Pizza Panic

Veronica and I have finally completed all the interviews and have started narrowing down the people we will definitely be hiring for the writing positions. I feel like it’s taken a lot longer than it should have to get this far but I’m not sure where we lost track of time since we’ve both met our deadlines.

I was in a good mood about making progress at work and it carried over into my date with Sean and the girls. Since we decided to all meet at the pizza place I went home after work to change and then headed out for the night.

“Hey, you,” Sean was outside the pizza place and wrapped his arms around me to give me a kiss.

“Are the girls here yet?” I asked after breaking the kiss and started looking around.

“No, I put our name on the wait list, though, our table should be ready in a few minutes.”

Just then Zoey and Anna walked around the corner.

“Elise is running late,” Zoey said giving me a hug.

“Zoey, Anna, this is Sean….my boyfriend. Sean this is Anna and Zoey, Elise is on her way.” They all shook hands and made small talk.

Once we were seated and ordered drinks (I ordered a water for Elise in her absence) Anna and Zoey started having a conversation with Sean. I was pretty impressed at how easily they were able to talk to Sean and my mood was at an all time high….but it didn’t stay that way for long.

“So how have you been getting it up-” Anna asked Sean. She immediately covered her mouth, turned bright red and looked at three of us, who were stunned into silence and discomfort. “I meant…how have you been getting along with Murphy? He’s a rescue cat, so he’s probably not open to strangers, right, Faith?”

“He’s taken to Sean really well.” I said trying to move past the awkwardness.

“Yeah….he’s been really friendly and affectionate towards me. When Faith told me about how difficult he had it, I was really surprised how open he was to being near me.” I smiled at Sean as a thank you for not making Anna’s embarrassment worse.

“You’re a musician, right?” Zoey changed the subject which I was thankful for.

“Yeah I play the guitar in my band and I help write all of our songs.”

“So how has it been coming?” Zoey’s eyes got really big and she cleared her throat in embarrassment, “I mean how has writing your music been going lately?” Zoey was about as red as Anna, now.

“Uh…really well, we were dealing with some writing block awhile ago but it seems to have passed.” Sean gave me a questioning look from across the table when I kicked Zoey under the table.

Just then Elise showed up.

“Hey guys! Sorry I’m late.”

“Elise this is Sean, Sean this is Elise.”

Once Elise was settled, we ordered two pizzas to split between us and settled in to listen to Elise’s story on why she was late.

“This photo shoot took FOREVER. It was at least sex hours.”

In reaction to that, Anna started choking on her food and Sean had to pat her on the back to get her to stop, Zoey and I stared at Elise with our mouths hanging open while Elise tried to shrink into the booth.

“I mean six. Six hours….” Elise said before shoving her mouth full of pizza to keep herself from talking. I put my head in my hands at that point and counted down the minutes until I could just go home. Somehow we got through dinner with only a few more awkward slips from my friends.

“I’ll meet you guys outside; I’m going to pay the bill.” I said getting up from the table as quickly as I could.

Outside of the restaurant Sean was on the phone and I took advantage of the situation by talking to the girls while he was distracted.

“All of you will make an excuse to leave. Right now.” I hissed.

They nodded silently and looked like puppies with their tails between their legs as they tried to think of valid excuses. I walked over to Sean, who was still on the phone, and waited with him until he finished his conversation.

“Hey, Faith, I just got a text from Theo, I have to go. Our sink burst a pipe.” Anna came over and gave me a hug, “It was really nice to meet you Sean.”

Elise was next, “I have to go, I just realized that I have an appointment with my landlord about my broken showerhead. It was nice to meet you, Sean, I hope we’ll get to hang out again soon.”

“Bye, I’ll call you later.” I said after her.

And finally, Zoey, “You know, I really want to go watch you and your band play, Sean, but I have chronic migraines and I can feel one starting to come on, so it’s probably not a good idea for me to go listen to loud music right now. Sorry guys.”

And with that Sean and I were left in an awkward silence.

“So…….do you want start heading over, then?” Sean asked me after we stood on the sidewalk for two minutes in silence.

“You know, I’m not feeling very well after eating that pizza, I think I should go home.”

“Are you sure, I mean I told the guys you were coming and-“

“I know….I’ll make it up to you later okay? I just think I really need to go home right now.”

“Okay.” He gave me a kiss goodbye and I turned away to hail a cab.

“Hey Faith?” Sean went to open the cab door for me, “It’s okay that you talk to your friends about our sex life. I’m not mad or embarrassed.” And with that he shut the door and banged on the cab. He gave me a small smile and wave as the cab sped off.