the Engineer...first phone call continued

Or was it? All good, I mean. An are went by and then 2 and Sas and I were getting pretty fucking sick of the fucking Game Show Channel and we even changed to the Golf Channel for awhile, but I got jittery and had to turn it off. I was pissed. I'd been had...played...tricked. And I didn't like it, not one bit. Then the phone rang and Sas and I looked at each other like WTF? Because by now, we'd written off the Engineer so this was totally unexpected. Sure enough, 404...Atlanta, the Engineer. I answered playing it cool because well, you know why. And he was so apologetic and launched into this long explanation of how the restaurant, which is never crowded on Thursday nights was inexplicably crowded this very Thursday night and he and Kathy had had to wait a really long time to get their dinners and he was so nervous that he was standing out on his front porch smoking a cigarette, which he never did anymore, except for those really stressful times and he hoped I wasn't mad and he was so, so sorry and he'd had a couple of glasses of wine and hoped he didn't sound tipsy because he really wasn't, just a little bit pleasantly buzzed and how he'd worried that I wouldn't answer the phone but he'd also worried that I would and he was so glad that I had and .......... "Hair (how are) you, Miss Ina? Fahn, I hope and not angry?" Well, Miss Ina had been a little pissed to be sure, but now, after this huge apology, she was entranced...in a good way. Of course, there was no way I was going to let him know that. At least, not yet.
And so we talked...for about 45 minutes, which is about 40 minutes longer than I usually like to talk on the phone. Well, mostly, he talked and I listened. He talked about his daughter and his 2 failed marriages, and his business that he and his partners were starting up, and how he felt about politics and religion (same as me!). Oh he asked me questions and I answered. I even made some germane comments about stuff he was talking about. And what might have been a wearisome conversation...wasn't. At all. It was like he wanted get everything out there and get me to know him and it couldn't happen fast enough for him. He seemed so eager, so enthusiastic about life. I was charmed...

--Ina