“What are you going to do?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know. He wants us to be ‘friends,’ he says that’s all he can offer. I know he thinks I’m returning to Australia, I was going to tell him I’m not. . .” I glance down at my handbag, casually placed next to me. Clementine is totally unaware that it’s carrying around a ticking time bomb. “You want to hear something stupid?”
“Hey,” Clementine scoffs, “I think I have the monopoly on stupid.”
“We’ll see.” Reaching into my handbag, I pull out an old phone and place it on the table. “That’s six years old.”
Clementine’s brows slowly raise. “Happy Birthday?”
I huff a humorless laugh. “A couple of weeks ago, Hendricks said he’d messaged me, and I never replied. I never replied because I never got them. I racked my brain, trying to figure it out until I realized he sent them to my old UK phone. That one.”
“Hendricks’s messages are on there?”
“Maybe, I don’t know. I’ve charged it, but I’m too scared to turn it on. I don’t want to be reminded of how badly I fucked things up when I already know.”
“Story. You were both young, and young people do stupid stuff, so give yourself a break?—”
“Are you including yourself in that?”
“Touché.”
Picking up the phone, I run it between my fingers,turning it over and over. The alcohol is making me brave but not brave enough.
“Will you read them with me?”
Her hands reach across the table and take mine. “I’d be honored.” It might be the wine talking, but I’m taking it.
“Do you want me to turn it on?”
I slide it across to her. She presses the button, then pushes it back to the center of the table, and we wait.
The first thing that comes up is my lock screen, a picture of Hendricks and me taken on Honeysuckle Hill one summer.
“Shall I go and get Eddie’s Wi-Fi code?” she asks, just as the firstpingsounds out.
It’s followed by another, and another.Ping. Ping. Ping. Ping.
My stomach drops a little further with each one.
“Shit.”
Clementine tops up our glasses again and holds hers out. “Come on, it’s going to be okay.”
Gingerly, I pick up the phone and open it. The messages are still coming through thick and fast, making it harder to get back up to the beginning.
Then I find the top.
HENDRICKS: You’re in Australia? What the fuck, Story?
HENDRICKS: Call me.
HENDRICKS: This isn’t funny. Are you seriously in Australia?
HENDRICKS: AUSTRALIA?
HENDRICKS: I can’t believe you’ve gone without a word.
HENDRICKS: What did I do?
