Dinah didn't hear from him regularly. After their magical date on the beach, he contacted her few times in between. There were so many instances her fingers nervously hovered over the keyboard, dying to text him and ask to see him.
But she never did. She learned early on in life that the man is the one they did the pursuing and that she could ultimately ruin everything by sounding too desperate. Besides, nothing screamed desperation more than constantly texting a guy and being rejected.
Pretty soon, that beach date became a distant memory- but still one of the best dates she'd been on in a long time.
One late afternoon a couple of weeks later, as Dinah sat at her desk and furiously wrote comments on a student's paper, a ping sounded from her phone. She leaned over to peer at the screen and saw Dario's name appear.
Dario: Hi
Dinah rolled her eyes. Yep, that's him just popping up out of the blue. She told herself not to respond to him, completely ignore him, but… she couldn't.
Dinah: No, absolutely not.
Dario: What do you mean?
Dinah: Absolutely not. Not interested. I haven't seen you in weeks. You keep avoiding meeting me.
Dario: I'm not avoiding you. Things just happened.
Dinah: You could've told me. You could've said that you couldn't make it. We made a plan to hang out at Starbucks. That was the last time we were going to meet and you bailed.
Dario: I don't remember that. We never confirmed.
Dinah: Never confirmed? Unbelievable. I'm done. Don't want to talk to you anymore.
Dario: Do you have fun with me?
Dinah: What?
Dario: Do you have a good time?
Dinah: You always ask that. Who cares about that if you are unreliable?
Dario: I just want to talk. Maybe we can see each other tonight.
Dinah groaned in frustration, holding on to her red ballpoint pen tightly. It's always the same thing with him.
Dinah: Maybe being the key word. It's never set in stone. I fully expect you to cancel on me the last minute.
Dario: I'm not going to cancel on u.
Dinah: Don't wanna risk it. Going out with a friend.
Dario: Guy friend?
She chose that moment to put the phone down and continue checking her students' work. Let him think it over and believe that she was going out with another guy.
Dinah grabbed the phone again. But instead of answering Dario, she tapped her good friend Christine's Facebook messenger chat and typed in…
Dinah: Hey! How are you?
Christine: Good, girl. Just here at work finishing up something for a presentation I have to do . Ugh.
Dinah: Damn, I was gonna ask if you wanted to go to Happy Hour tonight.
Christine: Hmmm… Maybe I can go. I need to finish this PowerPoint but maybe we can meet at 7?
Dinah: Yes, that's perfect. I've got some guy trouble.
Christine: What happened?
Dinah: Dario contacted me out of the blue.
Christine: Is that the shady guy? What did he want? Did he want to apologize for being an ass?
Dinah smiled, already feeling lighthearted just reading her friend's messages. Having Christine in her corner agreeing with how Dario treated her gave her another level of justification.
Dinah: Not really. He's making excuses now.
Christine: Then block him.
Dinah: I should, but…
Christine: You don't want to.
Dinah: Not yet.
Christine: Ok, but you should make him suffer a bit.
Dinah: Yeah, I don't even feel like answering him. He's asking me if I want to hang out with him tonight.
Christine: Say no. Or better yet, don't even answer.
Dinah nodded her head even though she couldn't see her.
Dinah: Yeah, sounds good. I really don't want to respond to his messages. I'd rather make him suffer a bit. I need a distraction from him.
Christine: Of course. Glad we're getting together finally. See you soon. Meet at Bulla?
Dinah: Sure. See you.
As her eyes shifted towards the time on her phone, she saw that she only had about an hour before she had to meet Christine. It was as if time flew by her and she realized that the giant stack of papers still sat in front of her, untouched.
Putting thoughts of Dario and Christine away, she grabbed the highest paper on the stack and began reading.
By 6:45, Dinah only needed to grade five more papers before she could truly say she was done. But considering where she was forty five minutes ago, she was proud and impressed with how quickly she finished grading papers. She nodded in approval as she glanced down at her outfit… a dark wash pair of jeans for casual Friday topped with a flowery, short sleeved shirt. Perfect for Happy Hour. She didn't need to go back home to change.
