past. I followed meekly, determined not to plead or make a craven idiot of myself in any other way. Wolf slumped back down on the floor where Robbie’s feet had been and let out a deep sigh. Fine. Be like that. There was a sheet of paper on the table I hadn’t noticed until now. It bore the letterhead of Jason’s real-estate agency and was headed ‘Offer on Sale of House’. I skimmed down the page until I got to a number: $860,000. I held the paper up close to my face and counted those zeros again. An eight hundred and sixty thousand dollar offer. It was fifty thousand more than Jason thought we’d get at auction. It should have made me feel good.
My newly independent-minded phone had turned itself off again. When I rebooted it, there was another panicked message from Sunny asking me to please, please, please ring her. When I tried, all I got was her voicemail again. Making true what I had told Robbie, I booked a flight back to Auckland, closing my eyes while the website confirmed my credit card payment. I knew I was perilously close to my limit but I couldn’t work up the courage to check exactly how close. Departing at six o’clock meant I had only a couple of hours to do everything I needed to before heading to the airport. I put my recalcitrant phone on the charger and used the landline to ring Jason. He confirmed the offer on the house was genuine and still live, whatever that meant. If he was expecting a squeal of delight he must have been disappointed. I said I’d give him an answer by the same time tomorrow. He started to remonstrate with me but I hung up. Then I rang Sean and matter-of-factly told him what the offer was.
‘Wow. That’s more than I expected,’ he said, his voice pleased.
‘Yeah. It’s definitely a good offer.’
‘So, what do you think?’ he said, failing to suppress the excitement in his voice.
I squeezed my eyes shut tight. ‘I think we should take it.’
‘Okay,’ he said, a little too quickly. ‘As long as you’re …’ he hesitated, ‘if you think so.’ I knew he was trying to let it be my decision and I appreciated that. ‘Do you want to grab a coffee or something?’ he said. ‘It would be good to talk.’
‘I can’t, sorry. I’m flying back to Auckland this afternoon. But listen, Sean. It’s okay. I’m okay about it. You were right. It’s time to sell up.’
‘Actually, Di, it wasn’t the house I wanted to talk to you about.’
I waited, feeling oddly detached while he struggled to find his opening line. Wolf still lay on the phantom of Robbie’s feet. He had turned his back to me, maintaining an unmistakable posture. Who needs teenagers when you’ve got a dog with attitude?
‘Are you and Robbie going to move in together?’
I wasn’t expecting this. ‘What?’ Wolf’s ears pricked with interest at my raised voice.
‘Robbie’s a great guy, you know.’
I tried for a second ‘What?’ but nothing came out.
‘I’d hate for you to stuff it up, that’s all.’
Finally my outraged voice made it all the way past my throat. ‘What the fuck’s it got to do with you?’
‘Don’t be like that, Diane. I just wanted to say, Robbie’s a great guy and you’re a great, um … woman.’ He ignored my snort and pressed on. ‘You two are good together.’
I sucked in some air and kept my voice steady and quiet. ‘Go fuck yourself, Sean,’ I said, keeping it friendly. We breathed intimately into the silence some more, our breaths mingling in a way they hadn’t for a very long time.
‘Bye,’ I said, and hung up.
It took only a twenty-minute hobbling walk along the lower track of Mt Victoria and the occasional lower back scratch and I had Wolf eating out of my hand again. Literally. Smackos will win over the most standoffish of dogs. Tragic, really. I picked up a pine cone, a young one, firm and closed with a shiny golden sheen the colour of its needles, and lobbed it up the slope. Wolf and I watched it roll back towards us. He glanced at me then continued to breathe deeply at the bottom of a rotted tree trunk. Chasing pine cones has never interested Wolf much. Neither had running round in circles chasing his own tail. That was my specialty.
By the time I was back home re-packing my bag, Wolf and I were best buddies