Page 32 of Falling for You

Rex:You’re probably busy at work but I was checking again.

Rex:If you’d rather not go out tonight, I totally understand.

Rex:Oh shit. This is Rex, by the way. The guy you gave a shower to this morning?

Rex:I was hoping we could maybe just grab a pizza or something. That okay with you?

Rex:Maybe you don’t like pizza. You’d be crazy. Ha. Ha. So otherwise Chinese? Tacos? A handful of chips?

Rex:I’m annoying myself at this point but it’s after 7 and I’m assuming you changed your mind. It’s okay. Probably stupid of me to ask anyway. Thanks for the hair cut this morning. See you around.

Nooooo! No! My fingers fly over my keyboard to reply.

Me:Hey! I’m so sorry. My schedule went out of control after you left and I just finished up and looked at my phone for the first time.

Me:Really. I wasn’t intending to stand you up or anything like that.

Those three bubbles pop up immediately and I sigh in relief. Until…

Rex:No worries.

Hmm. This isn’t good. He’s either pissed or hurt or indifferent — and I’m not sure which would be worse.

Me:I really am sorry. I was looking forward to dinner.

Rex:Like I said, no worries.

Me:Rain check?

The bubbles pop up and disappear a few times.

I clutch my phone to my chest, stretch out my neck and look to the ceiling. Send up a little prayer that his response is a little more friendly this time.

Rather than stand around in the back room, I start packing up my things, preparing to head home. He mentioned pizza and now I’m suddenly starving for it.

When a reply text never comes through, I resign myself to a night alone, ordering in a pizza and maybe one of those warm cookies. Of course, just the thought of it reminds me of going out for dessert with Rex after I’d had a significantly awful day, bringing with memory an onslaught of emotions I hadn’t expected, but it’s not like I’m never going to eat cookies again just because he wrote me off so quickly. Maybe when I get home I’ll gain the courage to call him, apologize over the phone and explain what happened today and see if we can reschedule.

I slip out the back door without saying good bye to Jana or Ari, not wanting to see the look of pity on their faces when I tell them that the date tonight is no more, pull up the app to my favorite pizza place as soon as I sit down in my car and order a medium pizza with extra cheese and sausage along with one of their famous cookies.

By the time I arrive at my house, I have just enough time to change my clothes into some wide leg pajama pants and a threadbare t-shirt before the doorbell rings, letting me know that the pizza is here.

“Coming! Coming!” I run through the house, stub my toe on the end table that I’m always saying I need to move. “Shit! Ouch, dammit!” The doorbell rings again and I hop/hobble my way to the door, grateful that I paid already through the app so I wouldn’t have to grab my wallet as well.

I’m bent over, inspecting my foot when I open the door and say, “Sorry it took me so long to get here.”

“It’s okay. The wait was worth it.”

My head jerks up at the familiar voice. Before me stands Rex holding the pizza and a canvas grocery sack.

“Rex?” I’m confused. He’s surely not the… pizza guy, is he? Why is he here? Better yet,howis he here?

I look beyond him, see a car parked in front of my house but no signage or anything on top like most pizza places have.

“I talked to Jana.”

“Huh?”

“Jana? The girl at New You? I talked to her earlier tonight when you wouldn’t answer my texts. I’d um, gotten a little worried and called to make sure you were okay. She assured me that you were just busy with clients. Anyway, she called me after you ‘snuck out the back,’ her words, not mine, and here I am.”

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