Page 23 of Just a Taste
‘But I can’t—’
The operator hangs up without even waiting to hear what it is I can’t do.
‘That didn’t sound like it went very well.’
‘Didn’t it?’ I ask, voice rising in slight hysteria as I turn to find Hoxton sitting on the sofa, frowning at me.
‘No,’ he says slowly. Calmly. A lot calmer than I currently feel right now. ‘It didn’t.’
‘Thank you for such an astute observation,’ I say, slumping down onto the other end of the sofa. For all its sleekness, Hoxton’s sofa is surprisingly comfortable. ‘I never would’ve figured it out without you.’
‘Glad to be of service.’
‘Can you just—’ I wave a hand in his general direction. ‘Can you just not for two minutes?’
‘Not what?’
Not be you,I think. But instead, I drop my head into my palms and hiss out, ‘Just be quiet. I need to think.’ Except, that’s a lie. I don’t need to think. I already know exactly what I need to do right now. I just don’t want to do it.
I desperately, desperately, don’t want to do it.
My phone vibrates suddenly in my hand, and I allow myself the brief, slightly unhinged delusion that it’s the taxi company operator calling back to apologise and to tell me he’s about to send someone to come and collect me.
EVE
Holy shit where are you right now?
This storm just got real bad real quick. If you’re driving PLEASE stop and wait somewhere safe until it calms down.
And, as if I needed any further confirmation that I am currently in deep,deepshit, Eve sends a short video through. She’s standing on Gran’s porch, and it looks like she’s in the eye of a storm. Snow whirls in every direction, howling and screaming as the wind lashes around her. She lets out a loud shriek as a particularly powerful gust batters against her and she turns and runs inside, slamming the door behind her as she goes.
EVE
Scary shit, right?
Where are you? Please tell me you’re holed up in a Tesco or something.
NOELLE
That would be the dream right now.
EVE
???????
NOELLE
SC’s house
EVE
HUH?
My phone vibrates in rapid succession and I get a flurry of increasingly nonsensical messages from Eve, but I push her out of my mind and shoot Hoxton what I hope is a friendly, endearing kind of smile.
I’m not sure that I succeed because he looks vaguely alarmed.
‘Is everything all right?’ he asks uncertainly.
