I haven’t heard from V in a few days, and Stride hasn’t texted back, and my football team is falling short. Into this gap, enters Frosting. I was ordering bed sheets on a commercial – that’s how hard this game was to watch, I needed retail therapy – and a text slides down into view. The vibration feels like an electric shock through my surprise.

“I’m watching the start of this comeback under threat of tornado in 79 degreee weather. What about you?”

I’m watching the Packers making a comeback with a banner across the bottom broadcasting a tornado warning….and, yeah, it’s probably like 79 degrees. And he hates football! I look around me. Slowly. I don’t know exactly what I’m expecting to find or what I’ll do if I find it. Where is he?, I wonder. He’s 2 hours NNE of me he tells me. Like he could read my mind. I feel myself relax a little.

Are you kidding? He’s supposed to be like TWENTY two hours away. Where I left him. Or rather he left me, if you wanna get technical.

The next morning I get, ‘Are you awake?’ That’s a text blast from the past. I leave it there because I’m feeling that I like a little frosting on my phone. And because I’m guessing the next text is going to be about calling and I’m not sure I’m ready for that yet.

The name Frosting came from a book I had read just before meeting him: 27 (Wrong) Reasons You’re Single. In it she make reference to a saying, “when you’re demons come knocking, feed them cake!` I shared that idea with Karen and so when she called as he and I were driving the curvy, hilly back roads to Spring Green and asked, ‘watcha doin?’ I exclaimed, ‘riding in the car with….frosting!’ and we broke out into laughter.

The name stuck.

You’re about four days too late. For what felt like a long time, you were the bar that all the other guys were measured against, and each one fell short. And then, someone passed. Like a Kentucky Derby when a horse just starts kicking it into gear right before the finish line. That’s when I started to see how great V was and how great he was to me.

“I like that you’re hanging out with him,” Karen says, “he’s playful and present; he’s good for you.”

Greg, “and some people won’t appreciate it at first because they’ll be too afraid but then later they will come back around.” Wow, that’s exactly what’s happening. Maybe. I’m not really sure what’s happening. And I’m not asking. He walked away. If he’s coming back then he can state it. He doesn’t need me to ask.