Dana? Is that you? Dana recognized Laras voice and winced at the butterflies that had suddenly taken up in the pit of her stomach.

Uhhh, yeah. Dana answered.

Its Lara. I wasthinking about you. So I decided to call and see if you wanted tohave coffee or something later. On the other end of the phone Lara held her breath waiting for Dana to answer her. She had been trying to get a hold of Dana for a while, but she kept getting her voice mail and her answering machine and until this moment she had thought that Dana was trying to avoid her.

Um, can you hold on a second? Dana asked. When Lara answered sure, Dana put her hand over the phone and dropped it from her ear. *****, *****, *****. She muttered, cursing herself for answering the phone before looking at the ID box. She wasnt ready to make this decision. What do I do? She whined at the empty room as she bounced her right leg rapidly, trying to make a decision. Dana looked around as if for an answer, but there wasnt one coming. Remembering that Lara was still waiting for her Dana started to raise the phone back to her ear, but halfway there she stopped and swore again. *****! She said a little too loudly and looked slightly panicked down at the phone. She winced hoping that Lara couldnt hear her spaz on herself. Just have coffee. She told herself simply. Its not like a date or anythingits just coffee. She reasoned with herself. Dana sat for a second and then moved her head back and forth quickly as if she was mentally weighing out the ups and downs of having coffee with Lara. Danas thoughts, along with her head movements went on for another few seconds before she raised the phone back to her ear. OK. She said quickly.

What? Dana did you say something? Lara asked when she heard the sound of Danas muffled voice.

Dana suddenly realized that she had left her hand over the mouth piece of the phone and she quickly dropped her hand away embarrassed at her lack of smooth, even though Lara couldnt see her. Oh, Uh, I said OKTo the coffee. I mean to you. Dana said quickly. I mean ok to youabout the coffee. Dana felt her cheeks go red as she tripped over her thoughts. She wondered briefly if she honestly thought that Lara thought that she was talking to coffee. But just when her thoughts were leaning toward absurdity she heard Lara chuckle.