guess what happened?!?...tale of the swirl...

[please note...this is a multiple choice story, which means you gotta guess what happened next and click on the corresponding answer. the end of the story is a couple of posts down, but DON'T CHEAT. click on the 'back' button to get back to the original page if you guess wrong. DON'T CHEAT DAMNIT.]

it was 12:15 p.m. and i had just ended another great im conversation with my girl blah, determined to get some work done before 'the call' came, if it came. my mind was sweating with doubt, fear condensing into droplets of 'what ifs' sliding down in meandering streams of unanswered questions to gather in puddles of agitation in my thoughts.

what could we possibly have to talk about? he's from russia and i've never spoken at length to anyone from that country.

why did he ask me out to lunch? i can count on one hand the number of times i've even spoken to the guy!

did he really mean to take me out to lunch or was he just playing? i've had plenty of planned lunch dates that ended with me stood up due to some 'unforseen emergency'.

and then my phone was ringing. i checked the caller id. it was him.

oh SHIT.

"hello?"

"hello, nikki." his accent was thick like a bowl of borsch fed to the silence in a spoon laden with bulbous chunks of "sh's" and soddened pieces of "k's".

"hey," i checked the name on the caller id (yeah, i couldn't remember the guy's name), "mikhail?" i was unsure of how to pronounce it. i heard his deep chuckle on the other end.

"yes," he answered, pleasure in his voice, "are you ready for lunch?"

there was a pause while i considered whether or not i really wanted to go through with this. then i responded...

a. "you know, i'm not really up for lunch today. i've got too much work to do. can we reschedule?"

b. "i don't think we should do this. i really don't know you well enough to go to lunch with you."

c. "sure"