The Thorne at My Side

CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 2 0

Theories Involve Broken Thumbs

MAGGIE

"Good to see you last night?" I read out loud because maybe I’m dreaming. "Good to see you last night? What the actual fuck?!”

I toss my phone onto my bed and flop down into the comfy corner of my chair. The SMS Connect phone is sitting on the coffee table staring up at me blankly. Taunting me with it’s silence. Constantly reminding me that DCFox never showed.

Instead, Austin Thorne walked in with his sexy, stupid, glasses, hint of tantalizing man cleavage, and then texts me the next morning saying good to see you last night and nothing else.

"Why even bother with that text, Austin Thorne?" I say out loud. "Was it good to see me? Why did you have to interrupt the first night of the rest of my life? What if DCFox showed up while you were sitting at my table, saw you, and then bolted? And why hasn't he texted? Fuck! I just want to know why this is happening to me. I'm supposed to be writing speeches for the presidential candidate of the century but instead I'm sitting here in my PJs sniffling over a text. Aaahhh!" I scream into a pillow.

My heart stops as I hear the familiar woosh of an iMessage being sent off to the satellites. I jump up and lunge for my phone on my bed and see that my iPhone did a voice to text of my rant and sent it to Austin.

"Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit," I repeat as I try to figure out how to unsend it. Instead three dots appear. He read it. He's responding.

Then the three dots disappear.

Then reappear.

"Spit it out!" I yell at the phone.

Ping.

"I bet those PJs are hot," I read out loud as the message comes through. "UUGH! What a turd!"

I lock my screen and then stuff my phone under the pillow before heading to the shower. Hopefully between the shower running, the bathroom door being closed, and a feather down barrier, Austin won’t get a voice to text rendition of my next rant.

◆◆◆

A refreshing shower helps me to reset my thought process. I got a bad night of sleep after waiting at the restaurant for an hour after Austin left. I couldn't settle my mind trying to figure out why DCFox didn't show up.

Maybe he got a glimpse of me and turned around?

Maybe he saw Austin and thought he was getting set up or phished?

Maybe some sort of tragedy befell him and he didn't have his SMS phone with him so he had no way to reach me?

Then I spent the next hour lying in bed thinking of all the terrible things that could happen to a man on his way to a date.

I ran through several of these scenarios again during my shower and decide that it's best he fell down an open sewer and broke his thumbs so he couldn’t operate a phone to tell me where he was.

It's better than some of the other possibilities.

After I'm dressed, I dig my phone out from under my pillow and see that I have a missed call from Sam.

I call her back as I slide my notebook into my bag and check that I packed my charger. I'm leaving for the airport in forty minutes to fly and meet the team in St. Louis for a rally before flying to the twin cities for another rally and then flying overnight to Florida.

"So? Tell me everything!" Sam practically yells because of the noise behind her. I'm guessing she's at the first event of the day in Texas.

"Nothing to tell," I say slowly into the phone so she can hear me.

"Oh shit, is he still there? Sorry, why'd you call me back! Go get some!"

"No, he's not here, he's not, well, anywhere."

"What do you mean? Did he ghost you?"

"More or less," I admit with a sheepish shrug that she can't see.

"Damn, that's rough. Did you at least have a good meal? I love that restaurant."

"No, I didn't have an appetite, especially after Austin showed up."

"Austin Thorne?"

"Yeah he walked in while I was waiting for DCFox and basically harassed me. I mean I gave as good as I got this time but still, he was the last person I wanted to see."

"Ugh, poor you," Sam says before she pauses. "So, what are you going to do now? "

"Well I'm about to head to the airport."

"No, I mean with the SMS Connect guy. What do you think happened?"

"My current theory involves a manhole cover and broken thumbs."

"Sounds plausible."

I let out a little laugh before I inhale and exhale deeply. "Honestly, I don't know. I feel like I should message him but I don't know what to say. Maybe the meeting pushed him too far too fast. But, no," I remind myself out loud, "he was the one who asked to meet up. It just doesn't make any sense."

"Yeah, it's weird. I don't know what to tell you but I do have one question."

"Oh yeah, what's your question?"

"Did Austin look hotter at puppy yoga or at the restaurant last night?"

"No comment," I say and then I hang up on her as she starts to protest my lack of response.

I stare at the SMS Connect phone on my coffee table. I decide to be the bigger person and send a message.

TalkShopGirl: Hey. Picking an opening word or line for this message seemed like an impossible feat so I went basic. Casual. No big deal. Except, I'm not in a good spot this morning. I want to ask why you weren't there last night. I want to know what happened to you. But any reason you can give me doesn’t change the fact that I sat alone, waiting, for over an hour.

And the thing that hurts the most right now is that I want to talk to you about what happened to me last night. When I was at my most vulnerable point waiting for you, a person who has been a pain in my ass for the last month at work showed up and, I'm not proud of it but, I was mean to him. I let some jealousy and nerves from our meeting spill into my conversation with him. And while we aren't friends I do want this person to think highly of me. To respect me.

So not only did I miss out on meeting you last night, I drew the line deeper in the sand with a person I might be forced to work with going forward.

I'm headed out of town for the next week and I'm going to leave this SMS Connect phone at home. Maybe we pushed it too far too fast. Maybe you got scared. Or maybe your thumbs are broken because of some terrible accident. But regardless, your silence speaks volumes and I need some space.