After Dinah shut off the lights of her classroom and headed towards the parking lot, she heard a ping sound from her phone. Rummaging through her purse and pulling it out, thinking it was a message from Christine, she was shocked to see that it was another message from Dario.
She shook her head. She wasn't even going to look at it. For tonight, she wasn't going to pay him any attention and just focus on her and her friend.
It took about fifteen minutes to drive to the trendy and chic spanish tapas restaurant in the heart of Coral Gables but an extra five minutes just to find a metered parking spot that was available. Before heading in, she pulled out her phone and silenced it, not wanting to even give Dario any reason to think she would be reading any message he sent throughout the night.
As Dinah walked into the restaurant, she immediately spotted her friend sitting to the left hand corner of the the restaurant from the entrance in a table for two. Christine immediately waved her hand and Dinah made her way towards her. She plopped herself down on the seat opposite her.
"Hey, long time no see," she said, grinning.
" I know, too long. But you know how work is. Takes up all of my time." Christine grabbed a piece of bread from the small basket in front of them and took a big bite.
" Yeah, that's why I was super happy that you said yes. I have so much to tell you with this guy."
"Yes, do tell all."
"Mr.Cornflakes texted me about an hour ago… after not hearing from him for a couple of weeks after we went on our beach date. Unreal." Dinah followed her friend's example and picked up a piece of bread and angrily bit off the end.
" Mr. Cornflakes? That's what you're calling him now?" Christine smiled.
" Yes, you know we give code names to the guys we like."
"But girl, that was high school," Christine said, taking a sip of water.
Dinah raised her eyebrows, a smile playing at her lips. " Gotta keep the traditions alive."
" You know it. So he just messaged you out of the blue? What excuse did he give this time?"
Dinah shook her head. " None this time. Probably the same usual crap of … got back together with my ex or personal stuff."
" Yeah, personal stuff of him being a douche. Did he even apologize for standing you up?"
"Nope, just said we didn't confirm."
"Good God. You kept texting him and he totally ghosted you. That totally deserves an apology. Dinah, just forget him. Block him and never talk to him again."
Dinah opened her mouth to respond when a tall, muscular man with a dragon tattoo on his forearm stood next to them and cleared his throat. " Good evening, my name is Matias. I'll be taking your order tonight. What can I get you to drink?"
His right hand and pen were poised on top of the yellow legal pad in front of him, ready to write down their choices.
" I'll just have an iced tea," Dinah said as she quickly scanned the menu. " I'll also have the pollo empanizado with jasmine rice."
" I'll have the same, " Christine said.
Matias nodded. " Awesome. Coming right up with your drink."
When he drifted away, Christine sighed. " Listen, I think you can do better. This guy clearly doesn't respect you and you should just cut your losses."
Dinah's heart sank. She knew Christine was right. She wasted years of her life already dealing with Dario and his flakiness. Logically, she should've let him go a long time ago and blocked him from all social media, but her heart was the one acting stupid. It told her these feelings she had for him had to mean something. She didn't feel this way for many guys- not even her ex- boyfriends. The only other guy who made her heart race, her breathing become labored, and an intense wetness form down below was one guy in college and her biggest high school crush ever- Edward.
It was rare and she couldn't llet it go. She couldn't brush off the feeling that he was her destiny and they were meant to be.
Dinah nodded absentmindedly. Though deep inside, she still wasn't sure what she should do. " You're right, as always."
Christina smiled, and thinking the conversation was done, started talking about her own dating fiascos with a bit of work sprinkled in. Dinah let her continue, consciously aware that she would be a shitty friend if she monopolized the conversation with Dario problems.
But it was a good thing. Because temporarily, Dinah forgot about him and truly enjoyed laughing the evening away with her best friend. There was no way she could've known what awaited her back home.