Page 9 of The Art of Catching Feelings

Well, she supposed she should’ve figured that.

D: So you do whatever you want?

C: Pretty much.

She couldn’t get a read on him. His replies could be so short, and she kept waiting for him to wrap it up, or stop responding. He’d already kind of done it once. But then he just kept typing. Even now, she saw the three dots appear, and then a new message popped up at the bottom of the chat.

C: Seat back: occasionally. Earbuds in: usually. Window: preferably.

The fact that he answered each part of her question in order got to her a little. This wasn’t a formal interview; he didn’t owe her answers to anything at all. And yet he seemed to want her to know each of those details, because she’d asked about them, and she didn’t know what to do with that.

Before she could second-guess herself, she decided to cut right to the chase.

D: Can I ask you a question?

C:…

D: Why are you talking to me?

D: Not that I mind.

D: I like talking to you.

D: I mean, I appreciate that you answered my DM. I’m just surprised.

Daphne groaned audibly into her empty apartment, causingMilo to lift his head from the laundry. Everything she said was more cringeworthy than the last. Not to mention reminding her that the only reason this guy was talking to her in the first place was because she’d botched her apology so badly.

C: I can’t sleep on planes.

Okay, so he was just bored. Weirdly, that made her feel better. She’d been in that kind of situation before—stuck in a doctor’s waiting room, for example, with nothing to do but mess around on your phone and hope you got called soon. Those were the times when you stooped to interacting with branded social media accounts or answering all those mindless autofill prompts.Type “I am [your Zodiac sign] and that’s why” and then let predictive text fill in the rest.

Bored made sense to her. Bored, she could handle.

D: Are you scared to fly? I’m not, but I hate it when anyone reminds you that you’re 10x safer when you fly than when you drive. I know!!! That’s why I’m more scared of cars!!!

C: I never used to be.

Huh. That implied that he was now, but he didn’t follow up. Instead, his next message came in with another question for her.

C: Are you really scared of cars?

D: I got into a car accident in college—it wasn’t even that bad, if my best friend were here she’d say, “It was a bump!” (She’s the one who hit my car.) Anyway, ever since then I’ve been a nervous driver! Which I know doesn’t help, only makes me more nervous, and on and on. It’s a vicious cycle.

C: Have you been in a car accident since the bump?

Daphne smiled. She didn’t know why it was so charming to her, that he’d used Kim’s word for it.

D: No.

C: So in…how many years?

D: 7

She was probably reading too much into it, but suddenly Daphne wondered if that had been a clever way to ask how old she was. She decided to follow it up with more information, just in case.

D: (I was 20 at the time.)

C: It sounds like you’re a pretty safe driver.

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