Background:

I first met the above ESI when I saw her working in the yard across the street. (She owns a lawn service company.) I went over to talk to her and after goofing around for about 45 minutes, she suggested going out for “a burger and beer but no sex”. I thought, WTF? But invited her out. She said she was busy for a month or two, but she’d let me know.

In the next two years, we’d sometimes talk when she was working across the street. Sometimes these conversations would last an hour and I found myself really liking her. She seemed to like me, too, but said that I talk too much. She said that a couple times.

She eventually found time to go out, and we got some takeout and headed to a dock on a river in a park. We talked for six hours, then went back to my place, where we talked for another two hours, and then she left. And then she refused to go out with me again. I think she likes me (maybe so much it scares her) but she is super-Avoidant. Which I wish were not the case, but I’m not going to change a lifetime of training before the sun grows dim. She is who she is.

A couple weeks ago, a package was delivered to my house in the rain, but I was in another state and so called her (because she sometimes works in the neighborhood) to see if she would pick up the package so it wouldn’t get soaked, and she happily agreed. (I later picked it up from her customer across the street.)

Today I saw her across the street, so I decided to thank her personally for being willing to save my Fedex package from the rain. She saw me as I crossed the street and I called out “Hi, (her name here)!”
She stopped what she was doing and her body tensed up. I stopped my approach on the tree lawn.

”Thanks for being willing to take my package out of the rain last week.”

”You are welcome.”

The microseconds stretched on and I said nothing. I started to turn away.

”Thanks for keeping it short”, she said.

”Thanks for keeping it short?”, I thought? WTF. ESI’s, masters of layered meanings.

I extended my arms out like glider wings and caught the updrafts back into the street.