Well and truly Cumberbatched (To be revised)

Chapter 19

Monday.

Late afternoon.

I wake up to find that most of the day has passed by, 'good thing I’m not working today' I think to myself. I hop out of bed and have a glance in the mirror and see my eyes are still red, I shrug and pop on my glasses to check my phone and I see I’ve got a few missed calls and one voicemail. From Ben. I dialed 121 and listened to it:

‘Rosie, please answer my calls. Things honestly aren’t how they seem. I can’t lose you, I really can’t. Please can we talk, I need to explain. You may not think or feel it right now, but you’re everything to me. I just need to know you’re okay. I need to talk to you.’

As much as I want to stay angry my stomach twinges, the angels are crying. I bloody wish they wouldn’t. I don’t feel like I’m dreaming, I feel like I’m living through a nightmare, going from being pissed off to utterly disappointed. After slipping on a pair of converse and wipe my eyes again, I head into the living room to ready Merlin for his walk, having left my phone in my room but he’s pining at the window, as if he’s crying.

“Merly, what’s wrong?”  I ask as I stroke him behind his ears and look out of the window.

Ben is waiting outside my front door. Merlin runs into the hallway and starts pining for me to open it, it’s not fair for both of us to feel sad today so I open the front door for Merlin, even though a tiny part of me could have quite happily left Ben standing outside.

Merlin, incapable of being annoyed at people even on my behalf licks Ben’s face and wags his tail as Ben hugs him.

“Merlin, hey buddy. Do you mind if I talk to my amazing girlfriend? At least I think she still is.” He asks as Merlin licks his hand and Ben smiles. I roll my eyes uttering something under my breath and kick my converse off as I head towards the kitchen and Ben follows me with Merlin, shutting the heavy front door.

I get to the kitchen and sit on the kitchen island, waiting for some sort of explanation. Ben walks in behind and leans on the counter parallel to the garden, Merlin sat by Bens feet, watching us take it in turns to talk.

“Are you still annoyed?” Ben asks.

“No, I really wanted my day to go like this because I feel abso-fucking-lutely amazing right now.” I said rather sarcastically. “I’m just disappointed more than anything else.” I sighed, tucking some loose hair behind my ear, as he looked at the floor like a child scorned.

He wasn’t saying anything yet again, so I decided to make myself a drink. I fill Merlin’s water bowl too and pop it outside for him. “Outside Merlin.” I said and Merlin made his way outside.

“I think you over-reacted, you didn’t even let me explain properly.” He finally says.

“Didn’t even?” I bluntly said standing up as I walk back in and lean against the sink, not even bothering with my drink, and resisting the urge to let him wear it.

“You’ve got to be kidding me? What kind of conclusion did you expect me come to? You stood there with your mouth wide open like a fucking ventriloquist’s dummy waiting for someone to speak for you. You. Did. Not. Bother to finish your sentence. Twice! And then when you finally do say something you completely tripped over your words so I didn’t know what the hell to believe. Seriously Ben, what was I to think?” I snapped back, folding my arms.

“You’re calling me Ben, so I can’t be in that much trouble?”

“Fuck me Ben, you can just leave if you’re not going to get to the point.” I sighed, taking my glasses off and wiping tears from my eyes as he looked at me, a powerless expression sweeping across his face.