Page 49 of Try Hard
He sounded amused as he replied, which was probably fair enough. In the office, we got along perfectly fine. We weren’t best friends, but we were probably friends. At least as far as colleagues went.
“What’s up?” I asked, a flash of panic in my gut that he was calling me while I was off work.
“Oh, nothing much,” he said in that relaxed tone he almost always had, which didn’t necessarily mean nothing was wrong. “Sorry to interrupt your holiday—I really shouldn’t be—”
“I’m aware.”
He laughed again. “But I needed to ask you a quick question.”
“And it couldn’t have been an email?”
“Well,” he said, drawing the word out with amusement, “it probably could have been, but I’ve been missing your sunshine presence.”
“It’s Sunday. I’ve been officially off work for two days. A weekend.”
“As if we don’t work weekends.”
I stopped, glowering. He had me there. He did not have me on the whole sunny disposition thing.
He’d probably like Eve.
“And,” he continued, the smile fully audible, “I wanted to know how your holiday is going.”
“All two days of it.”
Fuad laughed. His voice was as warm as ever. “You’re seeing friends, and lots of them from the sounds of things. Don’t come at me for being desperate to know how that’s going for you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Your interest in my personal life is honestly ridiculous. I’m perfectly happy with my life.”
“Of course you are. You spend most of your time on adventures all over the world and the rest of it writing about those adventures. Who wouldn’t love that? I’m just fascinated by this new, social version of you.”
“I’m plenty social.”
He practically choked on his surprise. “Of course you are.”
I pulled the sun visor down, scowling at it in the absence of Fuad. “What’s the question?”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll get to it. Tell me about your weekend.”
I sighed. “Plane watching with my dad and his friends yesterday. A pre-wedding bridal brunch thing today.”
“Oh, my god. Ilovebrunch.”
“I’m aware.”
“Was the food good? Tell me the food was good.”
“It was, actually. Sunny Monday’s. If you fancy a trip to the coast, I think you’d like it.”
He gasped excitedly. “Is that you asking me to take a road trip with you?”
“Absolutely not.”
“I wholeheartedly accept!” he said, as if I hadn’t spoken. “We’re going to have so much fun. I’ll make a playlist for the way there. You can do one for the way back. I’m looking up the menu right now.”
I wasn’t making a playlist. Those were private. Well, except for Eve, apparently. But that didn’t really matter. I wasn’t going on a road trip to Sunny Monday’s with Fuad.
There was the sound of scrambling from his side as he raced for his tablet or computer or whatever device he was planning to look the place up on.
