woke up late,

CHARLIE: I'm pretty sure I just asked Blair out on a second date.

CHARLIE: But we never specified it being a date.

BLAIR: Oh! No, it’s Wednesday. No need to apologize, really. I don’t think I mentioned the date.

BLAIR: That’s good. I’m glad to hear that. How was work today?

[...]

BLAIR: Oh! 😁

BLAIR: I would love that. I had a great time at prom. It was so much better than my original prom.

BLAIR: You’re a wonderful date.

CHARLIE: Oh. Well, I bet you're pumped for Wednesday then. How long does it go on for? All together, not how many hours that night.

CHARLIE: Work was work. My boss has been on my ass about a really boring story, so I've been busting my butt trying to make it sound at least a little bit interesting. Pretty sure I'm failing, though.

CHARLIE: Really?

[...]

If it matters you can slap me in the face any time you wanna get all jazz hands during a story time. One time someone at Best Buy told me they think I might be a robot because of how much I don’t use my hands when I talk, so maybe I need some lessons or some ish.

Did you just offer to let me slap you in the face? That sounds kind of like a kink thing to me... Maybe we need to learn from each other. You take some of my hand talking, I’ll take some of your robot.

The fact that nobody filmed this is so detrimental to me.

The fact that nobody has started following me around with a camera 24/7 is honestly surprising. And no, you can’t do it.

Remind me to keep a three to five feet distance from the likes of you and your hands, which isn’t something I say often to girls. Important to know how the person you slapped reacted though. Did you make a new enemy in NYC or did you unlock their kink? Or did they not even notice, which is likely in this place.

I guess I’ll try not to take offense. I mean, he was old, he apologized to me, which almost made it even worse. I would’ve preferred that he hadn’t noticed.

Been there, done that.  It’s always a little embarrassing, but maybe they shouldn’t have been in your bubble?  At least, that’s always my excuse when they give me the look of betrayal.  All of my students seemed to think today was Friday, so I’m interested to see how many of them show up.  Maybe their parents are doing an even longer Memorial Day weekend.

I’d agree, but I feel like it’s harder to stay out of people’s bubble in a busy city. You’d think being so tiny would have its perks, like your flailing hands wouldn’t quite reach people passing by, but no such luck. How many of them showed up? A record low?

I’m a hand talker and I feel this so hard!! One time I accidentally whopped a dude sitting next to me in a lecture hall so hard that he came back with a bruise on his cheek… he also told me I must have wicked upper body strength tho so it was kind of a win.

Damn, that sounds like less of an accident if you literally left a bruise. Had he done something wrong to you and you were subconsciously getting him back for it?

Lack of boundaries. Noted. 

Something like that. Does it still count if it’s unintentional?

You know, I always say: Never bitch slap someone unless you have your nails done. Never go down to peasantry level. Plus, if you got some acrylics on, you can leave a scratch and a bruise. 

I don’t know if you really got the whole point of the story here, but I definitely didn’t intend to slap anybody... Acrylics would’ve made a sad time ten times more depressing. Besides, I can never keep those on. They catch on everything, I don’t know people do it.

In that case, I’m totally going to talk to you from a good arms distance from now on.

But, I mean, almond milk is pretty great.

That’s probably a good idea.

I’m not much of a hand talker myself,, but I have quite a few friends who are and I think it makes our conversations that much better since you can physically see how excited they are to talk about something. Though I suppose there’s a limit somewhere, and accidentally slapping someone is probably where that limit is. I do hope they weren’t too mad at you?

How do you manage to make a positive out of literally everything? Honestly, I’m jealous. I don’t think he was mad. More so just.. stunned? I don’t know, I felt bad about it afterwards either way.

Hahaha, you’re fucking kidding, you smacked someone’s grandpa? I thought you might have decked a seven year old, but this is so much funnier. Gotta live your truth and all that, I’m just helping you with that.

I mean, we don’t know that for a fact. Maybe he didn’t have any grandkids, you can’t jump to conclusions.

Although now I’m thinking about how I hit a lonely old man, and that makes it even worse... Shut up.

[...]

BLAIR: Wait, so you’re not enthusiastic to talk to me? [DELETED]

BLAIR: Or you don’t know why you texted me? [DELETED]

[...]

BLAIR: Hi, Charlie! I’m okay. Getting ready for my opening night, which came up so much sooner than I thought it would.

BLAIR: How are you?

CHARLIE: Oh, wow, is that tonight? I promise I was listening on Saturday when you were telling me about it. Mondays just mess me up, you know? Work. You must be pumped.

CHARLIE: I'm good.

CHARLIE: I actually just wanted to text to tell you I had a really good time with you this weekend. And if you maybe want to do something again, we totally could.

CHARLIE: Hey, Blair!

[...]

CHARLIE: Or something less enthusiastic sounding. I don't do exclamation point texts, I don't know why I did that.