17 Chapter 17: Texts

Thursday. Dell looked at the clock. Almost 3pm. She'll need to leave at five to make it to the ElemTech Launch Party at the Fort by six. Sean would be meeting her at the venue lobby.

She felt a little jittery. A little restless. When Raph told her he'd be happy to have her at the party, she was elated. But then she remembered that Bianca would most likely be there, too. So she took that opportunity to bring up Sean.

"Um, is it alright if I brought a plus one?" She had asked.

"Sure! One of your girl friends?" He had asked.

"No, uh, my boyfriend."

She had heard him pause on the other line then. Then he replied, "Uh, sure! Sure, bring him along." But the lightness in his voice sounded a little forced. A part of her was annoyed. Why would he be the one to be surprised when his flirting with her sort of hit a wall when he already had a hot girlfriend? If she thought about it, he was sort of flirting with her. Sort of. But not quite. Just like his sort-of-not-quite relationship with Bianca. Was he afraid? Or was he playing? But then, he could also just be business-flirting with her. She did that, too, every now and then. So why would it affect him if she had a boyfriend? Arrgh! Men! But the more annoying thing was that she kinda liked the guy. Arrgh! Emotions! So complicated.

Her phone gave a notification. She looked at it. It was Sean.

Take a break. Have a little fresh air. Hope your day is going well. The message read. She smiled.

"I've been curious about that alarm of yours." Dell looked up and saw William by her door. He had looked a little down the past few days. His gloom seemed to have started shortly after that day her 8am cancelled on her. But he would always say he was fine when she asked. She didn't want him to feel like she was prying, so she stopped asking after a while. But it was good to see that he wasn't too down today.

"Oh, hi, William! It's not an alarm, though. It's a text message."

"Oh. I just noticed your phone always rings at exactly 3pm so I thought maybe you suddenly started a religious habit or a new diet or something."

Really? She checked all Sean's previous messages. William was right. They had all come in at exactly 3pm.

"Will you be going to ElemTech's launch party tonight?" Will continued.

Dell looked up. "Uh, yeah. Yes, I am."

"I'll be there as well. I got an invite from the organizers. But I'm going out for a meeting before that so, see you there later?"

"Yeah! See you later." She flashed him a smile, which he returned.

After William had left, Dell turned back to her phone. Now that she thought about it, none of Sean's messages were time-sensitive. They didn't talk about the weather. They didn't talk about the circumstances of the day. They were pre-written, generic, sweet nothings that needed no prompting nor answers. He was using an app. This irked Dell. He could put in a little more effort. And she was going to make sure he understood this later.

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