A Short(er) Story
“…Speaking of her…”
“What’s up?”
“So I was at work today. You know I’ve been trying this new thing?”
“No, what?”
“Little things, ya know; saying hello, being on time, etc…”
“Dude…”
“Shrugs. So far it has been working though.”
“Would you look at that!”
“Smelling sarcasm—”
“Nooo…”
“Whatever. Things are lowkey great though. I can’t complain.”
“Dope. Dope.”
“So for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why I was feeling so bad.”
“Bad? Whaddayamean?”
“Like bad in my stomach…bottomless pit bad; Tower of Doom bad.”
“Was it that chicken you made?”
“No—but yeah, I mean, I thought the same thing—”
“It was awful bruh—”
“Terrible—”
“Just. Bad.”
“Right. But not this kind of bad. It was like I was nervous.”
“Public speaking nervous?”
“Year-end evaluation nervous. Or dreading—”
“Red Wedding dread?”
“Slept through an important meeting dread. Or maybe regret….”
“Ryan Leaf regret?”
“Sent the wrong email regret.”
“So…basically all of the worst emotions the corporate world has to offer.”
“Basically. Yeah.”
“What did you do?”
“Everything I could think of. Checking in with people, seeing if they needed anything. Following up on requests that had long been completed. Checking emails. Checking my calendar. Nothing bruh. Just restlessness.”
“Damn.”
“Right…So I check my phone and she had responded. And you know what bro?”
“What?”
“I just started laughing. It was like I was 12.”
“Wait, what?”
“Bruh. A few years in this life and I had forgotten what it felt like to have butterflies when you talked to a girl you like.”
“So all that stressing…”
“About the wrong thing. Right….but back to what we were talking about…”
-Eberechi