I was fifteen minutes early.

I couldn't believe that he was already there.

Riding the escalator up, I could see the back of his head over the back of a bench, the dark skin and silver hair unmistakable, a black wire down his back leading to his ears. I went the other way, away from him and the movie theatre and to a small, quiet corner, where I could catch my breath. Why was he already here? Did he know I was going to be early?

I had been too busy Sunday to log in, and he worked a long day Monday, so we only managed to connect briefly to decide on a movie before he had to crash. The latest rom-com, nothing all that taxing or challenging or political, and definitely nothing too horny. At worst, we might see Mark Scafran's butt or Andrea Arabel's bare back. Firmly in PG territory, and should be in and out in under two hours. Reviews were mixed to lightly positive. Which meant that we would probably have a lot to talk about afterwards, either stuff we enjoyed or stuff we wanted to make fun of.

I was the one on the bus that day, the central mall was close to where Darryl was staying, and there wasn't another multiplex in town. The drive-in was a challenge when neither of us had a car, and I wasn't about to invite him over for a streaming party. Not yet. So I was early because the bus is unreliable, but also because I didn't like being late, and I wasn't expecting him to be there. Being on the bus already felt like everyone's eyes were on me, even though that was ridiculous, and I was counting on a few minutes' reprieve to recover before meeting him. Why did he have to be early?

Which was silly—he hadn't seen me yet (or at least hadn't acknowledged me), so I could have as much time as I wanted. Assuming that I wasn't late. But I wanted to be the one to wait for him! I had to make the choice now when to approach him, whether I wanted to wait until the last moment so we didn't have to talk before we went into the movie or whether I wanted to go greet him now and sit with him for fifteen minutes before our screen time. Or if I wanted to find some moment in between when he was getting bored and I could just show up to brighten his day.

Now that was a fantasy.

I took a deep breath and turned back from the corner where I had been intently studying the pattern in the wall tiles. It was a pretty neat pattern. I think I managed to sell that that's what I was actually doing and not... what I was actually doing. And when I looked around...

There he was. Walking towards me. Head down, looking at his phone, probably either checking the time to make sure that I wasn't late or maybe turning off whatever he was listening to, or maybe texting me to cancel because I wasn't there, or because he saw me acting weird. Probably the last one. I watched him, waiting for him to turn and head down the escalator, waiting for the jingle on my phone.

He turned.

And sure enough, there was the jingle.

I was twenty feet away. Maybe less. I could have called out to him. He didn't look up as he got on the escalator going down. I stood there, watching him go, earbuds still in his head. I watched until he was out of sight, walking casually towards the entrance.

I hardly dared to look at my phone, but... but I had to.

There was one unread message from Darryl.

I turned and put my head against the wall. I'd done it. Didn't know what 'it' was, but I'd done something to fuck everything up, and now I was alone again. Not that I ever wasn't alone, really, Darryl and I weren't dating, we were just hypno buddies having some fun, and now I'd even messed that up.

Alright, I said to myself, steeling my will and opening the message. I fought back tears. Let's see what I did wrong and I can go back to my sad life.

Hey Rosa, just in case you arrive I'm here, just in the bathroom. I got the tickets, I'll be at the theatre entrance in 5.

I stared at the message, looking for the punchline.

Was it a joke? Another message I missed?

I looked at the fire alarm on the wall and seriously considered setting it off. Okay, not seriously, but I filed it away in my list of escape options.

I checked my phone again for another message.

Hey Rosa, just in case you arrive I'm here, just in the bathroom. I got the tickets, I'll be at the theatre entrance in 5.

It hadn't changed. There wasn't another explanation. He just got up to go to the bathroom. That was all.

He had to know I'd read it. That's how those things worked, right? He'd know. So I sent a quick thumbs-up emoji in reply, walked over to the cineplex, and sat down right where he'd been sitting. I imagined that the warmth of the room was the warmth of his body, and felt his arms snuggling around me, a memory of an old suggestion that I always loved even if it wasn't Darryl that gave it to me. But I imagined that it had been him giving it to me, and felt myself getting warm, warm in the body, warm in the face.

I closed my eyes, heaved a slow sigh, and smiled, relaxing into the hard bench as much as I could, waiting and trying not to think about how long I was waiting. I worked to not check my phone. It felt like it had been three hours since I sat down, but was probably more like a minute or two. Maybe not even that long.

"Rosa?"

I opened my eyes and tilted my head back to look up at Darryl's chin. "Hi!" I said. I felt warm and comfy and a bit silly. I knew it wouldn't last, but I thought I should enjoy it. And I thought maybe he would, too.

He stepped back and leaned down so we could be a little more face-to-face, even if our faces were upside-down relative to one another. "Good to see you."

