“Uh… sorry, Eric, but I gotta go.”  I knew she was lying.

“Oh, yeah.  Sure.”

“Bye.”

I let the dial tone echo in my ear for a while before hanging up.  The conversation was by far the most embarrassing moment of my life.  It didn’t raise my spirits at all when my brother confessed he’d been sharing the same moment with me on the other phone.

“What the heck is, ‘Uh… this thing’?” he asked mockingly.

I clenched my teeth and ignored him.

“Call her again, Eric,” he said.

“What are you, nuts?  She’ll think I’m an idiot!” I said.

“She already thinks you’re an idiot.”  He had me there.

Five minutes later, I had the phone to my ear, listening to a familiar, “Hello.”

“Can I speak to Naomi, please?”  I couldn’t believe I was taking advice from the same guy who once got the famous “let’s just be friends” line.  But I was desperate.

“This is she,” Naomi answered.

“Uh, hi.  It’s Eric again.”  I waited.  I needed small breaks from talking to prevent hyperventilation.

“Hi, Eric.”

“I wanted to apologize for… the silence,” I couldn’t believe I’d just said it.  What was even worse was, she knew what I was talking about.

“Oh, that’s all right.”

“I was just nervous.”

“Mmhmm.”

I suggested we go out on our date that weekend.  But she said, “I’ve got to go to a graduation, so I won’t be here.  Sorry.”

“Well, okay.  Some other time, then?”

“Okay.”

There was another silence, but Naomi cut it shorter than the first.  “Well, my dad needs to use the internet, so…”

“Oh yeah, well… see you later.”

“Yeah.  Later.”  She hung up and I sighed with relief.

The day after I called Naomi, my friend, Laura, told me that Naomi had broken up with me.  “Yeah, she said you guys aren’t going out anymore.  She called it off,” said Laura.

“What do you mean?  She never said anything to me,” I said.

Laura just said, “Well…” as though she were withholding information.

Laura turned out to be right.  It might have been the next day, or later that same day, but during lunch, Naomi was asking out another friend of mine.  He refused, but I was still crushed.  Dumped, to be exact.

I should have seen it coming.  How were we supposed to go on a date if I couldn’t even talk to her?  I got over it the whole incident, but not without a few scars.  Ever since her graceful, movie actress turn, I could never look anyone straight in the eye again.  Nor could I ever feel comfortable talking on the phone again.

But, like I said, I got over it.  Eventually.  I realized there are other girls out there.  Laura, for instance.  Ever since kindergarten, we’ve been great friends.  As a matter of fact, she was my best girl friend.  Of course, after I had this sudden revelation, I could never talk to her the same way again.  She was no longer a friend.  She had become an attraction.

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