Note: this little story has its problems – especially the ending – but here it is anyway. -DS
Jed typed. “I’m crossing Amsterdam right now, should be th…” a horn honked and a truck swerved, just missing him. The blast of the horn caused him to spin around and lose his balance. A man helped him up. “Jerk!” the man yelled at the driver on Jed’s behalf. The truck moved on.
“You won’t believe what just happened,” he typed, continuing across the street. “Some guy almost ran me over.”
“OMG,” she typed… “what a jerk. Are you all right?”
“I can’t wait to see you,” he typed. He looked up and saw her in the window of the coffee shop, head down, typing into her phone. “There you are! Look up!”
She looked up at him and smiled, and then quickly sent him a smiley.
Jed’s near-death experience crossing the street strengthened his resolve to say that important thing to Jessica today. They’d been seeing each other long enough and it was time to move things to the next level. Jed had paused at the door thinking about what to text. The door opened, smacking him in the nose, causing him to nearly drop his phone.
“Did you see that,” he texted, stepping through the door. She stood and went for a hug as he went for a kiss on the cheek, they both adjusted midway and she kissed his cheek while he stood with his arms out in a pre-hug stance.
“Wow,” she said, “you’re having a rough day…”
“I know!”
Her phone beeped and she glanced it and laughed.
“What’s that?” he said.
“Oh, Rosie retweeted a Colbert tweet.”
“Funny,” he said.
“I’m probably wondering why you asked to meet me. I mean, you’re probably wondering…” he stopped, looked at his screen and read an email. “Son of a bitch,” he said.
She looked up from her phone. “Everything OK?”
“Hmm? Oh, yeah. Just a work thing. You look great.”
“Oh,” she said. “I’m so glad you said that.”
“So much better than your profile picture.”
“Which one? Oh, never mind, they’re all the same.” She looked away. “You don’t like my profile picture?”
Her phone beeped. “Now Meg’s texting me that some guy is creeping her out.”
“Who?”
“Just some guy I guess.”
“Your hair is nice.”
“Oh, isn’t it? I’ve been shampooing less. I mean, it’s more manageable when it’s a little bit dirty.”
“Yeah, I saw something about that on Blitzfeed.”
“Ha ha.”
“Hey, check out this video of this enormous dog playing piano.”
“You have a dog?”
“And he howls…”
“Signal’s not great – it’s kind of choppy.”
“Yeah. Uhhh, Jessica?” he said.
“Hang on a sec. Meg has a problem.”
“Sure. I just have to answer this email. The work thing.”
She tapped her phone’s screen. He tapped his phone’s screen. He looked up at her and said, “I like the way you do that.”
“Thanks.”
“You want another macchiato?”
“OK.”
Jed got in line. Jessica stared out the window for a second, then her phone beeped.
“Miss me?” Jed had texted.
“My battery is starting to die,” she texted.
As the line advanced, Jed scrolled through email and Twitter, determined not to check Facebook. He glanced now and then at Jessica, who was furiously typing something on her phone. She’s so pretty right now, he thought, the way she’s silhouetted, backlit by the window, holding her phone with one hand. I should take a picture, he thought. But maybe that would be creepy.
“Here you go,” he said, putting two cups of coffee product on the table. He picked up his cup.
“Wait!”
“What?”
“I want to Instagram a picture before we drink it.”
“Good idea,” he said. She took a picture.
“Here, now put your face right up to the cup and look at it like it’s the best thing in the world.” He did and she snapped a few more images.
They picked up their cups and sipped their hot drinks. They were happy. Jessica’s phone beeped. “23 likes!”
“Already? Wow!”
“Oh. Damn. I have to go,” she said.
“Me too I guess,” he said.
“This was really fun,” they said.
There was something else he thought he had wanted to say as he watched her walk away.
Deficio Scriptor 