I rolled up to my knees, hands on the back of the bench, and came practically nose-to-nose with him. "Good to see you too, Darryl." I hopped down to the floor and twirled around the bench, and very nearly wrapped him in a hug but didn't. "How was your day?"

He shrugged. "Be happy to just be anywhere but work right now." He made a slow gesture towards the theatre. "Shall we?"

"Yep! You said you got tickets? So I'll get the snacks."

"You don't have—"

"But I'm going to," I interrupted. "None of your hypno-dom shenanigans tonight. I'm not your tour guide. You bought the tickets, I get the snacks. Fair is fair."

"Fair is fair," he said, raising his hands as if to show he was unarmed. "How was your day?"

I wasn't sure where that energy had come from, but it felt good. I led him towards the door. "I had an okay day. Normal morning, didn't burn the toast, did some work, had a trance at lunch, did a little more work, caught a bus, and now..." I paused. I looked at him. "Wait. Had a..."

He raised an eyebrow. "Wanna talk about it?"

I blushed. "I... you... we..." The wind came out of me. "You..."

"Did I?"

"I'm checking the chat logs tonight."

"I wouldn't want it any other way."

We moved to the concession stand. "So our short meeting yesterday?"

He put on an infuriatingly mysterious smile. "Maybe not quite as short as you thought."

I felt hot. "H-how deep are..."

He laughed. "Let's talk about that in the theatre, alright?"

"A-alright..." I turned to the cashier. "Number three, please?" I looked over at Darryl, who nodded. We both gave our drink orders and butter requests, then made our way into the darkened and mostly-empty theatre, each carrying a large container of popcorn and a big drink.

"Where would you like to sit?"

"Uh." I looked around. Two other couples were already sitting. We could be just about anywhere. I didn't want to sit right up front, but... but maybe he did? On the other hand, there was the back, it would be private, no one would see us... but that would mean no one else could see us. Could be the middle?

"Rosa?" he said, shocking me out of my stupour. "Where would you like to sit?"

I didn't know what his eyesight was like, so I didn't know if sitting at the back would be a problem. But the front might be too close to focus properly.

"Where would you like to sit?" The ice in his drink rattled.

"Middle?" I started moving up the stairs, then picked a row arbitrarily. I sat down in the centre of the row. There was a couple about five rows up behind us, and another down near the front, and us. Adding in the soundtrack to the advertising playing over the speakers, it felt like we were basically alone.

As I was settling in, Darryl confessed. "Yes, to lunch. You 'yellowed' at me Saturday, and this afternoon gave me the green, so..." He shrugged. "I took the green and ran with it."

"I'm so checking those logs."

Darryl laughed again, loud enough to be heard through the theatre. I sank down a bit in my chair, but honestly, felt pretty darn good. "Honestly," Darryl continued, "I didn't expect the memory block to work quite that well."

"Any other surprises for me?"

"Wouldn't be surprises if I told you, would they." He grinned. "As for yesterday, no, nothing happened except us deciding on a movie and a meeting time. I was just teasing, I promise."

I looked at him suspiciously, not even noticing that I wasn't all that upset, and was about to say something when the lights went down and the previews started. I got myself back up into my seat and peered at the screen. The popcorn was tasty, the soda was delicious, and the company was great.

I wasn't the sort to talk during the movie, and neither was Darryl, it seemed. I caught him looking at me once or twice, but mostly I was just watching the screen, enjoying the cheesy plot—mob kid Lenny (Scafran) accidentally gives the delivery girl Dolores (Arabel) a valuable note with an informant's address on it when paying for the pizza, and in trying to get it back the two of them wind up in witness protection together—while simultaneously thinking that if he weren't so built and she weren't so gorgeous no one would have watched more than five minutes, because certainly the story didn't have a lot to recommend it. It was mostly an excuse to get the sexy leads in the same room together and keep them in the same room together, and of course eventually she walked in on him while he was showering (and there was Scafran's gloriously tight ass) and she, believe it or not, sleepwalks, and doesn't always wear clothes while doing it... I rolled my eyes hard at that contrivance to give us multiple shots of Andrea Arabel in underwear. And of course after ninety minutes and a third-act miscommunication that nearly broke them up and got them both killed, everything was sorted out perfectly, the mob guys went to jail, all charges were dropped against Lenny, because of course they were, and the two of them end up happily ever after with the mob boss' money.

It was garbage, but it was fun garbage, and it was my kind of fun garbage. I had a small but significant collection of similar movies on DVDs back home, which sometimes made great background noise while I was working. It was a habit picked up from my mother, and I did not care, it was a fun habit.

We stayed until the end of the credits, and were the only people who did so, leaving us alone in the theatre as the lights came up. I hadn't finished my popcorn; once my soda ran out, I didn't really want to keep eating salty snacks.

