But more than hot, he’s … known to me. I know him. I like him.
And I want him to call me again. I want him to call me all the time.
My excitement feels so new and tender that I don’t want to tell anyone what happened—not even Dezzie and Alyssa.
I want to protect Seth. He just broke up with someone, and to outside eyes it might seem disloyal or desperate to fall into the virtual arms of an ex. But I also don’t know how to explain the intimacy of what happened.
It feels intensely private. Just for us.
I clean my toys, take a shower, and tidy up my room. I have a burst of energy that manifests in a desire to clean my house, which I do with unusual gusto and attention to detail. I clean it like I would if Seth were visiting. Seth has always been one of those people who can’t tolerate mess.
I wonder what his apartment looks like. I wonder what he’s doing right now.
Probably working. Which is what I should be doing.
I grab my laptop with more purpose than usual.
My only new email is from my new “intern,” Becky.
From: bma445@nyu.edu
To: mollymarks@netmail.co
Date: Mon, June 22, 2020 at 3:06pm
Re: Subject: Molly, meet Becky
Dear Miss Marks,
I shiver in horror at this salutation. Does she think I’m seventy years old?
I cannot overstate my gratitude to you for this opportunity. I hope you don’t mind if I take a moment to express my awe at your talent and body of work. Careless is one of my favorite films of all time, and I can’t believe how young you were when you wrote it. I am so excited to learn from a woman with your tremendous accomplishments.
I’m attaching my CV. Please let me know the best way to get started.
All my best,
Becky
I’m going to have to get young Becky cursing and writing four-word emails or she’ll never make it in this town.
From: mollymarks@netmail.co
To: bma445@nyu.edu
Date: Mon, June 22, 2020 at 3:15pm
Re: Subject: Molly, meet Becky
Hi Becky—I’m excited to work with you. Let’s get started with a phone call—say, Wednesday after 10am PT? Let me know your avails.
And if you call me Miss Marks again you’re fired;)
-Molly
As I have no further emails, this constitutes work for the day. I place an Amazon order for Busted so I can reread it, then resume my Real Housewives marathon while daydreaming about Seth.
I wonder if he’ll call me tomorrow. Wake me up with sweet words.
I go to bed with my ringer on, so I don’t miss it if he does.
But in the morning, I wake up with no missed calls.
Instead, there is a string of texts from my mother.
Mom: Good morning my darling baby.
Mom: I had a dream about you last night. We were shopping in Miami for your sixteenth birthday. You got that sheer lime-green shirt that always made your armpits stink. Do you remember that shirt? HA! And then we fell down a sewer.
This is not the kind of sexy content I was hoping for.
Mom: I miss you.
Mom: Someone at Publix yelled at me and Bruce this morning for wearing masks!
Bruce is the man she’s been seeing. They met when she sold him a mansion a few houses down the street from hers. Over the course of the pandemic, her “I” has slowly morphed into “we” as they’ve spent more and more time together. I guess now they are at a “shared trips to the grocery store” level of courtship.
It’s cute.
