A Spell

“Yes. You’re very pretty and I do like you”, he said.

“That’s good, thanks”, she said.

“I just wanted to tell you because it was on my mind”, he said.

“Um-hm”, she said.

Conrad put his hands in his pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels.

“So… are we going out tonight”, asked Conrad.

“Hm? What”, she asked.

“What are we doing tonight”, asked Conrad.

“I’m going out with my friends”, she said.

Conrad watched her as she sat on the couch and continued texting with whomever she was texting. He sighed. He’d been so lonely for so long and now he’d met Sandra, who apparently couldn't give a damn about what he wanted. Still, it was better than being alone all the time.

“The girls? That’s nice”, said Conrad.

“Yeah, Marilyn has new shoes that she wants to show off”, said Sandra.

“New shoes. That’s certainly a reason to go out”, said Conrad.

“What”, asked Sandra.

“Nothing”, said Conrad.

Conrad hadn’t had a girlfriend in five years and now he was with this very beautiful woman. The woman he always thought he wanted but now, he could barely stand to look at her. She was a knockout and he could barely stand going to bars with her because she was the object of every other man’s masturbatory fantasy. He had to take it though. He was under her spell. The thought of spending one more day, one more minute alone in his apartment was as close to a death sentence as he could imagine. So if she showed the modicum of interest in him, he was overjoyed.

“Would you please get me a glass of juice”, asked Sandra.

Conrad’s heart leaped a bit as her eyes met his. Her eyes were impeccable pools of luminescent blue green. He could swear that he could see that she liked him too in those eyes.

“Of course. Orange juice o.k.”, asked Conrad.

“I guess, if that’s all you have. I’d prefer pomegranate if you had it”, she said.

“Oh, well, all I have is orange”, said Conrad.

“I said that’d be fine”, she said.

Sandra looked back at her phone and started texting again.

Conrad went to the kitchen and thought about how lonely he used to be and how miserably happy he was now. He’ll have to figure out where to get pomegranate juice though.