“Where are you taking me?” I asked, bored and irritated by the long walk through a forest in the middle of nowhere.
He smiled. “You remember that 6 word story thing from class?”
“Yeah, Baby shoes for sale, never worn.”
“That’s it. What do you think of this?” He cleared his throat. “Wedding dress, brand new, pickup only.”
“It’s pretty derivative, don’t you think?”
“I mean… I derived the idea from the original, so yeah, kind of the point. But how’s this?” He flipped through his notebook, I exhaled, not bothering to soften the edges of the sigh. This was going to be a long evening. “Missing shotgun found in toddler’s bed.”
I turned to look at him, he was walking at pace, fingers in his hair, head in his notebook. “That’s better.” I said, forcing an upbeat tone; I was relying on him to be able to find my car again.
He stopped and grinned at me. Melting my heart a little, surprisingly. But I guess by this point I’d been single for 19 months and a man was being vulnerable and moved by my attention.
“I think this one’s my favourite, you ready?” He sounded shy, but shot me a confident smile that said otherwise. “Woman disappears after date. Authorities mystified.”