Like You Read About (12 page)

He drifted
off to sleep, red hair and freckles and the smooth sounds of Berlin weaving in to his dreams.

While he was sleeping
, Cora was still on the phone with Kaelyn, who called her about two point seven seconds after she’d hit send on her text letting her know she was home and it went well.  She wanted every last detail. She contemplated subtext and reassured Cora repeatedly that he was obviously very much in to her, and no, his not trying to jump her at the lanes or in her apartment didn’t mean he didn’t want her.

Cora hung up, changed in to a flannel nightgown, because fuck
, it was cold. The snow had begun to fall again and if it kept up she’d be spending the weekend in her apartment under the covers with Gwennie watching movies.  The truffle bouquet caught her eye again from the table and she noticed a card attached.

She opened the envelope and pulled out the card and read the neat, small print
—Dan’s precise writing.

Cora,
flowers would just be put to shame by your beauty.  You are likely far sweeter than these but my sister said I couldn’t go wrong with chocolate.  ~Daniel

She stared at the card for a long time, a smile on her lips and clearly
dust in her eyes. But, she wasn’t tearing up because he’d basically called her beautiful, certainly not because he was the first man in more than a decade to do so and actually, probably mean it.

She flipped over the card and written in small print on the back 2 truffles
= 3 points.  Everyone at work had noticed her weight loss, some people made dramatic comments, some made rude comments and some said nothing.  Of course, he’d noticed and somehow he’d figured out how and wanted her to be able to enjoy them.  He was really too much. She took her dusty eyes, her cat and crawled under the covers and drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 17

Around
three a.m. he woke up, he was restless. He was aching and itching for her.  The house was cold so he threw on some boxers, a T-shirt, and his slippers and headed for his office and fired up his computer.  Something was stuck in his head and he needed an answer, it didn’t matter what the answer was, but he had to ask the question.

To:
[email protected]

From:
[email protected]

Date: January 26
, 2008 3:10 a.m.

Subject: Why me?

Cora,

You don’t need to answer this, but did you respond because of the ad, or because you knew it was me?  There is no wrong answer, no right answer, and even no answer is ok
ay, but it’s been on my mind, and although curiosity may have killed the cat, I’m eighty-seven point three percent sure I’m not feline.

I hope
you’re sleeping right now. Thank you for a truly wonderful evening. Believe me when I say walking away from your door was not an easy thing to do, but I meant what I said, and I said what I meant, and now that I sound like Dr. Seuss. I’m going back to bed.

Dan

Okay, it’s out there and with that, he crawled into bed and slept until ten the next morning, which for him was late, even on the weekends he never made it much past eight.  He plodded down to kitchen to grab a cup of coffee, whoever invented the automatic coffee pot should earn the Presidential Medal of Freedom—seriously. He climbed back up to his office to surf the web and play a little Warcraft.

In his email box there was a reply from his
three a.m. sleep/hormone drunk email, at least he didn’t call her, that would have been even more stupid.  He shouldn’t have asked the question, the answer didn’t really matter, the end product did, and he liked where their end product was headed.

To:
[email protected]

From:
[email protected]

Date: January 26
, 2008 9:15 am

Subject: Others have excuses, I have my reasons why…

Dan,

Al
l right, I'm going to answer your question, about why I answered the ad...

I've had my ad on
Date4You.com for...oh just about forever. I keep it up so I can look at and respond to other ads if I'd like, but mine isn't searchable. I turned that off after some disastrous dates, you could enter all the criteria about me and still not see my ad...anyhow...I get a weekly email with people who match my criteria, I almost never read it, I usually delete it unopened. 

Anyhow, I
was away at a conference in Norwalk, got the email with matches, and decided what the hell, I should see what's out there and yours was on the list... I was actually kind of tickled with glee, because, and I am putting it all out there now, I've been crushing on you for ages. I've always thought you were a nice guy, very adorable, cute and funny, but I didn't know your story, what your situation was or anything and I am never one to make the first move. I have this overwhelming fear of rejection and such...and I never felt comfortable enough to just walk up to a guy and say, "Hey wanna have a cup of coffee," or whatever. 

I
also never tend to think guys will be even remotely attracted to me, not that I am assuming you are, or aren't...well actually I suppose you are, unless you were fibbing on the note with the truffles. Yes, I found that last night, so sweet, and thoughtful.

I
was interested in what you had to say in your ad. There are some differences, but I thought that if I didn't take a chance now I'd probably never take a chance and life is too short to be a chicken shit.  And then there was that zing, after the meeting, just too much to ignore…

S
o there it is, in a nutshell… digest, contemplate, file a restraining order...whatever :-)

Cora

“Well shit,” he muttered, taking another drink of his still too hot coffee.  Lancelot walked
in, hopped up on the desk, and rubbed his face up against the computer monitor.  “Well Lance, what do you think of that?  How exactly do I respond to that?  She’s knocked me flat on my ass.”  Lance tilted his head and looked at him as if to say,
Still looks like you’re in your chair to me, stupid.

He hit reply and tapped his feet on the cold wood floors antsy as to how to handle this the right way.  He liked her, he wanted her, and clearly
, she wanted him and had wanted him for some time.  He hadn’t known he’d wanted her or anyone for that matter in terms of forever, but now that he did know, he was going to do his level best not to fuck it up.

To:
[email protected]

From:
[email protected]

Date:
January 26, 2008 10:30 a.m.

