Best to play it cool, though, right? I was working, so I couldn’t reply straight away. I’d wait until the event finished.
A few minutes passed and I found myself tapping my foot impatiently on the floor, then glancing at the phone.
There was no second message.
I wondered what he wanted.
No.
I said I’d wait until after the event finished to reply.
I heard someone tut loudly, and when I looked up I saw a member staring directly at me. It was then that I realised that I was tapping my foot again.
‘Sorry!’ I mouthed, then I unlocked my phone and brought up Ben’s message.
This was silly. If I wanted to know what he wanted, I should just reply. We weren’t children. And we weren’t even dating, so I didn’t have to do all this stupid game-playing.
Me
Hey…
There. Done. Hopefully in his next message, he’d elaborate and tell me what he wanted. I expected he’d wait a while before replying, but then I saw the bouncing dots in the message to show he was writing something.
My pulse raced and excitement rippled through me. Once again I told myself to calm the hell down. It was just a message.
Ben
What time do you finish work?
Me
Around nineish, I think.
Wow, that’s later than usual?
Yeah, we’re having a party.
And you didn’t invite me?
Can’t be any good, I can’t hear any music playing!
A chuckle flew from my lips and a member glared at me.
Oops.
I was about to return to typing out a reply, but then realised I was setting a really bad example. The point of these parties was to escape distractions like phones and social media, be present in the moment and focus on reading.
Any minute now Jane would be back from the loo and I didn’t want her to see me texting. I needed to put my phone away.
But… I wanted to keep chatting to Ben.
‘You okay?’ Jane whispered. I hadn’t even heard her come up to the library’s meet-cute desk.
‘Yeah,’ I replied, keeping my voice low. ‘I just need to pop out for a sec. I’ll be back in five.’
‘Okay.’ She gave me a thumbs-up.
I hurried out of the hall, down the corridor, then slipped into one of the rooms the library used for smaller events.
