Me: I’ve just realized why it’s so hard for me to catch my breath around you.
Zach: My ego is sucking all the air out of the room, isn’t it?
Me: Bingo, buster.
Me: I thought you were with your brother?
Zach: That fucker ditched me for a last-minute date so Robbie and I ordered in to mend my broken heart.
Me: Are you two close? You and your brother?
Zach: About average, I’d say. We don’t text and gossip, if that’s what you’re wondering. Most of the time I only see him at holidays because of our schedules. He’s actually my stepbrother, but our parents have been together since I was six.
Me: After your mom passed?
Zach: Yep. My dad and his mom met shortly after his dad passed away. It was kind of like the universe brought them together. Slug’s a pain in the dick half the time, but I love the guy.
Me: Slug?
Zach: Yep, that’s what we call him. He’s a baseball dude.
Zach: Are you close with your brother? He’s partially to blame for the wrong number thing, isn’t he?
Me: Kind of. Yeah, we’re close. My mom worked at the hospital so it was usually just us two fending for ourselves.
Me: Okay, so I shouldn’t say fending for ourselves. That makes me sound like a dick and unappreciative of all my mom did. We just spent many nights just the two of us because my mom was a hardworking single lady and she wasn’t searching for a man to put a ring on it because she. Is. Fierce.
Zach: I bet your mom is the shit.
Me: She really is. You should meet her sometime.
Me: Oh, awkward…I’m talking about meeting the family and we’re not even officially a couple.
Zach: We’re not?
Me: We are?
My phone lightsup with a call from Zach.
“Are you saying we aren’t dating?” he says before I can say anything.
“We are…”
“Are you saying you’re wanting to see other people?”
“No…”
“So then we’re a couple.”
I’m quiet, unsure what to say. I’m so scared to label this, which is stupid, I know.
“Delia?”
“Yes, Zach?”
“Do you not want to be?”
I take a deep breath and push out the answer I know is right, even though my head is saying otherwise. “No. I want to be a couple.”
