Page 59 of Friendshipped
Thank you for dinner
The food was very yummy
Let’s just be friends now
He stares at me, obviously torn between admiration for my ability to haiku on demand and his disappointment at my friend-zoning him.
“Just friends?” he asks.
And honestly, I feel a little sympathy for him. But not enough to concede to another date.
“Yes. Just friends please. Thanks.”
Manners abound when I’m nervous or feel cornered.
I fumble with my keys and open my car door. I turn and give Joshua a tight-lipped smile.
* * *
I’m typing awayat my desk Monday morning when Trevor walks into my cubicle and leans back on the dividing wall, crossing his arms over his chest. We drove separately since he had to stop to eat at a diner to review their breakfast menu before work today and I wouldn’t be allowed to come in late even if I were with him on a work assignment.
“So,” Trevor says, “How was the big date?”
He already sees the disaster written across my face.
“That bad?”
“Worse. He came bearing a poem to honor our first date.”
“A poem?”
“Yep. He started reading it to me right after our main dish arrived.”
“What’s wrong with that? Aren’t poems romantic?”
“They can be. But, leave it to me to find the one guy who reads me a haiku over Mu Shu. It was tragic.” I say, shaking my head. “Do you know how hard it is not to laugh when the man across from you breaks out into a verse while you hold chopsticks mid-bite?”
“Wow. Just wow.”
I repeat Josh’s haiku. Trevor stares at me. Then I see the redness creeping up his neck. He’s trying not to laugh.
“You can laugh.”
He does. I turn back to my desk.
“Glad to entertain, I’ll be here all day.”
Trevor starts to regain his composure. He tries speaking, but sputters out “How bigwasthat chopstick?” and starts gasping for air again, bending at the waist
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” I tease, waggling my eyebrows, and feeling better as I always do when I rehash my date fails with Trevor.
“So, no second date for Ralph Waldo Emerson?”
I glare, but I’m only playing at being irritated and Trevor knows it.
“No. No second date. As a matter of fact, I friend zoned him with a haiku.”
“Say it isn’t so.”
