“Do you think guys have a tendency to text or call?” Heather asked as the their waitress dropped a basket of bread onto their table. “I mean, I’m on the lines of thinking one shouldn’t wait three days to call unless you’re like Olivia and get wrapped up in your creative projects, then she calls when she comes up for air.”
     “I’m sorry that I have my priorities,” Olivia said, nodding to their waitress as she filled her glass with water.
     “Did Chris not call you?” Ellie asked and then spooned food into her mouth.
     “I texted first. I hate the phone. It is the bane of my existence. I’d rather drive all the way across town to tell you something verses picking up a phone.”
     “She also hates texting too,” Olivia added. “She just doesn’t find it as cumbersome as talking. Don’t ask.”
     Ellie raised her spoon as a white flag of surrender. “So why the call verses text debate?”
     Taking a drink of her water, Heather shrugged her shoulders. “Just a thought. While we were on the phone, Chris gave me his theories and I wanted to get a woman’s opinion.”
     “Chris is an idiot,” Ellie admitted.
     “He had some valid points.”
     “I told you they would get along great,” Olivia said, pushing her salad away from her. “I believe they might share the same brain.”
     “Guys do the easy option. Whichever it may be in whatever circumstance, they take the easy option. They will text instead of call. They will email instead of call,” Ellie said. “It’s built into their brain to take the easy way out. Hell, they don’t even stop and ask for directions.”
     “You think we would finally get it nowadays,” Heather said, leaning back in her chair. “Take you and Gray for example, it seems that you guys get it. You like each other and whatever it is, it is.”
     Olivia nodded. She didn’t know what to say in front of Ellie or not what to say. “But it’s been trial and tribulation. I don’t know the rules to the game of dating, and I doubt there are rules. You just do what you think is right and don’t second-guess yourself. If I do something that is screwed up, I hope he tells me. I think as long as I am honest with myself and with him and vice versa, it all works out.”
     “Agreed,” Ellie said with a smile. “But you don’t have to worry about Gray, Olivia. He adores you, and I shouldn’t even be saying any of this to you, but you make him smile like I’ve never seen.”
     Olivia felt herself blush. “He makes me smile too.”
     “So what about you and Zane?” Heather asked Ellie. “Anything there? Cupid Olivia was right with Chris and me. We’re going out later this week.”
     “To be honest,” she admitted, “he’s a great guy, but he’s not my type. Thom on the other hand, I really liked.”
     Olivia and Heather looked at each other with a squeal of excitement.
     Blushing, Ellie tried to hide her embarrassment from them. “I guess that was a good squeal of excitement.”
     “An excellent squeal,” Olivia smiled. “He’s single.”
     “And we can easily set you two up,” Heather said. “Maybe you, Chris, Thom, and I go out one night.”
     Ellie nodded at the prospect. “Zane wouldn’t be upset? I mean we did exchange numbers but I see he’s like Gray and Chris to me. Friends.”
     “Zane will be just fine,” Olivia answered. “I warned him you’d chew him up and spit him out.”
     “I actually think he’d do that to me,” she replied. “Besides he seems like he might be trying to get over someone.”
     Glancing at Olivia, Heather said, “He is, but it’s someone he knows is better off with the person she’s with than him.”
     “So Thom huh?” Olivia asked, changing the subject back to Ellie.
     “Yeah,” she smiled. “He’s got this air about him.”
     “We’ll take care of it. Does he have your number?”
     Ellie shook her head.
     “I’ll get that done today,” Olivia replied. “I’ll tell him you need help with some wine for a dinner party you’re going to throw.”
     “But I’m not throwing a dinner party,” Ellie replied.
     “You are now,” Heather added. “Don’t worry, we’ll help with everything.”
     “It’s nice to have female friends,” Ellie smiled. “No offense to the boys. It’s just not the same.”
     “So it’s just the three of you?” Olivia asked. “No one else?”
     “No one. So when Gray and Chris weren’t speaking, it was very awkward to be around either one.”
     “Was he pissed off I invited Chris and didn’t tell him?”
     Ellie shook her head. “Not at all. We were impressed. You had the balls to do something most new significant others wouldn’t dream of touching. You scored major points.”
     Olivia sighed with relief. “Good to hear.”
     “Can I be nosy here?” Heather asked, pushing at the food on her plate with her fork.
     “With who?” Olivia asked.
     “It concerns both of you,” she answered. “I don’t know why I care because I normally don’t care about something like this, but is Gray seeing just Olivia?”
     “Heather!”
     “It’s a legit question.”
     “It’s none of your business,” Olivia replied.
     “I know,” she said. “I just…”
     “He’s not seeing anyone else,” Ellie interrupted. She looked at Olivia, knowing how she was feeling. “Gray’s a one person guy. He can’t serial date. He just doesn’t have the attention span for it. Chris use to ride him about it in college all the time.”
     “Well that’s good to hear,” Heather replied.
     Sliding down in her chair, Olivia felt her heart struggling to beat. “To save me face, can you never tell him Heather asked that?”
     Ellie nodded.
     “Like it matters,” Heather sighed. “If he didn’t laugh at us being arrested for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, then he’ll be cool.”
     “When did you guys get arrested?” Ellie asked, nearly dropping her fork into her lap.
     “At lunch the other day,” Olivia answered. “I thought Zane had told you when you called to find out where I was.”
     “Um, no. Details please.”

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