Page 43 of Make a Scene

“Aren’t your five minutes up already?”

Whether because of strong coffee or the anticipation for upcoming presentations, the people in the hotel conference room Retta stood in chatted excitedly. She adjusted the platters of pastries she had delivered and took a photo for social media. Having already spoken with the programmer for the business event, she picked up her belongings to take her leave.

“Excuse me,” Retta said as she navigated her way around men in gray suits toward the exit. When swinging the door open, she almost crashed into a person who was trying to enter at the same time.

“I’m sorry—”

Retta’s eyes widened when she finally straightened and looked into the man’s face.

“Hi,” she said automatically, already hating herself for speaking. She usually didn’t make it a habit of acknowledging men who ghosted her.

Steve looked unchanged from the time of their first date at the cafe, except he was in a boring suit like the other men in the hall.

“Ah, hey… This is awkward,” Steve said, laughing and sweeping his floppy brown hair to the side.

Oh, please. That was on him. He was the one who hadn’t responded to her texts.

“Not really,” Retta replied.

Steve’s lips turned downward, but he didn’t say anything. So she nodded and moved to sidestep him.

“Can I ask you something?”

God, what now?

“I thought we had a great time. What happened?” he asked, fidgeting with his briefcase.

Retta shook her head. “What are you talking about? I texted you once our date ended and two more times the day after.”

He’d given her his number and told her to text him so he got hers as well.

Steve stepped forward, frowning. “I didn’t receive one message from you.”

They stood there, staring each other down. Retta was trying to gauge if this man was bullshitting her or not, a quick bait and switch because now he wanted a chance with her but knew he’d already messed up.

“You must’ve typed my number incorrectly,” he said.

Sure, I did.

Retta resisted rolling her eyes as she retrieved her phone from her pocket and pulled up his contact information still programmed in. Holding up the device, she waited for him to verify his number.

“The second two is supposed to be a three,” he said, looking up from the screen.

“Crap,” she said, bringing the phone back to her face to study the sequence of numbers. “I thought you ghosted me.”

He smiled. “Me too.”

They both laughed. Well, a piece of her ego had been restored, and for the little she’d thought of him in the intervening weeks, she was happy his good character had been returned as well.

“I’m glad we got to clear that one up,” she said.

“Yeah, I really did enjoy our date.”

She smiled and nodded. “That story you told me about the gorilla reserve you went to in Rwanda stuck with me.”

He laughed and pulled a face that he did to demonstrate his fear at being so close to the magnificent beasts.

Her attention was momentarily drawn to the voice in the conference room letting attendees know that the opening remarks would begin in a few minutes.