Shocking Slip
March 20th, 2008 by C.Posted in Bedroom Blog |
Piping hot lattes and a piece of cheesecake. Sounds heavenly, right? Hay, if only our convo today was as sweet:
“So, how have you been?” Marcus asked. We were in a cozy corner of a newly-opened café near our office.
“Oh, alam mo na,” I shrugged my shoulders. “The usual stress.” No point in regaling him with horror stories of Ms. Slavedriver.
“Well, my friends are setting me up,” he began. I nearly choked on my coffee. Set up? Did I hear that right?
“What, as in a b-blind date?” I tried hard to keep from stammering. Aghast, I waited for his reply with baited breath.
“Guess you could call it that,” he said with a smile and an embarrassed, nervous laugh.
“Well, you don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” I said quickly. Gosh, did I just say that? Ang obvious ’ata na affected!
“Oh, well, I guess I should try it,” It was his turn to shrug. But he was looking at me curiously. “I should—no one wants to go out on a date with me anyway!”
“Ako.” It was out before I caught myself. “I’d go out with you.”
“Ha?” Surprise, shock, embarrassment—I didn’t know which of the three was the most apparent on Marcus’s face.
“Marcus! C.!” Before he could say anymore, Ms. Slavedriver was there. “Can I share table? Okey lang? This café’s getting so crowded!” Without waiting for an answer, she wedged herself between us. I felt like I could strangle her ’til she turned blue.
The moment was lost, of course. We ended up talking about what else—work. The question: What does Marcus think of me now?