JAE

Something felt wrong, but I wasn’t sure if that was true or just me. I’d sent Harley several texts since our second date, and I either got nothing back or very short answers. There was some stuff I had on a list of to-do’s that wasn’t urgent, and so I put on a movie that I’d seen before. While I sat on the couch trying to watch MI3, my eyes kept going to my phone on the couch beside me.

“If she replied, you’d know,” I whispered to myself, even though I was burning holes into the back of my cell.

Did I do something wrong?

I thought back to the date, and remembered skating and both of us having a good time. But, I couldn’t see her for most of it, so how could I be sure she was having a good time? The scene of me skating up beside her and teasing her speed replayed in my head, as well as the face that she made. She had smiled at me, but the way her eyes had sparkled was missing when she did. And it was a short conversation.

Right?

Before I knew it, the movie was halfway done and I was barely paying attention. I looked at my phone again and decided that enough was enough.

I pressed ‘call’ before I could stop myself.

The phone rang for a while, and I tried to remember the amount of rings that would go through before it decided that this person was not going to answer the phone. I counted the rings, and my pulse raced as the count increased. Disappointed, I started to think up a voicemail message when I finally heard her voice.

“Hi,” she said, which surprised me. 

“He-ey,” I croaked, then cleared my throat and tried again. “Hey, Harley.”

There was silence, and I could hear the quiet sound of her breathing on the other end. I wanted to wait for her to say something until I remembered that I was the one who called her.

“How have you been?” I asked.

Silence, again. 

“...I’m okay.”

She didn’t ask how I was, and I took that as a bad sign. As much as I was enjoying the small talk, not knowing why things had taken such a sharp turn was not something I wanted to loom over my head any longer.

“Did I do something wrong?” I blurted out, and cursed my delivery in my head.

It sounded like I was accusing her of something, and maybe I was? I could not figure out what had gone wrong in my own head, and I was just re-affirming my own thoughts every time I tried to.

“Let me ask you something,” she started, “were you on a date with me or your old friend from high school and his wife?”

That hit me like a pile of bricks, and I felt like an idiot when what I definitely did wrong finally dawned on me. There was no way she had been okay with me talking to them for however long, even though it felt like ten minutes to me. She’d left right after I was done, and that’s when things changed.

“I... I am so sorry, Harley. Seriously. I did not think we were talking for that long, in my head it was just a quick catch-up. But, you’re right. That was wrong of me and I apologise for ignoring you.”

I heard her sigh, “well, I...”  

I didn’t know what she planned to say originally, but she seemed to change her mind about it. 

“It’s okay,” she decided, and relief washed over me.

“Can I make it up to you?”

“That depends on what you have in mind,” she was quick, and I thought I sensed a smile in her voice. 

And that made me smile.

“I wanna do whatever you wanna do.”

My reply was strategic, playful, and hopefully it would get me right back into her good graces. If someone had asked me that, I would need at least a few minutes to think of something that I would wanna do on a date. I knew what I liked, but there were a lot of options, so I’d need time to think.

Harley, apparently, didn’t.

“Let’s go skating again,” she suggested, “and then we can get food after. I know this great Korean place.”

I wondered if I was wrong before to question if I had done something wrong while we were skating because now she wanted to go again.

“Okay, I’m looking forward to it. When?”

“Are you free tomorrow afternoon? Around 1pm?”

A quick glance at my watch was all I needed to confirm that she could have all my time the next day.

“Absolutely.”