Abi thought the date was going pretty good so far since he was asking questions and looking into her eyes for more than 50% of the time instead of at the table or her boobs. It was already a significant improvement on her first date before the last one, wherein the guy had slammed every door in her face and made her buy Skittles instead of M+Ms so he could steal half. Deny a woman chocolate at his peril and so it had been: she’d dumped him the next day when he texted her and called her the wrong name.
“I need to meet more people in general; no man is an island and all that stuff. I have been independent and islandy for so long, but I have to make roots here now and get to know people...” she trailed off, thinking about what he’d said earlier. “Maybe the single, non-parent people first.”
It made her pause for a moment when he said it was his fault she’d been drunk because that really wasn’t what she recalled. “Dude, you didn’t get me drunk, I got me drunk. I walked into a bar in Cuba, what did you think I was going there for? Tea and cake?” she chuckled as well, shaking her head. “And definitely no body shots with coffee. That will not look sexy.”
Abi felt like snorting out with laughter again when he said he had looked at pictures of his older self. Whilst he was right, and that his current state was a better choice for her personally, she wasn’t going to let it lie. “You have no idea how sexy a writer can be, can you? It’s not the physical package I like, though I do like yours; it’s your aura people respond to. That untapped energy, there’s a… pull you have. On paper and in person.” She whistled low, sitting back and shaking her head. “Not many people can boast that.”
She could only hope to have a tenth of his magnetism in her own writing. For hours and days on end in the worst times, she would pore over which word to use, which structure to use. People thought writing to be easy when it was the hardest thing to complete and see through. So many abandoned ideas, plot threads left to wither and die. “I don’t mind a bit of empty flattery, but you’re right, it doesn’t achieve anything but bolstering ego. Sometimes that’s all you need to get the brain train chugging again.”
What was taking him so long to flirt back, to touch her voluntarily? He had the smirk, the slight swagger and the verbal part down but he’d barely graze her skin without her making the first move. It was incredibly frustrating and doubt would inevitably settle into her stomach sooner or later.
“Obviously I would,” she said, mirroring him and sliding from the booth. She hoped that a walk would close that distance between them, even if it was just a little bit. “I’ve had worse.”
While flattered by his blind support of her, Abi wondered whether she could indeed rely on him for support. Men had, so far, let her down when it came to shit like that. They got possessive, protective, sure, but none of them had really supported her career or her goals. All they wanted was a wife and mother 2.0.
“Let’s hope we both get the support we need,” she said softly, readjusting her clothes. He was actually a lot taller than her now she wasn’t wearing her wedge sandals. “Come on, I could use a walk somewhere that passes for outside around these parts. Let’s get lost together.”