afraid of?"

"maybe i'm not that great in person."

he laughs. "i doubt that. look, i'm not going to make you do anything you don't want to do. just think about it."

"okay. i'll think about it."