Page 30 of The Five Stages of Courting Dalisay Ramos

No matter what he does, she’s the only thing he can think about. She’s everywhere. He doesn’t want to believe he’s obsessed with her but …

The bells at the front chime as the door opens and he turns to see silky black hair sweep inside. For a moment, Evan’s heart stops.Dalisay.

Daniel said she likes bookstores. What are the odds that she’s here now? She’s new to town, maybe she’s checking out all that San Francisco has to offer.

But the woman says something to the others at the front and just hearing her voice, Evan knows it’s not Dalisay. He was mistaken. Seeing her now, as she moves farther into the store, he realizes the only thing they have in common is hair color. Unless Dalisay moonlights out of the office looking like a goth vampire in fishnets and a choker, which he highly doubts.

He lets out a sigh of relief.

And for a brief, baffling moment, disappointment follows. He can’t seem to get Dalisay out of his head. Even in his sleep, he can’t get rid of her.

This morning, when he woke up, still hovering in the warm haze of a dream he can’t remember, he rolled over in bed, and wrapped his arm around Dalisay’s body sleeping next to him. Except his arm passed through cold, thin air, and he jerked awake feeling like he’d lost something.

It wasn’t real, he reminds himself. He can’t lose something he’s never had.

Dalisay Ramos:

Ready for stage four?

Evan’s in line to board his flight when he gets the text. He’s headed to London for a weekend trip for work, but seeing Dalisay’s name makes him feel like he’s already in the air, defying gravity.

Bring it on,

he types.

I’m heading to jolly ol’ London now, though. Be back Monday.

Before he hits send, he winces at his own words. He sounds like such a dork. Who says ‘jolly ol’? Really? He edits the middle sentence and hits send.

Me:

Bring it on. Catching a flight now. Be back Monday.

Dalisay Ramos:

The anticipation is excruciating. ;)

“This is her house?” Evan asks.

JM shifts the car into park and nods. He offered to drive Evan, seeing as Bettie decided not to start today. She might be on her last legs.

Evan still doesn’t know what stage four entails, and JM and Pinky keep mum about it, even after he asks them a million times. He wants to prepare as best he can, but they’re resolute. They told him it’s not fair if he googles it either. He’ll find out soon enough.

After work, JM drives Evan to Outer Richmond, a neighborhood on the north side of the city. Despite Evan having lived in San Francisco most of his life, he’s never visited this side of town before, and for some reason it makes him nervous. Maybe it’s because now he’s on her home turf.

The Ramos home is a robin’s-egg blue, single-family house with a large bay window overlooking the driveway leading up to the front door and garage. It’s one of the nicer houses on the block, and like Dalisay, he knows that there’s more behind the facade than meets the eye.

“This is the address Pinky gave me,” JM says. “All you have to do now is knock on the front door. Prepare for servitude, my guy.”

Evan whips around to look at him. “Servitude? You’re making this up now. Are you and Dalisay in on it together?”

With a laugh, JM shakes his head.

“Why didn’t you say anything earlier?” Evan asks.

“Because I know you can do it, no sweat,” replies JM. “You need to serve to prove that you’re useful, that you can take care of things, that you’re not lazy. Shows that you’re willing to make an effort.”

“I’m not lazy. Haven’t the first three stages proven that?”

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