“But you just told me a few weeks ago that you were ready to start dating? Why won’t you just talk to this guy, I think he’d be perfect for you!”
“Yeah, but Carly,” Shayne said, staring at the blurry image of her best friend on the computer screen, “that was before everything went to shit and we all had to go on lock down. Why should I bother trying to meet anyone now, when I won’t even be able to see them for months?”
Carly crossed her arms, a sure sign she was going to dig in her heels. “It’s not like the early stages of dating are even that different. Everyone just talks through the apps or texts at first anyway. And there’s video calls, and regular calls-”
“Thrilling.”
Carly sighed. “Come on. It’ll be romantic. Like, old-school dating. You’re the one who said the apps are ruining everything.”
“Yeah, but-”
“But nothing! He’s a friend of mine, so he’s already vetted. He’s funny, he’s smart, he’s one of the nicest people I know.”
Shayne rolled her eyes. “Yeah, because that tells me so much about him.”
“Sometimes I don’t know how we became friends,” Carly said, shaking her head.
“Because one day our first year in high school you marched up to me and declared we’d be best friends forever,” Shayne said, “and somehow you were right.”
“See! I was right about that. I was right about your last boyfriend being a total asshole. Trust me on this.”
Shayne could feel her resistance fading away. She just had to say yes, talk to the guy once or twice, and then she could prove Carly wrong. That in itself would make the ordeal worth it.
She could almost feel the regret as she opened her mouth. “Fine. I’ll talk to him.”
“Yes!” Carly did a celebratory dance that looked more like a seizure.
“Only if you promise to never do that again,” Shayne said, grinning.
“Oh, you know I have the best dance moves between the two of us,” Carly replied, finishing off with a dance move that hadn’t been cool for at least three years.
“My eyes!”
Carly just stuck her tongue out, and grabbed her phone off the table. “Seriously, though, I think you’ll really like him,” she said, head bowed over screen.
Shayne just shook her head, watching her friend type for what seemed like a very long time. “Are you writing a book?”
Carly just held up one finger, still typing. She finally paused, reading over her message, before hitting the “send” button with a flourish. “I was just giving him some advice about how to woo you.”
“Woo me? Wait, what kind of advice?”
Carly just grinned, wiggling her eyebrows like a supervillian. “That’s for me to know, and you to find out.”
Shayne groaned, ignoring her friend’s cackle.
© The Lightning Tower, 2020