A Case of Black and Blue

08 | Black V Blue

 It was finally Tuesday night, at precisely 6:34 p.m. Darcy was helping me curl my thick, wavy hair as I applied the last touches of my makeup.

"This is a mistake," I told her as I finished powdering my T-zone. Leo hadn't called or texted since we'd set up the date on Sunday. I hadn't texted back, thanks to my stubbornness, but now I wasn't so sure of myself. I went through the possibilities, that maybe I'd heard the wrong day, or wrong week. Or maybe this was how he wanted to mess with me, by setting up this date and then not showing up. But it was all speculation.

Which, knowing that, didn't make me feel any less silly for saying yes to this in the first place.

"Just text him," She told me, getting to the front pieces of my hair.

I sighed, grabbing my phone and pulling up his number that I was also too stubborn to save into my contacts. I pressed on the message icon and looked at the blank screen it pulled up. How many times did I pull up that very screen that day, wondering if I missed a text from him?

I was obsessing and hating myself for it.

Finally, my fingers danced along the keyboard, We still on for tonight? I wrote. "How's this?" I held the phone up to Darcy to read. It was an unspoken rule to never send anything, no matter how simple, without having your bestie approve.

"Add, 'are' in front of 'we'. Are we still on for tonight. A little less casual, but still totally casual." She advised and I nodded my head in agreement.

"Yeah, that's perfect." I erased the message and typed it up again. Before I could overthink it some more, I hastily pressed the send button and then immediately placed my phone face down on the bathroom vanity.

She finished with my hair and I stood up from the toilet, looking at my reflection. It was my usual done-up makeup and hair look, but I felt overdone. Like I had too much eyeshadow on and my hair was just too meticulously curled.

"You look hot," Darcy fixed the tag of the dress I was wearing and we both looked at me in the mirror's reflection.

"Isn't the dress too much?" I looked at the black, long-sleeved body-con dress I was wearing, which—although it showed no cleavage—hugged my body and came a bit too short than seemed appropriate for the middle of winter.

"No, it's great. Simple, but cute. Like perfectly casual, but done up enough if he decides to go to a five-star restaurant. And the material is stretchy, so if he challenges you to a game of pool, you can make me proud." She reassured me. "I'll go grab my long pea coat for you to use."

"Thanks," I called to her as she exited the bathroom. I reluctantly grabbed my phone from the counter, flipping it over and pressing the home button. The time read 6:55 p.m. and still no calls or texts.

I shoved my phone into my purse and went into the living room and plopped down onto the couch. Joey looked over at me from watching Law and Order on our TV. "You look nice," He commented.

"Thanks."

Joey eyed me for a second, while I watched Liv Benson interrogate some guy at the station. "What's wrong?" Joey tried.

"She's getting cold feet," Darcy came from her room, showing me the gray, floor length pea coat.

"It's not that, it's that he literally hasn't even told me he was on his way or anything." I grabbed the coat from her, slipping it on. It was a little tight, but I managed to make it work.

"He'll be here." Darcy sat on the couch as well, between her brother and I.

I fiddled with the buttons, securing all of them as if it wasn't warm in our house.