Gabe: Hey, I never asked what you did for work. I know you said you had a hard day on Friday, but I hope it’s usually enjoyable. That’s so important.
Gabe: Sorry. Calling now.
How was he both endearing and a touch annoying at the same time? Just pick up the damn phone and call.
My cell rang and his name flashed on my screen.
“Hi. So what’s going on?”
“Hi, it’s Gabe from the other night. Um, yeah, you know that already. So, sorry for this, but I wanted to call you before Jenzy did. He’s still blocked, right?”
“Uh, yeah? Maybe take a breath, Gabe.” That last sounded snarkier than I’d intended.
“Oh, yeah. Right.”
I sighed. “Sorry. It’s just been five days, and now you’re calling me about Roger, so I’m thinking it’s probably not a good thing.”
“Uh, so we played his team last night. Did you watch?”
“Umm. No, sorry. Not a big fan of hockey.”
“Okay. Right. Anyway. Jenzy was running his mouth off during warm-ups.”
“O-kaaay.”
“Sorry if this makes it worse for you, but he was an asshole. Pretty sure you’re aware of that already. Anyway, he got in my face about stealing you from him while we were on the ice, even shoved me.”
“I’m not his damn property, for godsakes. Stealing me? What the fuck is wrong with him?”
“He’s an asshole, as we’ve determined. He asked why you weren’t at the game since we were dating, so I might’ve goaded him a bit.” He paused.
It was a long pause.
“Gabe?”
An audible breath on his end suggested this was not going to be good.
“What did you say?”
“That you were doing your own thing for the night, but that we were a couple.”
“Okay, that’s not bad. I mean, it’s kind of what we’d agreed on, after all.”
“And then I said how much I loved waking up next to you every morning.”
“Seriously?” I exclaimed. “Dammit. Why the fuck would you do that?”
“I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t have pushed it. But he was being such a motherfucker, and I wanted to make sure he knew you were not available and very much not single. I mean, I know you’re single, but I didn’t want him to know that. I mean,” he said, sounding contrite, “I was trying to help.”
“Shit.” I glanced up at the ceiling and took in a deep breath.
“It’s okay. I mean, it’ll be fine.”
“It won’t be fine. You’ve dug us deeper. You antagonized him, and he’s a prick. There’s no way this just goes away,” I fired back.
“Look, I’m sorry. And I didn’t mean to make this worse for you.”
“But you did.”
