“Perhaps it belongs to someone like him.” She had a particular soft spot for Eric, who had lost his wife long before I’d first met him, and had never remarried. “Do you think we should ring it and check?”
“Odds are the number’s probably out of service.”
She gives me a playful nudge. “Stop being soboring. Maybe it’ll still work.”
“How much do you want to bet?”
“Loser clears the dinner and puts the kids to bed?”
I raise an eyebrow. “High stakes. You’re on.”
She lays her own mobile flat on the table next to it and taps the number in before pressing the greendialbutton, switching it to loudspeaker as we both lean in to listen.
I’m expecting an automated message saying the number is not available.
Instead, there is a pause. A click.
And then it starts to ring.
5
The number rings six times before there is another click, another pause, and I’m not sure if we’ve been cut off.
“Hello?” Jess says into the silence.
A robotic female voice asks us to “Please leave a message after the tone.”
“Hi.” My wife shoots me an awkward look. “My name’s Jess, I just found an old phone with this number in it and I wanted to return it to the owner?”
Callum chooses this moment of distraction to lean over and grab two of his little sister’s last remaining chips.
Daisy’s voice is squeaky with outrage. “He stole!”
I point a finger at my son. “Callum, give Daisy her chips back please.”
He reluctantly drops them back onto her plate.
“Anyway,” Jess says, momentarily thrown. “Could you give me a call back if you get this?”
She stabs the red icon on her phone’s screen to end the call, sits back in her chair, and raises her plastic cup of Prosecco.
“Looks like I won our little bet, so I think I’ll put my feet up.” She gives me a triumphant grin. “Cheers.”
“Double or quits?”
“No chance. Anyway,” she says, “back to your secret room—we should get someone in to give us an estimate on the work. Not yet, but when we’re properly settled in.”
“What work?”
“Taking that wall out. Opening up the space will add another four feet in width so it will fit a double bed with ease.”
The thought of incurring more expense at the moment gives me a cold feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach.
“You think we should just get rid of it?”
“Of course.” She shrugs as if the answer is obvious. “Why wouldn’t we?”
“I don’t know,” I say. “It might be historical or something. It’s quirky. A bit different.”
