Texts and the City: Chapter 3

An accidental phone swap leads to a day of messages—and an unexpected connection.

When Devon and Ebonee bump into each other at a busy subway station, their phones get swapped, and they find themselves connected for the day. What starts as a frustrating inconvenience turns into a series of flirty, revealing texts—and the possibility of new love.

The texting begins

Devon stifled a yawn as Carlos, one of the senior partners at the architectural firm, droned on about the new filing system. This could have been an email.

He silently promised himself and the others in the room that when he became a partner—hopefully in a couple of years—he would not subject them to these boring, unnecessary meetings.

Devon shifted in his chair and felt the weight of Ebonee’s phone in his jacket pocket. He glanced surreptitiously at his colleagues, who all seemed to be paying rapt attention to the presentation, though he doubted they were. They were probably just as bored as he was.

Fortunately, he was seated at the back, which meant no one would see what he did next.

Slowly, he eased the phone from his pocket and held it below the table. Carlos continued talking, using a laser pointer to draw attention to the tagging system for the digital archives—something no one asked for and probably no one would ever use.

He fired off a text to Ebonee.

Smart ass. He stifled a laugh. He could already tell she was a handful. Exactly the kind of woman he liked.

The room erupted into applause, and Devon lifted his head. He clapped too, watching as Carlos smiled and nodded, clearly pleased with himself.

“Now, Tina is going to take the floor to discuss our email templates. Unfortunately, we need to circle back to this issue because not everyone is taking advantage of the templates, and it’s important that all external communication maintains a level of professionalism that reflects positively on the firm. Tina, the floor is yours.”

Devon inwardly groaned.

Carlos sat down, and Tina walked to the front of the room.

“Thank you, Carlos,” she said, pushing her glasses higher on her nose.

Devon’s office buddy, Rich, shot a look at him over his shoulder. Devon shook his head and looked skyward. In response, Rich covered his mouth and faked a cough to hide his laughter.

“Okay, everyone. Once again, the templates were designed to make your life easier…” Tina started.

Devon glanced down at the phone when he saw movement on the screen.

This time, Ebonee had initiated a message.

_____

She told him not to go through her phone, and what did he do? Go through her phone. Smh. What do you think she’s going to do?

NOTE: I just realized today that the texting looks fine on desktop but for some reason is blurry if you’re reading on mobile. My apologies! I’ll try to fix that for the next installment.