Subject: Are those filed in triplicate, or can you file that online?

Cora,

Digested and contemplated…option
three not necessary. 

First off, well done.  No matter what happens from here, I know how hard it is to lay it all out there…

Wow, I’m being emailed to hundreds of women, and you’re the one who responded.  It doesn’t get much better than this!

Yeah, I think I’ve noticed you at the monthly meetings looking over at me… but I wasn’t quite sure if I was imagining it, (and was pleased by it – with similar thoughts as you), but didn’t know your situation either.  When we talked at the end of this month’s meeting
, I noticed your smile.  I’d never have made a move for similar reasons – I don’t trust my instincts that way, and the last three words I want to hear are “sexual harassment lawsuit” if I ask out someone from work.

I’m somewhat unusually at a loss for words here – so I guess I’ll just continue by saying I’ve had fun so far, and expect to continue to do so. 
I’m enjoying the email and the conversation, and think you’re really neat. So I’m going with the flow as is my habit, and let’s see if this turns into something special.  Obviously, nothing is guaranteed, but it’s a chance that it seems that both of us are willing to take.

So, let’s plan another date.  I’ll cook dinner and you bring a movie rental (yeah, I’m so creative)?  Your choice of movie…and you’ll get to sit on a really comfortable sofa.  Are you free tomorrow night?

Dan

Okay, if he was having company tomorrow night he needed to get his shit together.  He threw on his painting clothes and headed down to finish up the dining room.  After three hours, he was happy with the results and put the fans in the windows to draw out the fumes.  After showering and changing, he made a list of all the things he needed to grab tonight if he was going to have an actual dinner guest tomorrow.  Of course he should probably check his email to see if she was actually even interested in coming over.

To:
[email protected]

From:
[email protected]

Date:
January 26, 2008 12:00 p.m.

Subject: Phew
             

Dan,

I was afraid I was going to have to look for a new job so as not to violate the terms of the restraining order, thanks for not thinking I’m a wacky stalker.

I agree, it’s been fun so far, and I like where we’ve been heading, so let’s go with the flow and see where this flume ride takes us.

I’d love to come for dinner. I’m interested in seeing how your descriptions of the house match up with the actual house.  What time?  How about I bring dessert?

Until tomorrow…

Cora

He made a whooping noise, which seemed to annoy a sleeping Lance and did a fist pump. She was coming here, to his house. He would make her dinner and they would sit close on the sofa and watch a movie, and maybe make out. Yes, he definitely voted for making out.

Leaving a voicemail for his cousin
, Matt, looking for a little help actually setting up and using the sound system he’d installed for him, he thought about dancing with her again.

Picking up his list and car keys and grabbing his coat
, he headed out to Bed Bath & Beyond, the grocery store and a quick run through his parents’ house to pick up the three boxes of dishes from his grandparents’ house that had been sitting in the basement for the last five years.  It was old school original Corelle but it went with the feel of the house, it all matched and it saved him the stress of actually having to pick something out himself.  Turns out there were six boxes of Corelle. What the fuck did Nona have in there?  What more did you need besides plates and bowls? 

His mom was full of questions about his sudden interest in the boxes which he
had been putting off picking up for two months now, but he just brushed it off saying that since the kitchen was done it was time to fill it up.

After carrying everything in the house and putting the groceries away
, he grabbed a beer, sat at the small table in the kitchen and tried to decide where to begin.  It was already eight and he realized in his excitement to plan he hadn’t emailed her back. She was probably halfway to an ulcer by now; he knew better than to leave her dangling like this.  He fished his cell out of his pocket and dialed her number.

He also needed to do this quick, his cousin was on his way over to hook him up with the music, ‘cause he had no clue.

After two rings, she answered.

“Hello?” she sounded out of breath.

“Cora? Are you okay?” Dan asked.  Why was she out of breath? Was she alone? Was she crying? Was she naked in bed thinking of him?
Get your mind out of the gutter,
he scolded himself.

“Oh I’m fine
,” she paused and it sounded like she took a swig from a water bottle. “I was doing a workout video. I got antsy this afternoon and ate all my truffles and decided I should probably do something about that. Plus, I was all wired and wanted to tire myself out in hopes of getting a decent night’s sleep.  How are you?  How was your day?”

“It was fine
. Did some more painting, ran some errands, got home a little while ago and realized I hadn’t emailed you back which is pretty dick-ish of me, so I wanted to call and set the plans for tomorrow. Also I just kind of wanted to hear your voice.”

“Oh Dan, I don’t expect you to be sitting on top of your computer or Blackberry waiting for me to email you.”
Although the reason she had gone truffle crazy was because hours had passed since she’d told him everything and agreed to come to his house for dinner and his radio silence kind of freaked her out.

“Still, it wasn’t cool to leave you hanging.  Do you think y
ou could make it at four?  I would love if you brought dessert.  I’m really looking forward to showing off the house, no one but family and Joe and his wife have been here.”  He fiddled with the bottle cap in his hands.

“That sounds fine
. I can be there then and I’ll being something yummy for dessert. I’m still angst-ing over the movie, but I’ll come up with something before I walk out the door, or I’ll put half a dozen in the front seat of the car and blindly grab one after I park the car.  I do recall my solemn vow and swear on all that is holy there will be nary a French mime in the lot.”  She was pacing around her living room trying not to trip over the cat.