Page 50 of Chaos Theory
‘Well, that sounds’ – I cast around for an appropriate response that will end the conversation as quickly as possible – ‘unappealing.’
He laughs lightly. ‘Ah – peeling, I like it.’
‘I saidunappealing,’ I say sharply.
‘Okay.’ He takes a step back. ‘Uh…give us a shout if you change your mind.’
I speed-walk to the door. I’m annoyed. He’s so annoying. I probe myself for the essence of his annoyingness but fail to grasp anything specific. All I feel is that familiar feeling of wanting to be somewhere else.
I ended up telling Shane I was going to work through lunch and now I’m in the unfortunate position of having to go through with it.
While Kobi is working in the customer relations department, I’ve been back at my desk in marketing. Everyone else in the open plan has already gone downstairs to the café or left the building to pick up an overpriced, on-trend sandwich so they can have an opinion on it. I’m just making some notes as prep for a client meeting when my phone rings.
I glance at the screen, see Josh’s name. A pleasant little wave goes through me, like my systems have just gotten a tune-up. I’ve been expecting his call so we can plan when he’ll come in this week. I haven’t seen him since the night of the Accidental Hand-Holding. I keep telling myself that’s all it was.
‘Hey, you,’ I say breezily. I put in my earbuds and walk to the water cooler for a refill.
There’s a microsecond delay before he says, ‘Hey.’ A slight echo on the line.
‘I was wondering when you were going to call.’ Does that sound too eager? But as I say it, Josh also starts talking. ‘Oh, sorry, you go ahead.’
‘Hey. I meant to call earlier, but I was in transit.’
‘In transit? Where are you calling from?’
‘Abu Dhabi. I’m on a layover on my way to Singapore.’
‘Oh wow.’ I’m fairly sure he didn’t mention this trip the last time we spoke.
‘Sorry, it was all very sudden. Ron called me last night and saidhe wants me in Singapore this week for a big conference. No notice.’
‘Last night? That is no notice. Who goes to a conference last-minute?’
He chuckles. ‘You don’t say no to Ron Tron.’ He sighs. ‘He gets these ideas. There’s this new technology called “digital twin” and the world expert was just added to the conference line-up, so Ron decided I needed to be there.’
‘Did you say “digital twin”? That sounds kind of creepy.’
I pour some water from my refilled bottle onto the oversized plant next to the water cooler before replacing the lid.
‘Ha, it’s not as exciting – or as sinister – as it sounds. It’s for manufacturing systems. You can create a digital-only copy of a machine or product and interact with it virtually. It’s kind of cool.’
‘Bring me back a brochure,’ I say. ‘When will you be back, actually?’
‘Um, sometime next week.’
‘So we’re not doing our regular check-in this week then.’ I try to sound casual but instead hit a note of disappointment.
‘Sorry. Tell Kobi I’m going to miss him.’ There’s a pause. ‘And – hey – I’m going to miss you.’
I feel myself flush at this declaration. ‘Let’s keep in touch.’ I smile down the phone as I realise I’m going to miss him too.
TWENTY-EIGHT
KOBI
Tuesday, 1200
‘—And that’s the difference between makingsometoast and makingatoast,’ Shane concludes.
