Since parting company with Laura on Saturday, Don Pelfrey had seen and heard nothing from her. Not a text, nary an e-mail, absence of voice mail, total lack of PM through social media. Indeed, she had posted nothing of any kind on social since then. Not that he expected a broadcast to the world that she'd picked up a guy Friday night and had three orgasms.
As the weekend wore on he wondered if he should get in touch first. He liked her, maybe more than he wanted to. It was his weird idea that they should spend a month communicating, getting to know one another, but staying physically apart that whole time. What started as a one-night stand by two strangers, who keep an emotional distance from others, had ended with neither able to break loose completely. It was a first for him, and from what he could tell, for her too.
By Sunday night he was losing a mind game with himself. He had switched over to thinking that he should wait for her to make contact, sometimes deciding that this way he'd stay in charge, then thinking that he needed to know what move she'd make before he countermoved, then worrying that if he contacted first she'd feel pressured. It wasn't until noon Monday that he realized that she was the only thing he was thinking about.
Needing to concentrate more on work, he ditched Plan A and sent her an e-mail:
'Just wanted to get in touch. Hope you're okay with this talk-but-don't-meet thing. Anyway, I'd like to get to know you, but I want to respect your space. Does this make any sense?'
Once that was sent, he was able to focus on work for a few hours, mining data for a client. He even got through a task group meeting with his usual focus, and found himself getting sharper as the meeting went on.
Okay, maybe I'm not hopelessly in love with smart, nice-looking Laura Canfield,
he thought.
As if that would be a bad thing.
Towards the end of the day, though, he found himself getting edgy. Nothing from her had shown up in his e-mail. As they had noted after the failure of her attempt to get him to walk out on her, they were both absorbed in their jobs, if not totally fascinated by them.
She's busy,
he told himself.
Sharp, formidable Laura Canfield.
He logged on when he got home. Work had come with him, as it usually did. The e-mail window was open as a routine part of what he did most nights, alone in his cozy apartment, which in some ways was similar to the apartment ofβ
He slumped in his chair, finishing the thought:
Brilliant, smoking hot Laura Canfield.
Hazel eyes. Exotic when he first saw her at the bar, when she wore a little blue eye shadow. No less compelling the next morning, makeup long gone.
It was almost 9 p.m. when her e-mail launched him out of his torpor:
'I'm relieved that you're not making sense of this either. I really enjoyed our time together and maybe there will be more of it, but right now I need to get you out of my head so I can stay work-focused. Thanks for making the first move and sending. I've been learning how much of a coward I am. Time to stop rewriting this and just send.'
Relief washed over him, then almost immediately drained away. Should he reply to the reply? No. The 'need to get you out of my head' stated pretty bluntly that she didn't want another contact right away. He should let everything stay where it is, for a while.
His previous successful pickup had been three weeks earlier. He had trouble remembering anything about her. That was partly because the tryst was a success in all respects, with the fourth F (forget 'em) achieved. But he usually had some residual recollection of his partner and what they had done. Instead, his mind's eye returned to Laura, standing nude in morning light, saying that she would never in her life sext anyone, so he'd better look while he could.
Brown hair curled in at the nape, with bangs. Lean limbs. Nice, not-too-small breasts, which had responded strongly to his fingers and lips.
Those hazel eyes.
***
Don got through the week somehow. Mostly he stayed focused on work, but there were instances of Laura moments barging into his awareness (a witty remark here, a light touch of slender fingers there). The moments made him think he should try to place at least a partial fourth-F over her. It was Laura who said that, during their arm's-length month, they should sleep around.
No, she didn't say it
, he corrected himself.
She asked
. Neither of them ever answered, so the topic just hung in the air.
Don wondered if he should e-mail her about that now. Find out if either one felt exclusive about the other. Decide if sleeping around now counted as cheating, punishable by permanent scorched earth between them.
He re-read her e-mail. No sex references, just 'enjoyed our time together.' He looked at her social media stuff. Nearly all of it was about work, with a little on her parents and siblings, and on excursions and charity work. She gave away nothing on her dating. So, he concluded, if he sent her a message about whether it would be okay to jump into bed with somebody else, she might delete it instantly and begin the earth-scorching process.
He didn't want her mad at him. He didn't want her to go through the hurt that would accompany her anger.
He felt like a wimp.
Just go live your damn life,
he commanded.
As the weekend approached, he checked around to see what his usual crowd was up to.
Arnie, a jolly, roundish guy known as 'The Icebreaker,' wasn't available that weekend. He usually led the pack of guys, by making funny introductory remarks to groups of women. He had, in fact, gotten lucky last Friday with one of Laura's friends, Marcie, and they were actually going out this weekend as a couple. Don preferred, as Laura clearly did, to hang back and scope out a group of the opposite sex, looking for a smart, interesting, witty one. That might not be as easy without Arnie in the vanguard.
In fact, the only other guys from the usual group who were available were Russ, an alpha male, and Walt, a tall, almost-geeky programmer who seldom did well trying to hook up. At Don's insistence, they didn't go to last week's hunting ground, a bar called Hazlett's. Instead he got them to go far across town to Culture Counter, more of a coffeehouse than a bar, but with a definite singles vibe. Don had hooked up twice here, and he could remember almost nothing about either woman or the sex they had. (There was this busty redhead, who drank a lot and barely stayed awake through their copulation.)
It was while they were entering Culture Counter, and hearing mic feedback from a poetry slam, that it struck Don that this was the sort of place Laura might frequent on her own. The crowd here was artsier and more intellectual than the one at your average singles bar, and even allowing for the poseurs and hipsters, there would be plenty of genuinely smart people of all genders. It could be a place where she'd hang out just for the conversation, with no expectation of hooking up.