Pickle purred.
‘Can you believe what your Auntie Angela said? You don’t think I’m icy, do you, puss? No, you don’t. It’s quite insulting really. I’m warm, approachable. If I were an animal, I’d be a faithful hound or a sweet lop-eared rabbit. Anyway, if it is true, how in the world do I stop being an Arctic fox?’
She spoke into the ether as this thought persisted.
Chapter Six
Enya tried to sleep, figuring that if she faked it for long enough, the real thing might creep over her. Eyes shut, arms by her sides, lying back on her pillow, she did her best to smother the sound of that drum and let the quiet wrap her, but it was no use, the sandman had apparently left her off his list. Again.
Angela’s words resonated; was she hiding in her ice cave? The question being whether she was indeed brave enough to do anything about it.
‘Ugh.’ She felt her stomach roll with sickness at the thought of speaking to him.
Her sister was right, there was only one way to crawl forward and that was to engage with Handsome Car Klutz directly, find out if he was married, interested, or was indeed just one of those people who was nice to everyone, or whether she was about to make a complete fool of herself. Although even if he was single, what did that mean, what would she do with that information?
‘I’d do nothing, but at least it would be closure,’ she reasoned.
With the phone in her hand, she lifted her finger, hesitating before she pressed the icon that would connect her to HCK.
‘What should I say? I’ll be subtle of course, see what he says, how he reacts and go with that. God, I feel sick! What if I make a monumental idiot of myself, what if I sound like a weirdo ordesperado. How do I even broach the topic that I might have felt a little sexy at the sight of his wrist!’ She ran her hand over her face. ‘This is something I haven’t had to contend with for decades!’ Pickle’s lack of response did nothing to settle her nerves. ‘I guess if he is curt or cool, I never have to speak to him or of him again. It’s not like I’m going to have to see him. I can always block his number, delete the contact, it will be as if it never happened.’ She talked herself into it.
Consoled by the option of deleting all mention of him entirely, she pressed the button and instantly regretted doing so. Hunched over with embarrassment, with her toes curled and her face contorted, physically reflecting the agonising regret of her action.
If she ended the call, however, he would still see that she had called and that was almost worse somehow! She was unsure how something as basic as making a call to the person who had damaged her car could cause her this much angst. It was a huge relief when his answerphone kicked in. What she should have done was end the call, allow him to call back if he wanted or needed, but instead she listened, smiling, quite enamoured by the sound of his voice, which had the same effect as it had in real life, as her heart jumped in her chest and the tingle of excitement ran along her limbs, sending a blush of desire over her skin. And finally, she discovered his name.
Hi, you’ve reached Dominic’s phone, leave me a message, and... you know the rest, I’ll return your call when I get the message, which is likely to be weeks and weeks after you’ve left it, so... apologies in advance...
Dominic!So intent was she on listening that she almost ignored the beep, aware suddenly that it was recording, and she was doing no more than breathing and smiling. He might think it a crank call!
‘Oh! Gosh! Yes, erm . . . it’s . . . it’s me . . . car park woman.’ She cringed,car park woman? ‘Just thought I’d . . . you know . . . doing some . . . some admin, car stuff, erm, anyway, it’s me and so, yup.’
Hastily, she finished the call, threw her phone on to the bedside table, and wriggled down on the mattress, hiding her face under the duvet with her hand clamped over her mouth, breathing quickly through her nose, wanting to disappear forever. She felt Pickle readjust her position.
‘You absolute dipstick!’ she finally yelled at herself as she came up for air, ‘you sounded like a babbling teen! Angela’s right, when is the last time I stuck my head out of my ice den? He’ll blockyournumber! Delete all mention of you! You’ll have to pay for the bloody door now, yourself, which is no more than you deserve. I’m dying of shame!’
Closing her eyes, she wished hard now for the escape of sleep, every muscle coiled, cringing at her entirely pointless and embarrassing message that Dominic would apparently not hear for weeks and weeks, and would by that stage probably have forgotten all about her! But sleep, it seemed, was still not on the agenda, as her cogs turned, her thoughts whizzed, and her interior monologue screamed negative confidence-crushing words at her!
Idiot!
Moron!
Car Park Woman?
What were you thinking!
Poor Jonathan, did you forget about him?
The truth was that in that moment when Dominic’s voice had held her attention, she had in fact forgotten Jonathan for a second or two. With this realisation came the awful sense of failure, like she’d let her husband down, cheated, even.
‘I’m so sorry,’ she whispered.
Her brain noise was quieted by the sound of her phone buzzing. The breath caught in her throat, and as she reached for it, the name flashed up on her screen, HCK. Unsure if she should answer, she held the phone for a second or two. It would be awkward, of thatthere was no doubt, embarrassing too – what would they have to talk about? The initial fizz of excitement was now dulled when she pictured her lovely husband. She felt like a child who’d been caught with her hand in the biscuit tin.
‘Hello?’ Her voice no more than a shaky whisper.
‘So, I’ve spent most of the day wondering what your name might be. I’d kind of settled on Maggie.’
‘Maggie?’ She laughed, as much with relief at the ease with which they had begun – that, and to be called Maggie was better than being called an Arctic fox or a penguin.
