He looks at the paper that she gave him, sitting there on his kitchen counter with his keys. It's been a week he thinks, is that long enough? What is protocol here about things of this nature? He's met ex-girlfriends before, but he used to have a rule about getting back together with them. This is just a date, right? He thinks calmly, as he picks up the paper and scans it for her number. He picks up his phone slowly. He starts to touch the numbers and he is sweating. Why am I sweating so much? I have never sweated this much in my life, he thinks to himself. He's nervous about this and he knows it. He calls her.
"Hello?"
"Hi, Brenda?"
"Hi, Corbin?"
"Yeah, it's me. I was wondering if you wanted to go out, say Saturday night?"
"Sure, you know I've been waiting for you to call, I figured you were nervous, and I don't blame you, cause I am a little, too."
"Why? You seem so confident."
"Well, it's been awhile since we saw each other, and we didn't break up on any good terms."
"We didn't break on bad terms, either. I am just surprised to find out that you are doing what you are doing now."
'Well, that's a long story."
"Hey, I got time."
"Well, let me make it short. My last boyfriend was a fucking loser; you know, at first he was a great guy. Then he changed; he started using me for money and a place to stay. He had another girlfriend besides me. He treated my son like shit. He put me in debt. So, I had to come up with something to pay off those debts."
"I'm sorry. I know I say that a lot, but how long were you with that guy?"
"Almost a year to the day I broke it off with him. He would call and come over, but I wouldn't answer the phone or the door. He started getting pissed off, leaving horrible voice mails and texts, until I had no choice but to bring the police in."
"Wow, I don't know what to say, but I am sorry."
"Now don't start that. When was your last relationship?"
"About 5 months ago, give or take, it just didn't work out."
"Why? If I may ask."
"No, its fine. She wasn't cheating or anything. I didn't push her away. She is a good person, but there was just, something. She was, in short, a prude. I mean, I don't want sex everyday, but she never seemed to be interested in it. So I left her. We had a good break and I run into her once in awhile. She told me in an email that we never seemed to fit right, on any level."
"Did we?"
"You tell me?"
"Well, you do know how to give me 6 orgasms in one night. I remember how great our sex was. You do know how to please a lady."
"I knew how to please you. Anyway, but I should let you go..."
"Why?"
"I have to work in the morning and, if I remember right, you do, too."
"Yea, you're right."
"Night Brenda."
"Good night, baby"
Corbin stops cold and thinks; did she just call me 'baby'? It's been awhile since he had heard her voice say those words. Corbin had realized, mid conversation with her, that he had to fight the urge to call her by his favorite pet name for her. I guess some habits die hard, he thought.
He wanted tomorrow to be Saturday. He wanted to see her. Why does the thought of her make me sweat? He wondered.
Its 6 o'clock Friday night, he went straight home after work, even though his friends had been bugging him to go out all week. As he walks into his place, his phone rings. God, Calvin, he thinks, just leave me alone. He answers it with out looking at the caller I.D.
"Hello? Calvin, I am not going with you, ok?"
"Well, baby, if that's the way you want it, but this isn't him."