Eve sat at her desk in Philosophy class and doodled in her notebook. Odds that he'll actually get up the nerve to call me? Probably 50/50. Odds that he'll be able to form a complete sentence when he does? She smiled and drew a little heart with curlicues all around it.
Adam looked around the locker room twice, checked all of the shower stalls, gave the room another once over, then carefully and reverently withdrew the slip of paper from his wallet, where he'd tucked it in between his driver's license and his library card. Glancing up nervously, he looked around again before taking a deep breath and dialing.
5... 5... 5...
"Hey! Adam, right?" came a loud, New York accent behind him.
Shit! Adam jumped guiltily and flipped his cellphone closed, quickly hiding the precious slip of paper back in his wallet. Turning toward the voice, he stood up and waved a hand awkwardly in greeting. "Yeah, hi!" What was his name, again? "You're...?"
"Danny," the other man said, holding out a hand in greeting. "We met for about three seconds last week when Mac first gave you the tour."
"Ohhh yeah, I remember," Adam replied, shaking the profferred limb. "You were getting trace off some clothing with a woman who looks kind of like a cross between Penelope Cruz and a young Sophia Loren." I just had to get a job at the lab with all of the pretty people. I couldn't just go work with the Dork Squad and be considered hot by comparison. Noooo.
Danny blinked for a minute before it clicked. "Ohhh, you mean Aiden!" he laughed. "What? You wanna hit that?" He gave Adam a skeptical once over. "Fair warnin': she's a cop, a New Yorker, and she's Italian. If she ain't interested, just let it go."
I wonder if he's speaking from experience, there? "Actually, I've got a girlfriend." Dumb. Stupid. Idiotic. Sonofa...
"Oh yeah?" Danny laughed and touched his cheek. "Actually, I'd kinda already guessed that." He closed his locker, having fetched whatever it was that he was looking for. "Anyway, I'll see y'around. Alright?"
"You bet!" Adam answered with more enthusiasm than he really felt. Great. A week on the job, and I'm already lying through my teeth. Reaching up, he tried once more to wipe Eve's lipgloss from his cheek. What is this stuff? Glue?
5... 5... 5...9... 3...
Oh God. I can't do this. Adam closed his phone in a sudden panic and looked around his apartment for a distraction. He'd decided to wait until he got home so that he could make the call with some degree of privacy, but now the eerie amounts of quiet were getting to him. What if I get her voicemail? I suck at voicemail! I'll panic and start talking and won't stop and then she'll think I'm some sort of psycho loser stalker insane rapist murderer who can't even leave a stupid voicemail without cracking up!
Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to walk around his apartment until his breathing returned to normal. She's just a girl. Deep breath. It's just a phone call. Deep breath. I'm just calling to ask her... to ask her... his breathing hitched again and he sat down quickly on the couch and put his head between his knees. Oh God. I can't do this.
5... 5... 5... 9... 3... 2...
Adam closed his phone and buried his face in a pillow to let out a frustrated scream. "GRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR!"
Punching the pillow a few times, he took a deep breath and sat up in bed once more. I can do this. This can be done. This is a totally doable thing I'm going to do. Riiiiight... NOW! He stared at his phone in an agony of indecision. He thought he might vomit. No wait, he was going to piss himself. No, no... vomit. Definitely vomit.
He dashed off to the bathroom.
"mmmmello?" Eve mumbled into her cell phone. Lifting her face out of her pillow she squinted at her alarm clock. 4am? This better be good.
"..."
"'ello?" she yawned, brushing the hair out of her eyes and sitting up. "If this is some sort of perverted attempt at phone sex, do you think you could call back on Friday? It's just that I have to wake up early tomorrow for class, and I..."
"ADAM!" her eyes opened wide from the shock of both the volume and the message itself. Wow! He did it! She looked at her clock again. Now, if only he'd done it, say, five hours ago.
"Adam? Subway Adam? Cute, geeky, unable to utter a complete sentence Adam with the good taste in books?" Easy girl, be gentle.
"..." This time, there was a sort of affirmative-sounding squeak that, while unable to be represented by mere typography, was clearly released from the throat of a shy, desperate, human male who has just realised that he's calling a gorgeous woman he barely knows at an ungodly hour of the night.
Eve smiled to herself and settled back onto her pillows. "So, how've you been?" she asked, solicitously, as if it weren't 4am and he hadn't just woken her from a wonderful dream involving herself, Adam Brody, and a complete lack of clothing. C'mon, baby. Gimme something to work with, here.
"I threw up." Eve managed to stifle her laughter, but she almost lost it when she heard the clear sound of a hand thwapping a forehead followed by a whispered curse. "I mean... I'm good."
"I'll definitely agree with that one," she flirted outrageously. Make it painfully obvious, and he'll have to do something.
There was a deep breath on the other end of the line, and then she was bowled over by the sheer number of syllables she was bombarded with. "So, I was calling because I was wondering, and I know that maybe you didn't mean to imply this when you gave me your number, but I think that maybe you did mean to imply it, and so I wanted to know if you'd mind if I wanted to maybe ask you out. On a date, I mean. And when I say date, I don't mean that I want to just take you somewhere and have sex with you. Um. I mean, I do want to have sex with you. A lot. But... Oh crap. I don't mean that I just want to have sex with you, I mean that I want to have a date with you and maybe have sex with you... sometime... if you want to... and... Can I start over please?" He took another deep breath, and Eve jumped on the chance to get a word in edgewise.
"Tomorrow night? Dinner?" Well, he can talk, after all. Who'da thunk it?
"..." another affirmative squeak followed by a clearing of the throat and an overly-masculine voice reiterating. "That'd be great."
"Meet at the subway station at 96th?
"I'll see you there."
Huh. A date with Adam. Settling back down under her covers, Eve allowed herself a laugh. This is going to be fun.