"Manuel- this is pretty robust code. From the looks of it we should be on schedule to launch the customer frontend next week. I'd appreciate it if you could also get around to reviewing the API docs and ensuring everything is current. Other than that, great work. Have a beer and flip on the game."
I finish typing out the last email for today, or the last one I have any patience to write. I raise an extra large mug to my lips and take a swig of cold coffee. Four hours old, brewed after coming home. It holds up fine. Manuel, one of the guys under me at work, had no doubt already begun drinking and/or watching the game. I was nearly a teetotaler myself these days; nonetheless I had a reverent respect for alcohol and sports alike.
Despite sitting in front of a computer, I reach across the desk and pick up my phone to check the time. 5:27PM. I'm due at Anne's in half an hour. Are modified t-shirts good dinner attire? Likely not. I could stand to change into a collared shirt and some slacks.
Put on decent clothes. Brush teeth. Deodorant? Deodorant. Anything else? Probably nothing else. What could Anne be wearing? Is it the same grayish top and gray sweats she had on this afternoon? Surely she wouldn't dress up for me... so but I feel like she's the kind of woman who would look stunning in anything. Jeez, what if she just answers the door in her underwear?
Wait. I explicitly told her it was a
date
. That means... Anne could be wearing something really nice. I should jazz the shoes I wore to my high school mate's wedding. Is cologne too much? A spritz will do.
I check my phone again - 5:53PM. Reclining listlessly on the single stool in my tiny sink/bar area, I abruptly stand up and appraise it, the stool. It's sturdy and balanced with four wooden legs, well-braced. It's around three feet tall. It's a good stool. I'll bring it with me.
I leave my phone on the counter, lock the place up and begin walking to Anne's. Although it's dusk, the air is meek and dewy. Sideways spires of clouds layered irregularly turn to indigo on the absconding skyline. Somewhere or other, a man wheezes like a horse. I pass by someone non-binary I've exchanged small talk with and give them a warm "How's it going?" while raising the stool in salutation.
Upon arriving at #127, I realize that I've been grinning like a kid this whole time. I decide to sit on the stool before alerting Anne to my presence.
Knock, knock, knock...
Anne answers the door in a short black dress, exposing her shoulders and chest. It tapers down to a V from her collarbones, expertly framing subtle, braless cleavage above the terminal point. She's wearing black wedge sandals - the straps wrap around her dorsum and give her lovely naked toes the spotlight. Her long hair is arranged in a high bun, secured with a small band of pearls and skewered by a single ornate chopstick with a large ruby diamond on the wider end. She has circular gold earrings and the scantest amount of foundation. Her already beautiful features appear nothing short of otherworldly.
I'm slumped forward now, absolutely speechless. My smile has all but disappeared as I stare in bewilderment. If you happened to take my pulse, you'd be forgiven for mistaking my heart for a sputtering engine on a freezing morning.
"Eric? What's wrong Eric, are you OK?"
"Uh-uh-," I stutter. "You look amazing, Anne."
She coquettishly covers her mouth. I see white teeth as her lips part in a wide smile.
"You did say it was date, no? So I thought I look nice for you... on our
first date
." Anne glances to the well-braced stool. "Why you sitting on that?"
I leap to my feet. "Oh, this. Oh, yeah. I'll show you in a second. Do you mind if I hug you?"
"No, you can do that... but first you come inside. We not eat right here at door, silly boy!"
Anne stepped aside to let me in. I brought in the stool and placed it on the landing as she closed the door. When I turned around, she was toying with her fingers and looking up at me with the same anticipation I had seen earlier that day. Something came over me, seeing her like that. I gently embraced her hands, leaned down to meet her at height, and pressed my lips to her cheek.
I half-expected Anne to exclaim in protest. But she was quiet as a mouse. Suddenly, she wrapped her arms tightly around me.
"Eric..."
I held her close, resting my face in her hair. She smelled like chamomile and roses. I felt her chest shakily expand and contract against mine.
"Ssshh," I whispered, "let's just stay like this for a while."
Usually during such an event, amateur writers would liken the passage of time to an eternity or some comparable eternity-esque duration. Seasoned authors might emphasize the phenomenology of interpersonal histories dancing and weaving about, coming to fruition at the exact point in which two lovers finally join each other in romantic bliss. Still others would opt to describe it as "being in a dream," or "not seeming quite real."
As for myself, I couldn't begin to characterize or comprehend what was happening. Mentally, I drew a complete blank. It was the same feeling I had while struggling to breathe after coming back from yesterday's run, now under circumstances that were serene and invigorating instead of life-force-draining. And just like yesterday, my body was on fire.
In short; I eventually came to my senses.
"I have another surprise for you, Anne."
Her head was still against my chest. "You surprise me enough already today... what is it this time?"
I give her tiny frame a tender squeeze, then slowly pull away. Her hands caress my hips as she follows suit.
"It's this," I say, picking up the stool and carrying it to the area where her lonely TV was piqued up on the floor like an itinerant canine. I moved the TV aside, replacing it with the stool. I picked up the television and squared it on the wooden seat, then placed the R_ box neatly on the surface of the its flat plastic stand.
"There. Now you don't have to crane your neck to watch TV."
Anne observes all of this in silence. After a few seconds, she explodes with laughter.
"Hahahaha, oh Eric, is that why you bring a stool all the way here?"
She runs over and jumps into my arms.
"I like it. You so thoughtful, concerned about something like that. Thank you Eric. You go sit at dining table," she says as her hands not-inconspicuously inspect my pectorals. "I serve you big mouth-watering meal, OK?"
"Sounds great!"
I take the seat facing the kitchen and rest my chin on my palm while watching Anne open stainless steel pots with glass lids, steam billowing upwards in vaporous poofs ascending beyond her concentrated eyebrows and radially mushrooming outwards upon hitting the ceiling. She scoops things into large bowls from several pots and one behemoth of a rice cooker, then brings them to the table. There's white rice, beef curry, and dumplings of some persuasion.
"You drink wine Eric?" she asks.
Hadn't expected that. If I start drinking, I'll really need to check myself. But Anne went through all this trouble tonight just for me. A glass or two... couldn't hurt.
"I do tonight, Anne. Special occasion.
Very
special occasion."
"Ooh, I see. You not big drinker. In China, my family always drink wine with dinner. Mother opens bottle, father empties it. Ha!"
I roar with laughter, definitely not expecting
that
. In addition to being kind and generous, Anne is quick-witted with a lively sense of humor.
"Sometimes shot of
baijiu
too," she continues, "if you up to it!"