Page 8 of Dance with Me on New Year's Eve
CastGamer55:I mean it doesn’t make me feel better that you also had a bad day.
CastGamer55:I’m not that much of a jerk. Not like your man Sawyer.
I threw my head back and laughed. We had only been chatting one-on-one for a month or two, but he’d sometimes teased me about my obsession with Sawyer, one of the most controversial but handsome characters onLost.
SawyerRox4:Oh! lol. Sorry, totally misunderstood. And you’re not a jerk. I’m hypersensitive sometimes
SawyerRox4:Well, more like all the time
CastGamer55:It’s all right.
SawyerRox4:So your bad day was work related?
CastGamer55:I also had a minor accident in the kitchen tonight. How about you?
SawyerRox4:I didn’t have any kitchen accidents. Dinner is a hard-boiled egg and some sugary cereal, so not much chance for danger there
CastGamer55:That isn’t much of a dinner.
CastGamer55:But I meant more generally, why was your day bad?
SawyerRox4:Oh *blush* Of course. Uh … I too had a frustrating colleague to deal with. But the worst part is, I disappointed a sweet old lady. I still feel terrible.
CastGamer55:I’m sure it was an accident.
SawyerRox4:Haha, I see what you did there. Yes, I certainly didn’t let anyone down on purpose. I would never. But the look on her face … I just keep seeing it in my mind, over and over.
CastGamer55:Don’t do that.
SawyerRox4:?
CastGamer55:Don’t do that to yourself. Listen, I don’t know you that well, but I’m certain you tried your best to fix whatever the situation was.
He was right about that, at least. I spent nearly all day trying to figure out how to fix the scheduling mess caused by Frieda, the resort’s social media manager, but in the end, we had to cancel the book signing for this weekend. The author was a 92-year-old, recently widowed woman with the sweetest smile and the biggest heart who lived right here in Shipsvold. Mrs. Jennings was crushed, though she tried to hide it. Even though I kind of blamed Frieda, I blamed myself more. I double- and triple-checked every booking, but I could’ve done more. When things went wrong with resort events, I always took it to heart.
SawyerRox4:I won’t bore you with all the details, but yes, I did try my best ... It was too late
CastGamer55:Sorry to hear it.
SawyerRox4:It’s so nice to chat with you though!
As soon as I hit Send, doubt set in. Was that a weird thing to say? I didn’t know much about him, but we agreed often enough. And he didn’t seem to hate talking to me. I couldn’t say that about most people. I was not the kind of person who was sought out for socializing with.
Crap. I shouldn’t have said that to him. He probably thought I was reading way too much into things. It wasn’t like we were reallyfriends. We were just online acquaintances in a fan forum. And barely even acquainted, at that. I didn’t know his name, his location, his age … or whether he had a family.
Still, chatting with him always put a smile on my face, so I wouldn’t mind being friends. Friendship was a little easier online because I wasn’t so painfully shy on the web.
I wished I could delete the message, but that would look even weirder, probably. He probably already saw it, so—
My hands stilled on the keyboard.
CastGamer55:You too. Sorry, I stepped away for a moment.
SawyerRox4:No worries. I didn’t mean that to sound weird, by the way…
CastGamer55:What sounded weird?
Oh great, maybe hedidn’tthink it was weird, but now I’vemadeit weird. I cradled my face in my palms. Such a Roxy thing to do, unfortunately. I didn’t usually feelthisawkward when talking to people online. I shook my head, wondering why my weirdness couldn’t at least be consistent from one day to the next.
