Page 97 of The Wedding Forecast

‘I like pathetic. Pathetic is hot.’

‘Okay well, maybe pining.’

‘Are you embarrassed to have been pining over me?’ I say.

‘Yes, if you didn’t think of me at all,’ he says.

‘I thought of you.’

It’s dangerous to talk in the dark like this. My eyes closed, my head on the pillow, my body relaxed, his voice in my ear but almost like a dream. I could say anything. I’m not ready to say anything.

‘What did you think about?’ he asks.

‘I thought about what you said to me.’

‘What did I say?’

‘Let me show you what I was going to do before.’

‘Oh, I say that line to every girl.’

‘Do you?’ I sit up a little. God, he probably does.

‘No.’ He laughs.

‘Is it a line from a movie?’

‘No!’

‘Well, I fell for it. I had to go all the way to New York to find out.’

‘Was it worth it?’

‘Yeah. Yeah it was.’

‘Mmmmm.’

There’s a long delicious pause, and I think, oh, it’s going to take that turn. We’re going to be phone-sex buddies. And I want it but I don’t. Because I’ve had that part of him, but I want the other parts, I want the emotional parts. I want to dig into his brain, the way I wanted to dig through his apartment. Give me all of it, I’m greedy, I want the whole thing.

‘Hey,’ he says, softly.

‘Yeah.’

‘I miss you.’

‘I miss you too.’ I pause. ‘Why did you break the rule? The no-talking rule?’

‘I’m not good with rules.’

‘I am.’

‘I almost called you the day after you left but I thought, give it a few days, see if you still miss her as much then.’

‘And?’

‘And I was going crazy not talking to you. But you hadn’t called me, so I thought, wait it out. She’s going to call you, eventually. She’ll definitely send a Merry Christmas message. Be cool man.’

‘I told you, I’m good at rules.’