the Engineer...first phone call

And then, the phone rang. Sas and I looked at each other like WTF? We didn't get that many calls on the cell back then and the ring tone sounded alien. So, I got up off the couch and went digging in my bag for the cell...found it and saw that the call was from the 404 area code. The Engineer...I was a little anxious. After all, this was a guy who looked, if not like Adonis, then still pretty hot (if that picture he sent was really a likeness of him and not just some pic he'd snagged from the Smokin' Hot Men website. You think there's not such a site? Google it, if you dare.) Anyway, I managed to answer it before it clicked over to voice mail, and this gruff voice drawled, "Haaahhh (drawl-speak for hi), it's Day-ave (drawl for Dave). This Ina?" Well, the voice wasn't what I'd expected. You know how you hear somebody on the radio and form a mental picture? Same deal with email and photos...you hear his voice in your head, but then, when you hear it for real, sometimes it doesn't match up. So the gruff thing was unexpected, but the drawl drew me in. So I said "Hi" back and managed to ask him how he was, and he was fahn (fine). And then he told me he had comp'ny (company) and he needed to take her to dinner and could he call me back? What?? Was he telling me he was about to go out on a date?

He explained that she and her husband(!) were old friends of the faaamly (family) and she was in town from Bumin'hayum (Birmingham) for an antique show and she was tard (tired) and hungry and if it was OK, he'd cawl (call) me back in an are (hour). Sounded reasonable to me (uh oh) and I said, "Sure." So, we hung up and I went back to Sas and the couch and the Game Show Channel. WOF was over, but there was a favorite episode of Match Game coming up. And the Engineer was going to cawl back in an are after he'd fed his comp'ny. It was all good...

--Ina