“Can I touch you?”
Ziya’s voice was surprisingly close to her ear. That’s when Amie realized she had squeezed her eyes shut.
She nodded.
“Come on.”
An arm wrapped around Amie’s shoulders. The familiar sound of Ziya’s bangles clinked near her ear as she let herself get pulled from the chair and led away from their table.
Amie’s eyes snapped open as she felt fresh air hit her face. Ziya had led her all the way across the restaurant and outside.
“Sit here,” Ziya directed, herding her over to a bench that sat along the building.
Amie obeyed, noticing both of their purses swinging from Ziya’s shoulder.
“Sorry,” she said quietly. No longer feeling like something was about to crash down onto her head, she began taking deeper, slower breaths.
“Enough of that.” Ziya sat down next to her. “Water?”
She was holding a glass of water from their table. Amie accepted the glass and took a small sip.
“I’ve never seen you have a panic attack before,” Ziya said, taking the water back.
Amie rested her forearms on her thighs. “Me neither.”
She heard a rustle. Then:
“Gum?”
A stick of gum appeared in Amie’s line of vision. She took it.
“Thanks.”
“It’s cinnamon.”
“I know.” Amie unwrapped the gum. Next to her, Ziya did the same.
Amie chewed until she felt her heart rate begin to slow.
“What do we do now?” she finally asked, bracing herself as she left the safety of the comfortable silence that had settled between them. She had no idea what came next, and that terrified her.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ziya look over. “What do you want to do?”
Call it off, came the unwanted thought.This was too much, too soon. She doesn’t need to deal with this.
Amie opened her mouth to respond.
“Someone’s calling you.” Ziya was looking down into Amie’s purse, taking it off her shoulder to pass it over.
Amie accepted the bag and reached inside, pulling out her phone.
“It’s David,” she said. “He never calls me. He almost exclusively uses speech-to-text.”
Accepting the call, she angled slightly away as she lowered the phone’s volume. She didn’t want Ziya overhearing if David askedher how the date was going. How could Amie even respond to that? Seven hundred and sixty-ish days of waiting for a second date with her ex-girlfriend, and she’d blown it in under thirty minutes.
“Hello?”
“Hello!” David replied, his voice sounding cheerfully strained. “Sorry to interrupt your dinner. Just thought someone should know that I’m about to be arrested.”
