SLOW HANDS

She lifted her phone again and tried to ignore the ache of loneliness that had settled in her stomach. She’d done it. Pursued her dream career and made it in a workforce mostly dominated by males. It had been her goal for so long. Things were going well for her agency, and the future looked promising. But it seemed that in her pursuit of her goal she’d lost a little of her life along the way.

Her phone buzzed again and she looked at the response on the dating app. She had stopped using the app years ago but now that she was desperately trying to get over Timothy, she thought maybe it was time to go back to it. Maybe she would meet someone she would like, and maybe start a relationship.

Most guys she’d met-mainly very nice- weren’t interested in a woman who often ended up working for hours, surrounded by other men. Chloe had never mixed business with pleasure… Well until Timothy, and she had always refused to date a work colleague. Too complicated. Too much hassle.. And the drama with Timothy was enough proof.

Her apartment was comfortable, but lately coming home to a comfortable, but empty, apartment had left Chloe feeling lonely. Before Timothy, she didn’t really think of relationships, but since he left, on a daily basis she caught glimpses of couples and families going about their everyday lives, all reinforcing the fact that she was on her own and it sucked real bad. She shook her head as another message popped up in one of the other dating apps. Currently she was registered on three-all under pseudonyms. The last thing she wanted was to be discovered by one of her friends.

.

She frowned and swiped on her screen. The latest match had proved himself tasteless on the first message. Delete. Chloe was a bit of a master of these apps. She was looking for someone to date-not a five-minute fling or hook-up. She said so in all three of her profiles, but that didn’t stop a few guys with other things on their minds sending her messages. She deleted them all quickly. Another message buzzed onto her screen…. But not from any of the apps. This was a text message sent to her. She checked the message and her heart skipped a bit. It was Timothy, and this was the first time he was contacting her since he left a week ago.

The message read :

‘Hi Chloe. How are you? i hope you’re doing well. It’s been a while and I just wanted to say hello’

She smiled and shifted on her sofa. She was so glad that he had texted her. Infact, the entire week she had been confused. Wondering why he hadn’t reached out to her. She thought it was because he needed some space because she turned him down and she was too scared of being ignored if she reached out, so she had kept her distance. Her fingers moved to answer his message immediately.

‘Hello, Tim. I’m fine. And yes it’s been a while. How are you doing?’Content from NôvelDr(a)ma.Org.

She couldn’t pretend that her stomach didn’t give a little flip-flop as she sent the message to him..

‘I’m fine. Just a little sad that you haven’t reached out to me since I left. I know I shouldn’t be but I am’ came his reply.

Chloe sat upright, sending her blanket sliding from her lap. She glanced at her watch. It was late-but not too late. Her fingers paused above the screen. Should she really be texting him if she was trying to get over him? She asked herself. Oh, who cares, she decided. She knew that she couldn’t ignore him and if she managed to, she would spend the entire night in bed thinking about him and what he had to say. Her phone gave another buzz and she smiled. He was waiting for her answer.

Timothy : Well…?

Chloe : I’m sorry. I just wasn’t sure that you wanted to hear from me.

She definitely couldn’t pretend her stomach was feeling normal so she stood up from the sofa and walked to her room. As she climbed into her bed her phone buzzed and she almost jumped.

Timothy : Now why would you think that? We didn’t leave things in a bad place, did we? In fact if I remember correctly, we left things in a very good place.

Chloe stared at the wink emoji he sent along with the message and her heart flipped a little. This man just knew how to get her every time. She put a pillow upright and leaned on it as she began to type a reply to him.

Chloe : Well, you said you would call me and you didn’t. I wanted to call you, I really did but I thought maybe it was best for the both of us if we gave each other some space.

Timothy : Best? I have never imagined that not speaking to each other would be the best thing for us. You made that decision and came to that conclusion on your own. So do you think not talking to each other is best for us, or for you?

Chloe thought about that. He was right. She had made this decision because she thought it was the best decision for her, but she wasn’t going to make things easy for him.

Chloe : You know what I mean, Tim. Don’t put words in my mouth.

Timothy : I’m not. I honestly don’t think you made that decision for yourself and not us. You seem determined to keep on denying the fact that there’s something between us. We are attracted to each other. We want each other. And for some reason, you have decided to make things harder for us.

Chloe : Are we really going to talk about this again? I already gave you my reasons why we can’t make more of this. Let’s forget about this and talk about something else. How was your journey back home?

Timothy : Don’t try to change the topic. Thankfully, I’m good at multitasking so I can talk about two things at once. My journey was fine. I went to work today and it was extremely boring because you are not here anymore. And as for the other topic, I think that those reasons you gave me are not good enough. You are afraid, and you are hiding behind your reasons.

Obviously the guy was good with words. Chloe thought. And why the hell did he have to be so right?