Thaw

She was eating her Smores cupcake while he'd decided to switch over from the book he was working on to see who was on Facebook. He hadn't been on Facebook since the CNN thing, maybe he had a few messages from his Facebook friends.

“So what are you working on now?” she asked.

“A book.”

She rolled her eyes a him crossed her arms.

“How long are we going to do this?”

“What the ...” he said, looking more intently at his laptop.

“You know what. This stupid game where you stay mad and assy and I try to get you to be the nice guy you used to be.”

He hadn't been talking to her, but her last seven words snagged his attention like a razor sharp hook. His head snapped up from his display and he glared at her.

“I did not change! All I did was step out of the shadows and the woman who said looks meant nothing to her suddenly became persistently and constantly busy.”

He looked back down at his computer and he saw the same thing again, one hundred twenty two personal messages and seventeen other notifications. He'd never has more than five personal messages at a time.

“Look! I don't know what's gotten into you, but you are seeing things that just aren't there, just weren't there, were never there.”

“Holy s**t!” he said as he red the second message that was much like the first. He forgot he was supposed to be mad. “They like it,” he said incredulously, “they actually like it!”

“Huh?”

“My book! These are people who have read my book. They found me on Facebook. These messages are nice.”

“This surprises you? I told you you were a good writer.”

“Yeah but you were my friend.”

“Were?”

He kept opening messages and kept reading positive comments about his book. He could feel that ache of anxiety in his chest now, it was a sensation that usually came with extreme worry, but not today. He could hear the whoosh if blood surging through the arteries with every erratic beat of his heart. The whooshing was someplace very near his ears. He opened a new internet tab and went back to check his book sales again. He had to look at the numbers three or four times. This silly little book had caught viral fire and it was spreading like an August fire in Phoenix. It was nearly two minutes before it registered that she'd said anything. Finally he looked up blankly at her.

“Huh?”

“You said that was … when I was your friend ... like I'm not any more. What the f**k?” that was loud enough for the others in the coffee shop to take notice, “I drive a long way to meet my friend and when I get here I find that some a*****e has taken over his body.”

His reply wasn't angry, it was almost matter of fact in nature. He was reading through his messages again … message number thirty seven to be exact. This one came with a photo and a proposition.

“Mmm, a*****e huh?” he muttered as he looked at the photo of the beautiful woman in the message.

She dumped the rest of her coffee down her throat, took her plate to the trash and dumped half of a Smores cupcake in the trash.

“F**k you Nate!”

Three days ago, he thought, I wasn't good enough to even smile at her and say hello. He snapped out of his thoughts just in time to notice that his visitor had picked up her purse and was leaving.

“Heather! Where are you going? Come back.” she kept going, “I'm sorry, okay?”

That stopped her in her tracks. She closed he eyes as tightly as she could tilted her head back, as though she were looking at the ceiling. But her eyes never opened. In fact she squeezed them as tightly as she could, but tears still escaped.

Reviews

[Riding the Rainbow]

Nate is having the success that us writers want to have someday..
So..her name is Heather..totally want to know the real her..