Courtney has spent the entire weekend agonising over something that, by all accounts, should be considered an absolute victory.

She had a wonderful date on Friday, at a local cafe with a beautiful girl called Nat. The two got along excellently, and Nat even gave Courtney her phone number, but Courtney has no clue how she should follow up.

Is it too soon? What should she say? Should she ask her out on another date, or should she just have a chat, see how things are going? Texting seems too casual, but will she actually pick up if she calls, or will she assume it’s a scam and ignore it? Questions like these have been running through Courtney’s head for the past 48 hours, as she tries to come up with a proper course of action. She really doesn’t want to screw this up, she’s blown too many chances with girls before.

She takes a few more hours to deliberate, and after some careful introspection (and about 35 rolls of a virtual magic 8 ball she found online), she finally comes to a conclusion.

“Screw it! I’m just going to call her and see what happens!”

Courtney dials the number and presses the call button. The phone starts to ring, and continues to do so for longer than she expected. Normally it would have gone to an answering machine by now. She starts to worry, thinking that Nat isn’t interested in talking, or the phone number was fake to begin with, but before she can get too caught up in her own thoughts she’s interrupted by an explosion of flames bursting out of thin air in the middle of her living room.

The flames mostly subside after a few seconds to reveal an imposing demonic figure floating slightly above the ground, their head nearing the ceiling. It gives Courtney an intense glare, which causes her to drop her phone.

“STATE YOUR BUSINESS, MORTAL! WHY HAVE I BEEN SUMMONED!” its booming voice yells, seemingly from everywhere in the room at once.

Courtney is almost completely frozen in fear. The intensity of the demon’s command being the only reason she can eke out any response at all.

“I-I was just… Trying to make a phone call…” she says weakly, her hands shaking.

“MAKE A PHONE CA-”

The demon suddenly looks shocked, its voice now sounding much less threatening.

“Wait, Courtney?”

It sets its feet on the ground as it shrinks into a familiar form, while the last of the flames dissipate, but this only serves to shock Courtney even more.

“N-Nat?!”

“Ohmygod, I’m sooooo sorry! I must have given you the number to my work phone by mistake…” She says sheepishly.

All of this is too much for Courtney, who faints and falls onto the couch.

Nat ends up footing the bill for their second date.