"Howl's Love Advice"

Chapter 13: Play, Eat, Repeat

Howl paced.

"Come on, man, I thought you were gonna play online with me," complained Cal from the couch, waiting for the video game to load on Howl's 80-inch television screen.

Howl stopped to adjust the ice pack that he held against his cheek. His restless footwork had carved a haphazard path through the clutter on the floor. He could finally see those mahogany tiles. Wouldn't his grandmother be proud.

Goodness knows how much she paid for them.

"I just need to find out if she's been fired. I didn't even get her address," he announced grumpily.

"Uh… that's called stalking," Cal retorted, brushing a bronze hand across his short, fiery red hair. "Plus you only knew this chick for like thirty minutes."

"Thirty-five," Howl corrected.

"Oh yeah. Coffee girl. Bet you still don't know her name!"

Howl frowned and watched his best friend make screen selections with the game controller.

Cal snorted at his telling silence.

"Hah! Fine." Howl walked around the black leather couch and flopped next to him. "I'll figure it out eventually. She looks like she could be a Bethany..."

"Bethany was your last girlfriend. Are you making up names?"

"Does it matter so long as she's pretty?" Howl smirked.

"Hence your perpetual state of singularity."

"This one's different, Cal."

"I believe it."

"We had a moment."

"Listen, man, I love ya and all -"

"She's tenacious yet adorably timid. She also breathes in closets."

"Haha, dude, what? Stop!"

"Kept me interested," Howl added with a mischievous smile.

After crashing through the ceiling tiles and landing on that bystander, Howl had almost been disappointed to see the woman open her eyes. Had she remained unconscious, he could have done a little resuscitating to help her with that breathing hobby of hers...

With a sigh, he tossed the melting ice pack onto the messy coffee table.

Those purple suits were unbearably annoying. Didn't they actually have duties besides waiting around for him to screw up?

Cal stuffed a salty crisp in his mouth and offered Howl a controller. "Campaign?"

"Can't." At the look in his friend's amber eyes, he added, "Gotta go pick-up my little friend in five."

Cal laughed. "Our university degrees in all their glory."

"Delayed glory," Howl chuckled.

Currently, neither one of them were doing what they had set out to do. Cal had studied astrophysics but was working in international marketing. Howl had personally finished his doctorate a few months back and frankly never wanted to think about school again.

Howl took a second to check his appearance in his compact mirror. His sore cheek still looked red. He hoped it wouldn't bruise. Just in case, he nabbed an open tube of BB Cream from the coffee table and spread a layer of cream over his cheek. "How old are we turning this year, twenty-five?"

"Naw, that's all you. I'm a sweet twenty-three, and I ain't settlin' anytime soon."

"Ouch. Single so long. Want my advice?"

"Hah! Like you'd take your own."

Howl shrugged. "Of course. Who ever heard of a doctor taking his own medicine?"