flooding my system. I feel like there’s more. Is there more?
My fingers work across the screen in a trembling blur.
Me: You brought me home last night?
Vale: Couldn’t leave you on your own. Hud would have killed me.
Me: Did we… Did I say anything weird? Did I do anything?
I sink my teeth into my lip as I await his response. I don’t expect him to actually tell me if he thinks I’ve forgotten. Unless something more than I remember happened between us. Not that anything would have. I can trust him with my life. Or my drunk, naked body. I want to know how embarrassed I should be and how awkward it’ll be between us after this.
Vale: Nope.
So we’re pretending I didn’t make a fool of myself. This is good. I expel the breath I was holding as I tap out a single word response.
Me: Great.
The last thing I need is Vale thinking I’m into him. It would be too awkward. Especially now that I realize I’ve never not been into him. It’s official. I can no longer fool myself into believing I haven’t wanted him for as long as I’ve been aware of the birds and the bees. But that doesn’t mean I should do anything about it. So if he wants to pretend that nothing happened the other night I’m going to play along.
Never have I ever kissed my brother’s best friend. Never have I ever asked him if he wanted to see me naked. Except that’s exactly what I did last night.
Me: So we’re good?
Vale: Never better.
“Great.” I wish I felt a little more relieved by his response, and not so disappointed that he wants to sweep the whole thing under the rug like it didn’t happen at all.
My phone wolf whistles. A new match. Yippee.
I chew my lip as I stare at my device like it’s suddenly grown eight hairy legs and a set of fangs. If I kissed my brother’s best friend then who knows what else I was capable of last night.
Like signing up to a dating app for instance. Even in the state I was in, I must have known kissing Vale was a mistake. Maybe drunk me thought it would be a good idea to focus her sexy frustrations on meeting someone who isn’t my brother’s best friend and an eternal bachelor.
Perhaps it might not be a bad idea to play around with the app. Not in any serious way, but I could review it. I could date. Possibly even have a fling while I’m in California. Get Vale out of my head before I make a bigger fool of myself in front of him than I already did.
This time when I pick up the device I open the app to see who I could possibly have matched with after I went to so much effort to make myself unappealing.
There are five matches I immediately remove. Two more beside the first guy I deleted make reference to their nuts. It was sort of funny the first time. Not so much on the third telling. Some of these tech guys have probably forgotten this is real world dating too.
One guy has his status as married in his profile. Instant delete, right there. The other two are only interested in sex.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m interested in doing the deed, but let’s get a drink first. Get to know each other. And since I don’t do first dates you can probably imagine the number of times I’ve had sex. But from what I can tell of this app, those guys aren’t going to get as far as they would on, say, Tinder.
Which leaves me with one last option. At least for the moment. Cap’N Crunch. Like the cereal. In fact, his profile picture is a giant bowl of Crunch Berries.
The only reason I don’t delete him along with the others is that huge bowl of sugary breakfast goodness. Because Crunch Berries are my favorite start to the weekday work day.
The coffee is ready so I doctor a cup with my French vanilla creamer and take it back to my bedroom. I need a paint scraper for my makeup and a shower before I go down the street to Frank’s Deli for the best egg and cheese sandwich in the city.
I click on Cap’N Crunch’s profile while I turn on the water in the shower. He’s early thirties. From Los Angeles. A gamer and developer. He likes having a beer with friends and playing football.
Sounds like