“I don’t know. That was kind of a crazy message. Can you play it again? I am not even sure what I just heard.”
“Girl, he totally wants to bang you too! He totally wants you to be the mom of his kids!”
“No, he doesn’t want me to be the mom of his kids. That’s crazy. He probably wants me to be his nanny or something.”
“He wants you to be the hot nanny that he bangs. Oh, this is totally like this porno that I watched last week.”
“Shelby, I don’t want to know about the pornos that you watched.”
“What?” She grinned. “It’s one of my fantasies.”
“What do you mean it’s one of your fantasies?”
“I mean, don’t you look up certain pornos?”
“I don’t look up any pornos.”
“Sure you don’t. When you look online for pornography, what do you look for?”
“What do you mean what do I look for?”
“Everyone has a type of porn they are into, right? Guys want to look for threesomes and maybe MILFs. I mean, I don’t know. I like to look for nannies and hot dads.”
“Really? Why? You’re not a nanny.”
“No, I’m not a nanny, but I like hot older men, and I can picture myself as a nanny to a very hot dad.” She winked at me.
“Oh, Shelby, this is way too much information that I didn’t need to know.”
“Well, now you have to tell me, what porno are you into?”
“What? I mean, honestly …” I paused. “Fine. The last porn I looked at and that was ages and ages ago happened to be strangers on a train.”
Shelby looked surprised. “Strangers on a train, are you joking?”
“No.” I laughed. “I just thought that it seemed kind of cool and sexy to meet a stranger and have sex.”
“Ohhhh, I totally get it,” Shelby said. “I’m so stupid.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It wasn’t strangers on a train. Was it?”
“What?”
“It was strangers in the grocery store. You totally do want to bang that man.”
“I do not want to bang Steele.”
“Oh my gosh. You said his name,” she said in a singsong voice. “Are you going to call him now?”
“No. I’m not going to call him.”
“Call him, girl. You don’t know what he’s thinking. He might think you don’t like him.”
“I don’t like him.”
“Yeah, right.” Shelby handed me the phone. “Call him. Okay?”
“I’m not calling him. I’m going to start putting away some of my clothes. And I think I might have a shower before the pizza gets here.
“Okay. You don’t have to tell me what you’re going to do. Nellie, I love being here with you.” She laughed as she headed toward the door. “Now, call him because I want to hear exactly what he has to say as soon as I come out of the shower.
“I thought we were going to eat pizza.”
“Well, over pizza.”
“No, I’m not going to tell you over pizza because I do not want Hunter to hear anything.”
“So that means you are going to call him.”
“No, it doesn’t. What do you mean?” I said, flustered.
“You said you don’t want Hunter hearing about the call. So that means you’re planning to call.”
“Fine. Maybe I will call. I just don’t know what to say.”
“Just be cool, calm, and sexy. Your normal self.
“Should I tell him I’m in college?”
“Do you think he knows you’re in college?”
“I don’t know. Why would he know I’m in college?”
“Maybe don’t tell him you’re in college yet. I don’t know. If he asks if you’re in college, don’t lie, but if he doesn’t ask, don’t tell him.”
“Okay,” I said. “I’m going to call him. You go and have a shower, and I’ll tell you everything afterward. Okay?”
“Okay, good luck, Chica.”
“Thanks, Shel.”
Shelby left and I sat in the chair next to my desk. I held the phone in my hand, grinning. I felt like an idiot, but I was happy, really happy. Not only had he texted, but he had called and left me a voicemail as well. I didn’t really know what it meant except that he’d thought about me at least twice and that he didn’t absolutely hate me.
And maybe, just maybe, he was a little bit intrigued by me just as much as I was intrigued by him.
I quickly dialed his number before I lost my nerve. It rang three times and I was just about to hang up when he picked it up.
“Well, hello,” he answered.
“Hi, is this Steele?”
“Yes, it is. And I’m guessing this is Nellie, my half-secret admirer.
“I’m not your secret admirer. I just said that to make you feel good.”
“Well, it made me feel very good.” He chuckled. “How can I help you on this good afternoon, Nellie?”
“I just wanted to make sure that you weren’t at the grocery store stealing anyone else’s groceries from their cart.”
“I don’t really think that’s considered stealing, Nellie. You hadn’t actually purchased the items yet, correct?”
“No. I hadn’t purchased the items yet, but I obviously was going to purchase them.”
“Well, just because you were going to do something doesn’t mean that you did. In contract law—”
“I know. I know you’re an attorney. Please, don’t bore me.”
“Well, that’s the last thing I’d want to do is bore you.” He laughed. “So I’m surprised to hear from you.”
“Why?”
“Because I left this message three days ago, and you didn’t call me back.”
“Well, I was busy.”
“Busy with your boyfriend?”
“No, I wasn’t busy with my boyfriend.”
“So you were busy because of something else, or you don’t have a boyfriend?”
“Why do you care?”
“I’m just curious because if you were my girlfriend, I would not appreciate you flirting with another man.”
“Well, I’m not your girlfriend. So it doesn’t really matter what you think. Does it?”
“You’ve got a mouth on you, don’t you?”
“I don’t have a mouth on me just because I can speak up for myself.”
“Well, you’re very opinionated.” He laughed. “I like that.”
“Really? You didn’t seem like you liked it in the grocery store when I was telling you how to look after your kids.”
“Well, was it really your place to come up to me in the grocery store and tell me off, Karen?”
“Oh no. You’re not going to call me Karen. If you call me Karen one more time, I’m going to hang up the phone.”
“Wow. You really don’t like that, do you?”
“Would you like it? It’s not exactly a compliment.”
“It wasn’t really meant to be.”