I plugged my phone into the speaker system of my van and played music as I began to drive away from Brandon's house. As I approached the first set of lights on my way home, the ringtone started emitting from every speaker in the car. I glanced at the phone and then stared: it was Steph, the girl whom I had run into at the bar after the lifeguards' staff party. I tapped the answer button and put her on speaker.
"Hey Steph, what's up?" I called, turning my eyes to the road again.
"Hey Akash, remember when we met at the bar?" her voice echoed from every speaker.
"Yup, to be honest I'm a little surprised you remember," I chuckled. "You were very drunk!"
She laughed. "I was drunk. But I remembered that I said we should catch up sometime. Wanna go for sushi in a few days?"
"Don't you have any family plans for Christmas?" I asked, confused.
"Yeah, they've been here since the start of the holidays," she replied. "But they leave the evening of Boxing Day to fly back to the States. Do you wanna catch up over dinner or something the day after that?"
"The 27th?" I wracked my brains to see if I had anything else going on that day, but nothing came to mind. "Sure, did you have any specific place in mind?"
"Do you like sushi?" she asked.
"Yup."
"So how about sushi, at 6:30 on the 27th?" she suggested.
"Should be fine, yeah, I'll see you then," I answered. We said goodbye and hung up the phone. A few minutes later, as I was turning into my driveway, my phone rang yet again, but this time it was Brandon.
"Wow, I'm unusually popular today!" I exclaimed to him as I answered the phone.
"Why? Because you got two calls from me?" he retorted with a chuckle.
"Your calls don't count!" I mock-scoffed before laughing myself.
"What happened?" he inquired. "How are you popular today?" I told him about lunch with my colleagues from Stomae today, and everything about Ally, before coming to my last call.
"... and she asked me to meet her for sushi on the 27th," I finished.
"Looks like you advanced my relationship today, and your own," he said; I could tell he was grinning.
I frowned. "I haven't done anything of the sort! She's just an old friend from elementary school-"
"Yeah, I know all about her."
I stopped, surprised. "How?"
"Jake told me all about her the day after you guys went to the bar. You know, after the staff party," he laughed. "He said she could barely keep her eyes off you, and that she begged you to take her number! That doesn't sound to me like someone who's only interested in renewing a friendship."
"Says the guy who wasn't able to see and act upon signs for three months from a girl who he liked, and who liked him," I replied sarcastically.
He said nothing for several seconds, but then conceded the point. "Fair enough," he said. "But what would be the harm in dating this girl for a while? Just have some fun with her?"
I said nothing, purely because I was trying to process the pure awfulness of that idea. I thought hard for a moment and then spoke. "Tell me something," I said finally. "After you were humiliated by a girl in eleventh grade at that park near your house, who have you dated between that time and now?"