"Well," Darryl said, "What did you think?"

I bit my lip. "Hum." Did I want to share my real thoughts? Would it bother him if I thought the movie he picked was kind of ... dumb?

"What did you think, Rosa?"

There was that patience again, making me squirm a bit. "I. Uh. Well. It. He."

He laughed. "Those are words, but they don't really tell me what you think."

"It. Um. Was fun? But..." I trailed off.

He stood up and stretched. "No really, Rosa, what did you think?"

"It was kinda dumb, right?" I blurted out. "I mean, it was fun, I had a good time, I don't mean that it was a bad movie, but it was a kinda terrible story, and the whole sleepwalking angle was clearly an excuse to put Dolores in lingerie all over the screen..." I felt my face getting warm. "I hope I'm not ruining it for you!"

He shook his head. "I thought the same things! It was fun and I'm glad I got to share it with you."

"Yeah, I'm... I'm glad, too." I got up. "So, um, what now?"

"I walk you to the bus, I think. Seems to be the way these things end."

"Makes sense, I guess," I said. "Would you, um... do you want to..."

He looked at me, and I shrank back, for no good reason. "Is there something you'd like to do?" he asked.

"I mean... yes, b-but I think... the mall is um closed, so that would mean..."

He nodded. "Going somewhere else," he said, finishing my thought.

"And, um, I'm... not... against... the idea..." I looked down at my feet as we left the theatre and headed into the quiet mall. It was still technically open, and there were still some movies playing, but all the stores were dark.

"But we both work in the morning," he replied, "and you want to check some chat logs."

I giggled. "Yeah, I... I guess so, yeah. Okay, you can walk me to the bus stop, Darryl. But only if we can chat after I get home."

"I agree to that, absolutely."

We walked down out of the mall to the street. "So, uh, Andrea Arabel's cute, huh?" I ventured.

"Oh, definitely. Kind of overplayed the whole sleepwalking thing, much as I liked seeing her wandering around in practically nothing," he replied.

There was no one else nearby, so I asked, "What would you do to her?"

He tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

"If you could hypnotize her," I teased. I was starting to feel that energy from earlier again. "What happens to Andrea Arabel when you get your mind control claws into her brain?"

He winced a bit, but smiled. "Metaphor's not great, but... Hm, honestly?"

I sat down on the bench at the bus stop. "Truth, Darryl." I laughed.

"Hmm, alright." He sat down next to me, not too close, about as far apart as we had been in the theatre. "Take that sleepwalker, sit her down, and whisper in her ear until she wakes up into a perfect, obedient trance..." His voice drifted low, and I could almost picture it. The beautiful starlet sitting, just as we were, except inside and warm and in her underwear, her eyes wide and vacant and... I shivered, though it wasn't all that cold.

"Of course, since I know what's on your mind, Rosiegirl, I would taste her lips first, kissing lightly, then I would slide my hands down her back, gently massage her deeper into trance..." I squirmed in my seat, listening to his words. More than picturing the movie star being hypnotized, I was starting to imagine myself in her place.

"The clasps come undone, one, then the other..." My eyes had closed, and I wasn't really listening so much to his words, because I knew what he was saying, what he was describing. I held myself back from falling under, and from doing anything indecent I might've been thinking of; we had talked about veering into erotic territory, but never had, not to that point, and anyway I wasn't about to start groping myself in public.

"But unfortunately," he said as he was about to slip off her panties, "your bus is coming, Rosa, and we'll have to discuss this more over the chat, if you want to."

I whimpered a bit and opened my eyes. He was right, of course, my bus was approaching. The mall was a terminal point, so it was going to wait there a while, but still, it definitely meant our date was coming to a close.

"May I give you a hug?" he asked, getting to his feet and offering me a hand.

I hesitated, looking at his hand like it might bite me. Which it might have. Still, I took it, held it, didn't rise.

"May I give you a hug?" he asked again, that confident, patient smile telling me that whichever answer I gave, it would be alright.

I pulled myself up with his support and, without hesitation, wrapped my arms around him, resting my head against his chest. I felt his embrace, smelled his warmth and comfort, and just held tight for a moment. It was glorious. He didn't move, and neither did I, as the bus drove up.

"Have a good night, Sir," I said, separating from him and walking towards the open bus door.

"Talk to you later, Rosiegirl."

I giggled, showed the driver my pass, and made my way to the back of the bus. It was just me on there, the driver was standing outside checking his phone and having a smoke, taking a well-earned break, so no one heard me say, "Hey!" when I realized what we'd just called each other.

I looked out the window.

He was grinning. He waved. I waved back, with a shy smile. He laughed, turned away, and started walking home.

I had my composure back by the time the bus started moving.