Two days had passed, but nothing happened. Addison waited by her phone all this time waiting for the phone call, but nothing came through. She often picked up her phone and attempted to call someone wondering if there was something wrong with her phone, but it always seemed to work.
Her friend would pick up and Addison would say, “Hey, I’m just checking to see if my phone works. It does. Talk to you later, bye!” Then she would hang up. She called so many times that it got to the point where her friend would answer, “It works. Bye.”
Addison would laugh after hanging up. She had such a kind, understanding friend. Even though her friend really had no idea what was going on. But that was what made her wonderful. She had no idea what Addison was doing, but she understood and didn’t bother to ask for two many details.
It was her parents that she had to convince. Addison would try to sneak her phone to dinner and they always scolded her and took it away. It wasn’t polite to have a cell phone on the dinner table while she was with family eating a meal together. So, one time, she tried hiding it in her pocket. However, she forget to put her phone on silent mode and received a text message from her friend. Her parents heard the “ding” of the incoming message and took away her phone.
It was good thing cell phones had voice mail and told her if she missed a call from someone or not. Otherwise, Addison would go crazy.
On the third day of waiting for that phone call, Addison came to dinner and rushed to eat her food.
“You’re going to get sick if you eat too fast like that.” Her mother sighed. “Why can’t you just enjoy this time with your parents?”
“I normally do,” Addison swallowed a mouthful of chicken. “But I’m still waiting for Gary to call me.”
Her mother frowned and looked over at her husband, who was too wrapped up in his meal to even notice what was going on. Addison’s mother nudged him with her elbow and he looked up shocked knowing that he had missed something.
“Help your daughter, would you?” she said.
Addison raised an eyebrow. Help her with what?
“Oh, uh…” her father swallowed his bite and cleared his throat. “Addie, sometimes boys are…”
“Stupid.” Her mother finished.
“Right,” he rubbed the back of his neck.
Addison rolled her eyes. Now she knew what was going on. “Guys, before you continue,” she said holding up a hand, “Gary isn’t stupid. He said he would call and he will. But–”
“But guys don’t always follow through with the things that they say.” Her father interrupted her. “They say that they’re going to call you, but they don’t always do that. Sometimes it’s because they forget and sometimes it’s because they just say that to make you feel better because they’re… Well…”
“They’re wimps.” Her mother finished. Her father furrowed his brows and looked over at his wife.
“Take your father for example,” Addison’s mother pointed to her husband with her thumb, but stayed focus on her daughter. Addison glanced at her father who simply shrugged his shoulders and went back to eating.
“I had to threaten to break up with him if he didn’t propose.” Her mother said. “I mean, we were together for what? Six years at that point? He was pushing 30.”
“So,” Addison interrupted, “Are you trying to tell me that I should call Gary myself even though he hasn’t gotten back to me yet?”
“Absolutely not!” her father stiffened and looked up at her again.
“We’re just trying to explain that men can fickle sometimes.” Her mother shrugged her shoulders.
“Guys have a code, too.” Her father continued. Addison pursed her lips together wondering when would be a good time to interrupt her parents again. She didn’t expect to get a side course of lecture to go with her chicken.
“Guys think that they should wait a few days before calling a girl.” He said. “For some reason they seem to think that by making a girl wait, she’ll want him more or something like that. They don’t call right away because they don’t want to seem like they’re coming on too strong. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Addison nodded. She opened her mouth to say something, but her mother spoke first.
“Men are ridiculous like that.”
“Really?” her father deadpanned at his wife, but she only shrugged in response. He turned his attention back to Addison.
“My point is that Gary wants you to anticipate his call. He wants you to go a little crazy waiting for that call so when he does, you’ll feel like you want him more than ever. He wants you to feel relieved when he finally does call.”
“Men are complicated and childish. They think they can get the upper hand by doing this.” Addison’s mother added. “Don’t give him the satisfaction.”
Addison’s father nodded in agreement and then took another bite out of his dinner.
Addison leaned against her arms folded on the table and stared at her parents intently. Were they finished? Could she speak yet?
“Do you have any questions, honey? Dating can be such a cruel world.” Her mother said.
“Right,” her father nodded, “especially when you’re in high school and your hormones are all over the place.”
“Oh, right. We should discuss her hormones.” Addison’s mother wagged a finger at her husband as though he was onto something and Addison was no longer in the room.
He shook his head. “Yeah, you can. I’m not touching that one with a ten-foot pole.”
“Guys?” Addison said loudly. “I think this conversation has gone on long enough. I just wanted to inform you that Gary and I are working on a school project together. He’s supposed to call me with his research piece.”
Her parents looked at each other with confusion.
“Oh,” her father said.
“Well, then by all means,” her mother said, “call him back. You don’t want to wait until the last minute with something as important as a school project.”
Addison sighed nodding her head. At this point, it was just best to agree with whatever her parents said. And she had, somewhere along the line, lost her appetite.
I hope you enjoyed this story! Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
