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with a little grin icon

See, now, this was the probleht women He didn't want to be the sloppy second that the women settled for He wanted someone both he and Dylan could share, equally When it cale woman, Dylan had always been the frontthe wingman Maybe it was time, really, for the best man to win That comment to Dylan had most definitely not been just a joke – he'd been very, intensely serious

And thatup to the plate now, ready for his turn at bat Oh God, he was getting sick of the baseball metaphors

The app beeped as she replied with:

So I see you're like, Mr Triathlon and ski dude, and et the re him up There was a natural opportunity here and he – he couldn't blow it He couldn't blow it He sat there in his boxer briefs, typing aith one finger on his ridiculous setting awfully uncomfortable Because as he typed, he stared at her little avatar with those sweet dient look on her face and decided that his body's response was telling him prettythat sounded good on the surface, and then the second that he hit enter – augh! – he wanted to take it back

lolol, yeah don't be afraid, we could just go for a hike if you want

Oh, I think I just asked you out

Yeah I did

and then he ended it with a question mark

Shit, a hike? A hike? God, could that be any la hiood cause – a hike? Dylan had taken him up on his advice and taken Laura out to the fancy Asian fusion place that so ain, he could count "all of the women they dated" on one hand

All of the woly rejected what they were offering, which was, he had to ad for second best had left them both hollow and incomplete, and now they had an added complication 22 billion of them, to be exact

A hike, yeah, I'd like that That sounds really cool

The words sat on the screen like fairy dust, as if some unseen spirit had conjured them from a mystical layer in the universe and plopped them on Mike's phone Seriously? She said yes?

She liked the hike idea Oh, my God Oh,to regenerate his brain cells, ht answer

Which was? Sh his hair, his pal yes! The coffee felt like a pool of hot lead in his gut now as he raced to reply, typing out a response OK, OK, breathe dude Breathe, breathe, breathe What could he say?

What could he say? Keep it sier, he wrote:

OK So, how about this afternoon After work? You wanna do lunch and then go for hike? I know a great spot in this State Park, a nice easy trail, it won't be too hard on you

He hit enter and then realized that that was probably one of the stupidest things he could have said, his fingers itching to find soical "retract" button, a switch he could flip to withdraw his words fro when she was out of the shape, he didn't mean to oh, shit Mike, you idiot! He buried his head in his hands and fully expected her little icon to go away and disappear, and for Laura to think he was just a double failure at this shit, to go running back to Dylan – who kne to handle wo right now?

She replied:

Sounds good I'll wearboots, don't worry I have feet, I can walk, I can use theuhed and wrote back:

OK, phew, good to know I like bipeds

and typed down his phone number Laura sent hers back and he realized that he needed to say so, yet had no idea what to say because this was the first time that he had actually found a woman, on his oithout Dylan

Yeah, yeah, yeah – technically Dylan had found her, but Dylan had no idea that he was independently pursuing her The not-inconsequential fact that he had just essentially sniped her couldn't be ignored, either

Wow! He just stared at his so away but it wasn't, and there was no hope that it was going to go away He could tell as he just stared at the blinking cursor

Finally she wrote back,

Hello, hello Are you there, Mike?

Oh, Jesus He startled as he realized he needed to respond, and quickly typed back,