Page 121 of My Year of Saying No
I tidied up the kitchen a bit, placing my plate and cup from lunchtime in the slimline dishwasher and pondered over what to do for dinner, settling on some grilled chicken and spicy rice.
Humph stopped drinking and came over to me to see if I was doing anything that might be of interest to him. I felt a drip on my sock and grabbed the towel I had set aside for the dog and bent to smoosh his face with it, laughing as he began the familiar play with it.
‘Come on, pooch. Let’s get this over with.’
Humphrey gave me a quizzical look before trotting after me as I made my way to the sofa and sat down, then he hopped up and got comfy on my lap by circling a few times and plopping down with an effort that belied his size. I moved him off my bladder and picked up my phone.
Opening the app, I went to calls and saw the two unanswered ones from Seb. Pressing on one of these, I took a deep breath and pressed the little video camera button. He answered on the second ring.
‘Hey.’
‘Hello.’
Bugger. I was hoping he might have got less attractive in the past week. He hadn’t.
‘Good walk?’ he asked.
‘Yep, not bad.’ The conversation already felt strained and awkward in a way it never had before.
‘Right. Good. Great.’
‘Yep,’ I said again.
Seb looked at me for a moment then let out a sigh. ‘I hate this.’
‘What?’
He made a motion with his hand. ‘This. Us.’
I frowned.
‘The weirdness.’
‘Is it weird?’ I asked, in a voice that was so weird it didn’t even sound like mine. But I wasn’t about to admit that.
Seb tilted his head. ‘You know it is, Lots.’
I gave a maybe yes, maybe no, head wobble and stayed silent.
‘You turned down the gala invitation.’
‘Yes. Thanks, but I’m busy that night.’
‘You never mentioned it before.’
‘You never asked.’
Seb thought that over and, by the look on his face, realised that was probably true. ‘Are you really though?’
‘Yes.’
He ran a hand over his dark crop and looked at the screen. It felt like he was looking straight through me and seeing the very empty space on my calendar for that particular day. I did my best not to blush and give myself away. He didn’t say anything for a moment, but I was pretty sure he knew it was a lie.
‘Everything I put in the email was true. You’ve done so much for the charity, and even more for this gala. I know it’s going to be successful and a lot of that is down to you going above and beyond.’
I shrugged. ‘It’s a good cause.’
‘So come.’
