He picks her up again and this time she seems suspended in the air for moments on end, swaying back and forth in his arms. As he allows her tiptoes to touch the ground I see her legs have parted again and she is completely pressed tightly against him. But this time it’s different. She seems to be pushing herself against him. She kisses him again and it lingers a second or two longer than usual and then we are all off for our separate homes.
The next evening I’m on the road at 8 p.m. We talk on phone and she asks about him coming to our home “while you’re gone, just to keep each other company over a few drinks and pizza and have some fun.” I wonder why she decided not to go out. I tell her to call and make her arrangement with him and go ahead and have some fun.
Texted
She: 8:30 p.m.: I don’t have his number.
I have given it to her many times and I know it is easy to find in my computer contacts. I am confused by the odd phone call and text. I guess she just wants my complete permission and approval again and is reminding me again that I did suggest they should be together tonight.
Me: 8:34 p.m.: Sent the contact info by email from my phone.
She: 8:35 p.m.: Thx
Then I hear nothing from her for hours. She almost always goes to bed early about 10:30 p.m. every night even when we have friends over. Even when he is there. When I’m out of town sometimes earlier. We always talk at night when I’m gone to catch up. She usually makes the call. But tonight, nothing. I decide not to call because she is almost always in bed when I call this late. So I risk a text just in case she is asleep.
Me: 11:30 p.m. Hey you… How’s it going.
I get no text or phone call for almost an hour or so. I stop thinking about my text and assume she is asleep. Finally I notice at 1:06 a.m. that she has sent a text about 20 minutes earlier.
She: 12:47 p.m. Good. He just left. Watched snl.
But that show is over at 11:30 p.m. I am amazed she is still up this late. The math races through my head. She texts me around 8:30, I text back, she calls him and I guess he gets there at 9 and she texts me almost four hours later. Plus I wonder about the hour and seventeen minutes after the show ended. So I venture an innocent enough, but curious enough text. I’m so anxious to know more but afraid to come right out with it.
Me: 1:09 a.m.: Have some
It’s at that point that I accidentally hit send. I sit there stunned at my fumbling fingers and what I had just texted to her. I worried what she must be thinking and what I meant by those words. I could not believe I made this mistake. My fingers tremble as I try to decide what to do. After a couple of minutes, shocked and worried I had waited too long to follow up, I added a finish to my message hoping to cover for my error. I decided since she had not yet responded, she must be waiting to see what I would say next.
Me: 1:11 a.m.: Oops… fun?
She: 1:15 a.m.: I did. Heading for bed. Early day tomorrow.
So there it was. “I did.” Not a simple yes but “I did” and she took four minutes to say it as if hesitant to present her passive, yet artfully aggressive, long distance admission. But she did and wanted me to know she did. I still wanted to know more. I wanted to hear her voice. I wanted to hear anything in her voice that further reinforced what I suspected was clearly the meaning of “I did.” I hurried another text still trying to ask innocently for more information.