Are you alright, Tigress?
Bet you missed me, didn't you Tigress?
Leave her alone! Tigress!
Tigress!
. . .
I love you, Tigress.
His smile. His smell. His voice. His body heat. His closeness. His warmth.
His everything.
Him.
The canape fell from my fingers and down splat onto the table. I watched, dazed, as the mint-speckled cream started to stain the table cloth.
Regaining my senses, I whipped my head around, eyes darting, searching, looking.
Because this time, I knew it wasn't Damian who had called me by that name.
Your darling boyfriend is dead.
Was he?
I could feel my pulse accelerating, my heart drumming away beneath my chest, straining against my skin, longing to jump right out of my throat. My fingers, I was sure, were trembling.
If there's even the slightest bit of hope, the slightest glimmer of chance, the slightest possibility that he - that he -
My eyes roamed every face, taking in every feature that I could see. I was turning round and round on the spot, my breaths coming out abnormally fast and short, my stomach flipping somersaults.
"Miss?"
The butler that had escorted us inside the house was standing before me, a polite and somewhat haunting smile on his face. In his hands he held a phone.
"For you, Miss."
Hesitating, I took the phone. He did a low bow and walked away. A second after he left, it rang.
And I froze.
Everybody is Kung Fu Fighting
Your mind becomes fast as lightning
Although the future is a little bit frightening
It's the book of your life that you're writing
People around me were tossing weird and annoyed looks my way. I yelped, scrambling to hit the accept button. It was an unknown number.
There was no doubt. It had to be him now. Only he knew, about my - erm, childhood favourite.
. . . Okay. Fine. I might have been extremely, rabidly . . . obsessed with Kung Fu Panda when I was younger.
Just might of course.
I placed the phone to my ear. And swallowed. "Hello?"
There was the longest pause of silence.
Then -
"Hello Tigress."
My knees gave way right there and then. My left hand had to reach out and grabbed the edge of the table for support. For a moment I couldn't think, couldn't speak, couldn't breathe - all that mattered was that right now, right here, I was hearing his voice.
Thomas' voice.
After four years of silence.
There was a breathy chuckle from the other end. "You look so pale. Seen a ghost?"
My eyes darted back up and around the ballroom. "You can see me?" That means he's here!
"Yes. Yes I can."
YOU ARE READING
How About Seven? ✔
Action[ 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘦𝘥 #44 𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 ] -- It's an oft-quoted quote, and I'm sure you guys have heard of it. Two's company and three's a crowd. But I just can't help thinking . . . How about seven then? Every family has their own dram...
