It turned out reaching Nikki via phone was a bit of a challenge. She said she worked until 5:00, so calling her in the daytime when I was between classes was out. The times I tried calling her in the evening from the payphones where I worked all went unanswered.
I finally ended up reaching her by phone a week later, around three in the afternoon on Saturday. It was a very awkward call.
To start with, I had to remind her who I was. 'The guy you spent the night with in the snowstorm, yeah, that's me?' From there the conversation seemed to go further downhill. Her voice became cold and distant. When I asked if there was a better day for me to contact her. She answered with a curt two word reply of 'Not really.' She deflected my request for an address to write to her, saying flatly, that she preferred to talk over the phone.
Tiring rapidly with the awkwardness of this call, I asked if I should try calling sometime over the next week. She surprised me by saying that I should.
Hanging up the payphone, I was feeling disappointed and angry and came very close to wadding up the note with her number and throwing it in the trash.
I made my next attempt at calling her the following Wednesday evening and was a bit surprised when she answered the phone right away. Her bubbly personality was back. She said she was very happy that I had followed through and called her back, she wasn't sure I would.
I admitted that after our previous call, I was very close to tossing her number.
I told her that I was calling from a payphone from outside at work and might have to hang up unexpectedly if a customer pulled in, but I would call her right back if that happened.
She asked for the phone number to the station, saying that she had no problems footing the long distance bill and would call me right back on that number if I didn't mind. I hung up and went inside where it was warm.
In just a few minutes the station phone rang and Nikki and I continued talking. She told me that other than going over to her parents for dinner the previous Sunday, she had pretty much hung around her apartment waiting for me to call her back.
I jokingly apologized for making her wait around, asking if my delay in calling her back had kept her from doing something important.
Nikki told me that she would rather have that discussion in person, but if I wanted an answer right now, she would have to be very blunt.
Her statement dialed my curiosity level all the way up to 99 and so I told her she could be blunt as she wanted.
"OK", she said, "Let's see if you stay on the phone. The quick answer is that I would probably have gone out looking to get laid."
"Oh." Sixteen years of education and a single syllable is all that I could utter?
When I didn't continue, Nikki broke the silence by asking if I was sure I wanted to be friends with a woman who had such loose morals.
I told her that it seemed to me both of us had the same morals based on our behavior when we spent the night in the hotel together. I didn't think it was my place to judge someone else when I would do the same thing.
"There's more." she said softly, "Things I'd rather discuss in person." I asked.
"Oh." Again, the single syllable response.
"Mark. I'd like to come down and see you on Saturday if you wouldn't mind." she said. "I'm warning you now though, this will be a very deep, very personal conversation and might cause you to change your mind about continuing in any sort of relationship with me."
"Nikki, so long as your secrets don't involve first degree ax murder, I will clear my plans for the entire weekend." I responded.
"Oh Good!" She said, "By the way, there could be some sex in it for you if you remember to come a little better prepared this time. See you around eleven on Saturday. Same restaurant we had breakfast at last time."
I made sure that I had more than enough money to cover the cost of a room and would be able to pay for lunch, dinner and several drinks Saturday evening. I also bought a full box of rubbers.
I arrived at the restaurant at 10:30 and took a table with a view to the parking lot and entrance to the restaurant. I had brought a textbook to read while I waited for Nikki's arrival. She pulled into the parking log at quarter after eleven
Nikki smiled at me as she entered the restaurant. She gave me a quick, peck on the cheek and asked if we could move to a table in the back where we would have a little more privacy than sitting in the front part of the restaurant with people always walking or standing nearby.
Grabbing my book and cup, I signaled to the waitress to indicate we were moving to one of the tables in back.
"Miss me?" Nikki asked when we were seated again.
"You know I did." I replied.
The waitress arrived to take out orders. I followed Nikki's lead and ordered a club sandwich with chips.
"I missed you too." Nikki said, continuing by leaning in and saying in a much softer voice with, "You should know, it's extremely rare that I have a second date with a person I've slept with."
"I'm glad I impressed you enough to get the offer." I responded.
Our meals arrived and we made light talk while eating. Even though we were seated along the back wall of the restaurant, there were still people sitting fairly close to us and we wanted to be careful with what we said.
"Did I shock you when I told you that I would have gone out looking to have sex?" She asked leaning over the table and whispering. "How about you Mark? Do you enjoy having lots of variety too?"
I hesitated, weighing my response. I had untold secrets also, after all. Yes, I most certainly liked variety but, I also thought I could find it in myself to be monogamous with someone going forward.