"Hello?" Pt. 1

April 20th 2016

Unedited

This quote sums up Sophie.

~*~*~*

"Hi, Sophie."

"Hello."

"So, how are you?"

"Fine."

"..."

"..."

"How long is it going to be awkward for, Sophie?" 

"What do you mean?"

"You. Us. Before talking to you was fun but now? It's really awkward."

"Like you said, that was before. This is now."

"Yeah, but-"

"But what? Things have changed. I'm trying to find a new balance. A new normal."

"This isn't normal."

"That's why I said that I was finding a new normal."

"And how long is that going to take?"

"How long is a piece of string?"

"Excuse me?"

"It's something my grandmother, Harlow, used to say. Whenever I was impatient and I'd ask how long something would be, she'd always ask, How long is a piece of string? Because, you know, the string is only as long or as short as you need it to be."

"And how long do you need it to be?"

"A little longer."

"I guess I can give you that."

"Speaking of grandmothers, I phoned Connie yesterday after hanging up on you."

"And what did my dear grandmother have to say to you?"

"Just that she misses me. I didn't have the heart to tell her that... well, you know."

"That we're finding a new normal?"

"Yeah."

"Thank you."

"I didn't do it for you, Daniel. I did it for me."

"Still, I'm glad you didn't tell her. What else did she say?"

"I thanked her for the dress and she told me that there were more dresses. She's been having a clear out of all her old clothes and now that she knows that I'm roughly the same measurements that she was, she wants me to inherit them all."

"Well, she loves you, so of course she'd want you to have them."

"I can't accept them all, though."

"You can't but you will."

"Will I?"

"Constance will blackmail you into taking them off her hands. She's convinced she's going to drop dead one day soon."

"Well, she better not before the weekend!"

"The weekend? This weekend?"

"Yes, this weekend. I'm back in London for a few days because of the marathon so I was going to drive out to see her."

"What day? Maybe I can come too."

"No, not a chance."

"But-"

"No! I want to see her by myself."

"Well, ok, if you're sure."

"I've done it before, I can do it again."

"I suppose so. Any particular reason that you'll be visiting her?"

"To say 'thank you' in person."

"What happened to your Jakarta trip?"

"Um... someone else went instead."

"Why?"

"I was grounded."

"Grounded?"

"I, uh... I couldn't go. I benched myself. I sent Leony instead."

"But you were looking forward to it."

"A lot of things change in the span of a week."

"..."

"Look, I wanted to talk about something with you."

"Ok, shoot."

"When I'm back in London this weekend...um..."

"You want to meet?"

"No. The opposite, actually."

"You don't want to see me?"

"No, I don't."

"But-"

"Please."

"Sophie, I need to see you."

"Daniel, don't. I am warning you. Don't."

"..."

"I'll see you when I'm good and ready, ok? Jesus Christ! It's hard enough forcing myself to answer the fucking phone to you every day! I cannot see you."

"Then, I'll keep away."

"Good."

<<Hey, boss? Brogan's on line one. Shall I put him through?>>

"-Yeah, that'll be great, Jasmine.- Daniel?"

"Yeah, I know. I should leave you to it."

"Ok."

"Speak tomorrow?"

"..."

"..."

"Yes."

"Thank you."

"Yeah."

"In a while, crocodile?"

"Bye, Daniel."

~*~*~

A/N 

Do you prefer the A/N before or after the chapter?

So, Sophie doesn't want to see Daniel when she's in town on the weekend. To be fair, I wouldn't want to see him either. Therefore, the Saturday chapter is going to be Sophie-Connie-Samuel centric. Thoughts?

Also, those of you who commented on what was wrong with the endings of the conversations, you were right. Sophie can't bring herself to say anything other than 'bye' at the end of the conversations. Like she said, she needs to find her new normal. (I hate the word 'normal.' Nothing is normal.)

Sarah xx

Time stamp: 20:00 (April 20th)

(Because notifications still aren't coming through. There's even a delay on my e-mail ones now!)