Socially Distanced

Chapter 15

I woke up and immediately checked my phone, surprised to see that it was already 10:50. I jumped out of bed, upset that I only had about an hour to get ready for our date. My thoughts raced. Date? So that's what you think this is, Mabel? You're going over to Brett's house and you'll probably have lunch together. Yep, definitely a date.

I got dressed and took a shower. I quickly logged into my email and checked Brett's address again, not wanting to forget where I had to drive to. It wasn't very far at all. I got ready to leave, not even bothering with breakfast this morning. I checked the time: 11:47. I was probably going to be a little bit late.

I arrived at Brett's place a little after 12:00. He lived in a quaint little apartment downtown. I found the correct room number and knocked on the door. Brett answered quickly and invited me inside.

His apartment was surprisingly neat. I expected it to be slightly messy and disorganized, considering he was the type of person who forgot to charge his laptop before the first week of class. I laughed, reminiscing on the memory that felt like ages ago.

Suddenly a fluffy grey cat came waltzing around the corner. Brett turned around. "Oh, and this is my cat. He's more like a dog though."

I laughed, and crouched down to pet him as he greeted me at the door. "I see what you mean. What's his name?"

"Brett."

I looked up. "Pft. You named your cat after yourself?"

He shrugged. "Yeah," he said nonchalantly, as if everyone named their pets after themselves.

I chuckled and shook my head. "Why?"

"Why not," Brett replied, as if that was the most obvious answer in the world. "So, welcome to my place. It's not anything special, but it'll do."

"You're doing better than me," I replied. "I don't even have my own place yet."

"That's not such a bad thing," he said, leaning on the counter. "Means you don't have to pay for rent without a steady income. I'm currently unemployed because of this whole-" he waved his hands around "-this whole pandemic thing."

"That would be tough," I said. "Where do-did you work?"

"I worked as a waiter at the local Olive Garden. Since there's no in person dining anymore, they canned me the second the world went into lockdown."

"Yeah, this situation has disrupted a lot of people's jobs and careers." I decided to lighten the mood a little. "I love Olive Garden, and I've been there many times. I bet it's safe to say you fit in really well." I paused, looking at him with a smirk.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, you know. As a frequent diner, I couldn't help but notice the exceptionally cute waiters every time I visited." I winked.

"You got that right," laughed Brett. He paused. "Not about the other cute waiters, but about me. You know, the fact that I'm cute. I didn't mean to imply that the other waiters were cute."

I laughed. "I know, Brett." I crossed my arms. "So what do you have planned for our little therapy session today?"

"Well, I was thinking maybe we could start with some hand holding, so you can get used to that," he smirked.

"Uh huh. Sure. Hand holding for a 'therapy session'" I air quoted the last part, laughing.

He held his hands up defensively. "You're the one who's scared of it!"

"I am not scared of holding hands," I laughed. "I'm scared of spreading germs."

"Whatever you say." Brett rolled his eyes.

"What else?"

"Huh?" He asked.

I rolled my eyes. "What else are we doing for my exposure therapy?"

"Oh! Follow me." He walked into the family room and picked up a dvd. "We're going to watch this horror movie."

I raised my eyebrows. "But how is that going to help me with my OCD, germaphobia and-"

"I'm glad you asked! This happens to be one of my favorite horror movies of all time. I've seen this many, many times. I happen to recall a scene where somebody in the movie throws-"

I put my hands over my ears, cutting him off. "Okay, okay, I get it. I can't handle hearing other people say that, I'm sorry. It's weird, I know. It's okay for me to say it, but I can't hear other people say it. And I can't see it happen to other people either." I uncovered my ears. "I think it's too soon for this. It feels like I'm jumping right into this. Maybe we should start with something smaller."

Brett nodded. "It's understandable that you're scared. How about this; I'll warn you when it's going to happen, and you can look away if you really need to. Remember, we're eventually going to work our way up to you watching-" He paused, trying to find the right wording. "-it happen to me, in person. This is just something on a screen. This isn't in front of you, and this isn't real, okay? It's just a movie."

I exhaled. "Okay," I said quietly.