I pull up tonight’s choice find, welloffthe clock, curled up at one end of my deep, white leather couch, microfiber-socked feet underneath my butt as David and I unwind before bed, and open my preferred mail app to send it to him.
I start typing in acarter@ and click the suggested address to auto-populate thetofield, attach the meme with a bunch of cry-laughing emojis, and hit send.
The confirmation notice on my screen makes the color drain from my face.
Sent to scarter @ Mitchell Media (Shelby Carter)
“Undo! Undo!” I shout frantically at my phone, finger tapping manically at the tiny blue word, desperate to not scar this poor sweet woman with a slightly NSFW meme about freakingpizzafor crying out loud.
“What?” David looks up from his phones, his own emails chiming and pinging away on his side of the couch.
My panic pays off as I get another confirmation that it wasunsent, and my breathing attempts to return to normal.
“Nothing,” I tell him, shaking my head with a chuckle. Dirty jokes about pizza wouldn’t make him laugh like they do me.
He goes back to his phone, his emails, and I do the same, carefully triple-checking my recipient before resending the email. I include a quick note about my accidental misfire and how awful that would’ve been, with some horrified emojis to back me up on it.
Within a couple of minutes, my phone vibrates with the response.
Oh shit. Lmao that’s gold. Yeah no my mom would not have appreciated the visual on that one. Maybe text it to me next time instead?
Ten digits follow that, and before I can stop to think it through, I add him to my contacts and shoot off a quick text.
Me
Hey
Asher
Yo
Probably a safer meme-delivery system
Definitely, at least when they’re as uh… suggestive as that pepperoni was lol
There’s definitely another meat joke in there somewhere
I follow it up with a dorky that’s what she said gif from our mutual favorite show, which gets a haha reaction.
Lol okay good night
Night
And it is a good night. Despite the fact that David and I spent the evening working from our phones, mostly silently, and that we fall asleep with our backs to one another, as usual, nothing particularly special or out of the ordinary, just another Wednesday in the predictable routine of our lives, I fall asleep with a smile on my face that I just can’t shake.
TEN
ELLIE
“Are you good, muffin?”
I stop singing under my breath, turning around from where I was bent over, my head buried in the fridge, my hips swaying along to the tune from outside of it, digging through the rest of the prepared lunches for the week, to face David.
“Yeah, I’m good. Are you good?”
Last night was the first time I went line dancing in a few weeks, back to my usual Thursday night routine. It felt great to be back, move my body to great music, and I had a blast learning a couple new numbers. That means I got to sleep in rather than wake up early for a workout this morning, so it feels like an extra special day all around.
David’s brown eyes soften with something like relief. “I’m glad you’re happy again.”
