Sean stared at his cell phone, while the draft of his text message, the one he had been working on for the last two days, stared unsympathetically back. This was the umpteenth revision he had written out. It had to be perfect. The massage was going to be sent to a friend, an ex, a crush: her name was Pauline. He paced back and forth in his friend’s living room, rereading every word, debating if it should be replaced with something else. He was like a lawyer preparing his closing speech in hopes that his client will avoid the death sentence, but the problem was this lawyer was representing himself.
“Okay how about this,” Sean asked Mark and Sarah, his best friend and his girlfriend.
Sarah sat up on the couch to give him her full attention, while Mark, who had heard ever version of the text, continued to flip through the magazine in his hand.
“Okay…Hey, I know this is a little out of the blue, but things have been awkward lately and I know if I don’t say this now I am going to regret it. There have been times in the past where you hinted at the idea of us, how it could be something that would last. And I have always felt that since high school, there was something left unexplored between us. But I never told you that. I think you are as beautiful as you are smart and as sweet as you are sexy. I sometimes think about those nights since high school, the ones where we could’ve spent the night together and a part of me regrets not going through with them. Not only for missing out on the night we could have shared, but for losing what the morning could have brought. I don’t know where you are in your life right now. I don’t know if you are still seeing someone, if you have just broken up or if you have been single for some time. And to be honest I do not think I would be ready for anything serious at this point in my life. But I know I need to tell you how I feel. So at least you know. If you are happily with someone, believe me, I would want to do nothing to disrupt that. I wish you nothing but the happiness you deserve. And if you know that you only want friendship from me, then please let me know and I will close this door. I don’t know what I want form you, I guess just to know that that door is still open.”
When Sean finished reading the text, he took a deep breath.
“That’s sweet.” Sarah said with a genuine smile.
“I hope you have unlimited text messages…cause that will be count for like four,” Mark joked, his face still aimed at the magazine.
“You’re an ass,” Sarah said to her boyfriend, who continued to flip through his magazine.
“So…should I send it?” Sean asked, a rhetorical question, he was only fishing for validation of what he already decided he was going to do.
“Yes!” Sarah yelled. Sean smiled.
“Does anyone care what I think?” Mark asked.
“No,” responded both Sarah and Sean.
“Well since we are the type to deliver messages people don’t want to hear, I’m going to say it anyways. Don’t sent it. She didn’t even bother responding to your last small messages over the last week, do you think she wants to see something like this?”
“Maybe…” Sean said.
“Hey you write, maybe you should try publishing it, like in a poem or story or something.”
Mark looked up from her magazine for the first time. “You serious?”
“Yes I’m serious…any one can send a text, but this is something special.”
“And creepy and permanent…..though...”
Mark stopped for a second and lowered his magazine, “it does give you an advantage…when this goes horribly wrong you can tell her it was just for made up for your story…I’m sure the jury will buy it.”
“So it’s decided we are going to publish it!” Sarah said with excitement.
“Well even I do, I think try is a better word,” Sean said.
“This is going to be like that Hey There Delilah song.”
“Didn’t she end up fucking some other guy?” Mark asked the group
“Yeah,” responded Sarah, “but I’m sure when they fight or she is unhappy she stays up until four in the morning thinking about him, questioning if she made the right decision.”
“Really…maybe I shouldn’t send it then…” Sean said.
“Oh if it makes you feel better, during bad days she will probably be up with regrets at four in the morning even if you don’t send the message.” Sarah replied.
Mark raised his head for a second time, having connected a few dots in his head. “and who do you think about at four in the morning?”
Sarah put her hand above the knee of Melissa.
“Honey…it’s at the point where I am starting to think about buying a bunch of cats.”
“Really…that bad,” Mark joked as he looked at his girlfriend. They both chuckled and held eye contact. Then they went in for a familiar kiss. Sean stood alone with his cell phone. “Umm..guys?”
The lovers pulled back and returned their attention to Sean.
“ Well I think,” Mark started, “until you throw out that air ball we can’t take you out for a rebound, so either text or publish already…and I do agree with Sarah, if you are going to get your heart ripped out, you might as well get paid for it.”
“ That’s not what I said.”
“I translated.”
Sarah just shook her head, “If you decide to publish it.”
“Try,” interrupted Sean.
“Sorry try, to publish it what would you name the piece?”
“Hmm…I’m thinking the Eleventh Hour; it has something to do with how we first met.”
“And if it gets published, people are going to ask if it is for a real person or not…what will you tell them?”
“I don’t know,” Sean said as his finger hovered over the send button, “I guess I will just keep them guessing."
