Rebellion

11. Date Protocol

“Here's something else to think about, calling when you say you're going to – is the very first brick in the house you are building of love and trust. If he can't lay this one stupid brick down, you ain't never gonna have a house baby, and it's cold outside.” – Greg Behrendt.

•••

“Okay, seriously. This is getting out of hand.”

Tiolu grunted at the incoming – irritated version of her best-friend, and lifted her head up from the dining table. It was Saturday morning, roughly a day and a couple of hours after the date and still – she hadn’t heard from him. She was hurt and infuriated as a result of his action not to make any sort of contact, but she wanted to believe there was a solid reason for it. Besides, she had seen his schedule for the past week – and could infer that it was busy as hell.

But did that mean, he couldn’t just make out a minute or two – to call his girl-friend.

His girl-friend.

Girl-friend.

The inference sent a stream of cold chills down her spine. The whole situation still felt surreal to her. A month ago, she was just a regular doctor burdened with a grandiose schedule and plagued by the collective atmosphere of her environment into leading a boring life. And now, she was the girl-friend of her most cherished idol. Not just her most cherished idol, her only idol.

She couldn’t help but smile, despite her angered state.

“You’re smiling, You’re freaking smiling?” Anjola growled in irritation, as she slid into the opposite side of the table and slammed both of her fists into it – hard. “Do you know what this means? He is a grade two offender now.”

“Grade two offender?” Tiolu’s amusement got the better of her. “What does that mean?”

“He didn’t call you the night of the date – grade one.” Anjola sat up, entwining her fingers. “He didn’t call you for the whole of yesterday – two. If he doesn’t call you today, then it’s three.”

“And who is this person that made up these – ‘grade’ rules.” Tiolu smirked, reclining backwards into her seat. “I’m guessing that person is sitting right in front of me. Look, Anjie you don’t have to make a big deal out of this by coming up with made-up–”

“You don’t need to say it like it can’t become a real thing in the future, later on.” Anjola rolled her eyes, and latched unto both of Tiolu’s hands. “The people who start such accepted rules definitely were humans, and I’m pretty sure if their friends were in disagreement with them over the terms, like mine is now – then their postulated terms wouldn’t have become successful.”

She bit her lower lip to inhibit another smile. “He is a really busy man, Anjie. I mean you saw his schedule last week–”

“Don’t give me that crap,” Anjola shook her head vehemently. “Has he been working every single minute or second since the date ended, Nope. I’m sure he has had time to shower, brush his teeth, stare at his ward-robe and think of an attire, and also drive down to work also. If he had time to do all these in the past day – why hasn’t he bothered to give you a call?”

“Really? To you – those things aren’t more important than giving your girl-friend a call?”

“No, but I know you would never get off the phone to do those things, if you were on a call with him.” Anjola shot back. “I’m only comparing what both of you would do in similar situations.”