Chance Upon A Tempest

Chapter 13

You are not sure exactly what it was, but Jimin has been making himself scarce from you the past two days. The lack of his presence in your day-to-day life has made things both easy and difficult at the same time. In the past two days, you've found yourself touching on the memory of that ambrosial madness in his office earlier this week. The two of you tangled in each other's arms, about to cross the threshold from which one can never come back. You think, "Perhaps Jimin has finally found a way to maintain his attention, his focus, and his desire on Piper. The thought of that brings about an ugly yearning within, that makes you feel wretched and forlorn.

For the past week, Owen has been trying his best to keep you from seeing Tanner again tonight. Owen said, "I have no idea what it is that you see in that kid."

You told him, "I see someone who is clearly interested in me and is in the position to do something about it."

Owen asked, "What if I said I was interested in you? Will you not go out with him on Friday?"

"Babe, the thing is, I don't believe you. Yes, you are my soulmate and I often think that I had to go through everything I went through in my early life, just so that I can get to you. Just so that when I met you, I could truly appreciate what an extraordinary human being you are. If you ever needed a spare organ, I would give it up without question. Having said all that, what I want to experience is that burning, blinding, deliriously joyous, can't eat, can't sleep, can't breathe, swarm of butterflies taking flight in my belly, can't stop smiling, kind of love. At least in the beginning anyway. And I want that for you too. Who knows.... Maybe we could have had that, had we been braver in our younger years and took a chance. But I know the kind of feelings we have for each other aren't like that. At least, not anymore."

Then he asked, "How do you know that I don't have those kinds of feelings for you?"

"Handsome, if you did, you couldn't imagine yourself being with anyone else. You couldn't date other people. No one else would even exist for you. It would be me and just me, all day long, in your mind. Again, I'm not saying that it would be like that forever, but at least in the beginning, I want something that feels almost irrational and magical."

At that moment, Owen just looked at you. He said, "Fine! But I still don't want you going out with Tanner."

This made you laugh aloud at the first man that you've ever trusted completely. You told him, "I am not saying that Tanner is going to be that person for me. But if that was going to happen, I have the highest probability of it happening with him.  Also, both of us are currently in a situation where we can do something about it."

You know that no matter what you say, you aren't going to change Owen's mind about you going out with Tanner. So, what you do decide to do is to give him extra attention and affection.

This morning starts out almost exactly like how your mornings have been at work. As you start to immerse yourself in your work, you get a text message from your date for tonight.

Tanner:
Good morning pretty lady,
How is your day going so far?

You:
Good morning Tanner.
I can't complain.
How about yours?

Tanner:
Moving very slowly.

You:
Oh... how come?
Doing something utterly boring?

Tanner:
No, but I wish it was the end of the day already, so I can see you.

You:
You are pretty smooth, young man.