He dialled the number excitedly, his large fingers firmly pushing each down in turn. A few seconds later, the dialling tone let him know that he would soon be talking to his lucky lady of choice. They picked up.
"Hello?"
"Hello, is this Miss Stevens?" he asked.
"It is. Who is this?"
"This is Mr. Bedable," she flinched, "I'm a friend of Susan's," he said, which was kind of true. Susan was convinced that at some point in her life she had been lectured on the importance of being your own best friend, or some such poppycock.
"Oh, right, what can I do for you?" asked Miss Stevens.
"Well, I'm almost sorry to ask this, but apparently you owe Susan a favour? She said you'd understand if I just said that," he said, remembering such a fact at the very last second and hoping that she would too.
"Ah, yes. I do indeed," said Miss Stevens, "So what can I do for you, Mr. Bedable"
"Ah, call me Matt," he said, satisfied with his randomly chosen name.
"Only if you call me Janine," she said.
"Of course. Well, I'm in town for a while, and I'm supposed to be staying with Susan at her's, but she's not around until the evening and I'm locked out of her house. She basically told me to call you just so that I wouldn't be wandering around alone all day," he said, hoping that this would be convincing enough.
"Oh, really?" she asked, a snide accusatory tone in her voice.
"Yes. Why?" he asked.
"You're calling from her house," she said.
"Oh, dear. Yeah. Yeah, I am, you got me. The truth is she's just trying to set us up on a date, she figured that this would be the best way. I feel kind of stupid, now," he said.
"Oh, don't!" she said, her tone lightening considerably, "She's like that sometimes, she likes to play cupid. It's sweet, really, but between you and me, she rarely gets it right."
"Ah, that's fair enough. Say, this might seem a bit forward, but do you want to meet up anyway? You never know, we might prove her right," he laughed.
"Yeah, sure. Just tell me where and when," she said, obviously smiling at the situation she had found herself in and the charming honesty of this stranger calling her. In her head she was just hoping he was good looking, too. Then she thought that she shouldn't be so shallow. Then she hoped again anyway.
Similarly smiling, Susan, Matt, named the time and the place, and thanked her quick wits for setting her up on her first date with another girl. She wondered for a moment whether this made her a lesbian, but, it was very hard to feel for such a sentiment when the excitement of the phonecall had left her with an erection.