Kelly

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I looked at my phone and smiled, it had been merely minutes since I had given Kelly my phone number and I already had a message.

‘Are you free Thursday for a drink?’

Yes I bloody well was free and even if I wasn’t, I would bloody well make sure I was.  

I tried to type a reply, I hated this phone; it was the first time I’d used Android and it was doing my head in. My old phone had been stolen and I wasn’t going to get an old iPhone when the new ones were just out, so I’d make do with this stopgap crap for a few more days.

I managed to write something vaguely coherent and send it and then waited eagerly for a reply to the reply.  Messages pinged back and forth, just on the decent side of flirtatious and a time and venue were set up. I had a date with the wonderful Kelly.

I must admit I was a little nervous, I’d carefully pressed my new shirt and was on the way to meet the woman of my dreams and butterflies were swimming in my stomach.  
My friends think I am strange, but when I meet someone for the first time or  for the first time in while, I tend to script some conversation in my head so I know where to take the discourse if it looks like drying up. I was doing this as I walked towards the café, coming up with questions and deciding which of my witty anecdotes were suitable for a first date.  My phone buzzed, please don’t tell me she was going to cancel. But it was a number with no name.

‘Hi, how are you?’

That was the problem with new phones, you didn’t have everyone’s number in them. I looked at the number but didn’t recognise it. I quickly shot off my standard 'new phone reply' asking who it was, and then put my phone away.  I could worry about that later, for now I had a Kelly to charm.

I opened the café door and looked around for the tall, pretty brunette that I’d arranged to meet. But there sitting in the corner waving at me was not the lovely Kelly but Trish, my ex. The woman who had walked out on me over a year before. I walked over to her.

‘What are you doing here?’ I said.

‘Oh Josh you never change,’ she said giving me a playful slap as she stood up to kiss me. She’d obviously been expecting me, even if I hadn’t been expecting her.

My phone buzzed, I slipped it out of my pocket and read the message.

‘It’s Kelly’ it read.