Sebbie
“And I actually pet hiscrow, Crow,” I said, ignoring Toby’s snort of amusement over the phone. “Which yeah, is maybe a silly name, but it suits her. Then we kind of just hung out. I kept waiting for him to do that thing people do when they’re ready to leave?—”
“Wait, what thing? What do people do when they’re ready to leave?” Toby interrupted.
I smiled. Toby was both amazing and awful at figuring out people. He was a gifted writer, and I’d read almost all of his books. (I was a little behind on reading his current series, but it was on my TBR.) In his books, he could capture people so well that they leapt off the page. They were so… real. Sometimes, though, he kind of didn’t notice what was actually in front of him. I figured it was because he was in his head visiting with his book friends a lot of the time, so he didn’t pay as much attention to the real world as he could have. It made me think about artistic genius in general (although Toby would dispute the genius part, because he was modest).
“Hey, have you ever thought about how really imaginative people were treated back in, like, the middle ages or something? Or even back in the last century or two? I wonder how manyreally gifted writers and inventors were treated like they were crazy?” I pondered.
Toby snorted. “A lot, I’m sure. Gifted storytellers were always revered, but I think they had to walk a fine line between getting lost in their stories and staying in the real world. I totally would have been deemed insane or possessed by evil spirits or something.”
I hummed in agreement, then went back to his previous question. “You know, how people sort of slap their knee, or say, ‘Well, then,’ or look at the clock or whatever. Or how they just sit more formally like they’re ready to hop up and run out the door.”
Toby hummed again, and I could hear rustling as he wrote something down. I waited patiently—I was more than happy to give Toby ideas, whether it was about being possessed by evil spirits or mannerisms. It was always fun when I read something and saw it had come from a conversation we had. It was very cool.
We both had squirrel brains, too, which worked out perfectly, because we could follow each other really well.
“So what then?” Toby asked, and I knew we were back to talking about Corbin.
“Well, like I said, we just hung out. I offered to put on a tv show, and I got the television on, but we never got it off the screensaver,” I laughed.
Toby made this long mmhmmm sound that I knew meant he was thinking dirty thoughts.
I just laughed again. “Nope. Nothing like that. Although I did get an awesome hug before he left. You know how some people hug really well? Like, you feel like you’re being totally engulfed in their essence and you never want it to end? Corbin hugs like that. And he’s sowarm. We probably hugged for way longer than was appropriate.”
“And?” Toby asked.
“And that’s it,” I answered.
“Oh my god, Sebbie, please tell me you at least gave him your number,” Toby said. “Although, if not, I can always give it to him…”
I laughed. “Do not start matchmaking. You remember what happened when you tried in college.”
“I’m sure any matchmaking I did was totally perfect,” Toby said, all haughty sounding.
I simply replied, “The art major.”
“Oh, I remember him! He was cute!”
“He had a terminal illness, Toby,” I reminded him.
“Oh. Yeah. I forgot about that.” Toby paused for a moment, but he wasn’t going to be deterred. “Well, you said you guys didn’t have chemistry anyway. Hey, what about the guy from chemistry class?”
I sighed. “The one who was injured in the lab accident?”
“Oops. But there was—” he started.
“The guy who was straight and thought we were going on a double date with girls? Or the guy who broke his leg on our date?”
“Oh my gosh. I forgot about the straight guy. He was really nice, though. He inspired one of my characters,” Toby said.
“And he didn’t stay straight in your book,” I laughed. “That guywasreally nice, though, and that was probably one of my least disastrous dates in college.”
I really did have bad luck when it came to dating, but I usually didn’t let it get me down. I liked people, and they liked me (usually, anyways). I’d find my Mr. Right at some point, and I’d found plenty of cool people to get to know in the meantime. Yeah, I’d run across some jerks while dating, too, but I could usually spot them pretty quickly.
“Listen, Seb, I know you think you have bad dating luck, but I just feel like things will be different with Corbin,” Toby insisted seriously.
I snorted. “Is he impervious to accidents and illnesses? Because I seem to be a magnet for emergencies.”
