AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It’s sweet. Familiar. I wonder if this is exactly what it’s like when people try to talk to me, but I can’t figure out how to make my thoughts come out right.
I’m wholly unused to being the more charismatic one in a social situation.
Smiling, I take a cookie. “Maybe it’s just the fangirl in me talking, but if you do need someone to practice with in order to work up the courage to tell the girl you love how you feel, I wouldn’t mind seeing a couple movies or going out to a couple dinners. I don’t know if I can speak for the girl, but…your music has brought me more comfort than you can possibly know.”
He flushes, somehow deeper. Somehow—if it’s even possible—more beautiful than before. He lifts one hand off the tray, and it trembles as he brings it to a fist at his mouth. Clearing his throat, he says, “I… Thank you.”
I nod, expecting as I turn around and head toward the front door that this will be the end of this very Twilight Zone night. I’ll wander home and arrive in my backyard with no memory of the journey, wholly at a loss as to how I even made it back in one piece. I’ll turn on my Doliver playlist and sag into my bed with Oxford’s little head to pat, grateful that at least this night hasn’t revealed dolivers_not_trending to be a horrible person. Morally uncompromised, I may continue to enjoy his music. Then? Then tomorrow is Friday, so I’ll gather enough weary strength to drag myself to work before I sleep for a full forty-eight hours this weekend.
I do not expect to make it halfway down the stone path with a mouthful of cookie and hear, “Sunshine, wait.”
My heart pounds, and I turn.
Moonlight traces across Doliver’s skin, slathering the pale spots of his flesh in an ethereal glow.
His lungs fill with air, release it in a stilted breath. “Dinner.”
Cookie crumbs fall from the corner of my mouth as my eyes widen and my lips part.
“If you are willing, may I take you to dinner sometime?”
Chapter 4
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Can’t use a spoon if you’re not eating. #bigbrain
I still can’t believe it. I’m floating around in a bubble apart from reality. I am in current possession of Doliver’s phone number.
Just like that.
After he asked me if he could take me to dinner sometime last night, we exchanged phone numbers, and I brain-fogged my way back home, entirely at a loss. Thoughts racing yet somehow absent, I got ready for bed and lay awake patting Oxford’s little head while listening to Doliver songs on shuffle.
Now that I think about it, getting four hours of sleep would make anyone feel a little untethered. And four hours of sleep has been my average for way, way too long.
Stifling a yawn, I rub my eyes and blink off the blur. The spreadsheet is almost done. Then I have to get Racheal lunch. Organize her email. Proofread a few company newsletters…
How is it only ten?
I’d get some coffee if it worked to do something more than quiet the ever-present chaos in my head and, subsequently, put me right to sleep. Right now, staying awake takes priority. I can focus just fine. This is important.
Work is just like high school.
There’s structure and assignments, praise for tasks done well, criticism when you fall short. Heck, there’s even a grade at the end of each year during assessments for pay raises.
Did school teach me about taxes? Buying a house? Taking care of a living creature? Being kind? Embracing others’ choices, differences, and presentation of character?
Pft.
Nope.
But it sure did give me that crippling self-doubt and reliance on striving for perfection, which has helped me get a fifty cent raise after over twelve long months of doing the job of eight people…
I think I might now be both tired and depressed.
Unknown: Hi, we’re friends now. It’s nice to have friends with phones.
I blink at the notification on my phone screen, entirely oblivious as to when I picked my phone up. I’m on Leopard. Scrolling. How…how long have I been scrolling?
