‘Yep … I’m guessing Jess and her fiancé don’t live with you then. That might be a bit crowded?’
‘No, you’re right, it would be a nightmare!’ I reply.
‘At least you get a break from it then,’ he says and I can hear the amusement in his voice.
‘True, but then I miss her too.’
There’s a silence and after a while I wonder if he’s still there. ‘There’s only one thing for it,’ he says eventually. He’s obviously been thinking.
‘What?’
‘You’re going to have to exercise your human rights.’
‘Human rights?’ I reply, puzzled.
‘Yeah, your basic human right to not answer your phone or respond to texts.’
‘But what reason can I give? I can’t exactly say I’m out, when I’m always either at school or at home.’
‘Hmmm good point. The lockdown has taken away the excuse of being unavailable when you are generally pretty available,’ he says contemplatively. ‘You’ll have to say you were in the loo or cooking dinner or something.’
‘That’s only going to work for half an hour at the most.’
‘Fair comment. You could just not get back to her and pretend you’ve left the country.’
I laugh. ‘During a lockdown? You have not met Jess; she’d get a SWAT team scouring the entire planet, social distancing or not.’
He chuckles. ‘You’ve got me there. I’m going to have to give it some thought. I too have several large files and a planner, so I’ll get back to you.’
‘Okay sounds good,’ I reply. Although the sun has been staying out a little longer now the clocks have gone forward, it has finally vanished for the night. ‘It was nice to meet you and thanks for putting up with my emotional outburst. I’m going to go in now as it’s getting cold and dark.’
‘Yeah and these flats aren’t posh enough for outside lighting.’
‘Or for anything else,’ I say. ‘Bye then and thanks for the chat.’
‘That’s okay, I enjoyed it.’
There’s silence and I wait momentarily to see if he’s going to say anything else, but he doesn’t. I shiver again as it really is cold and I get quickly back in the warm.
I hear the balcony door above shut a split second before mine and wonder if he hesitated too; maybe he too was waiting to see if I said anything else. Strange I never knew he lived there. I suddenly realise I don’t know anything about him. I was so busy talking about my own troubles I didn’t ask him about himself. I don’t even know his name!
Perhaps Jess is right: Hinge is the only answer. This lockdown and social distancing malarkey is making me incapable of having even the simplest conversation with a guy.
Chapter 2
Jack
I wake with a start, my heart pounding, with an unaccountable feeling of impending doom, as though I should be somewhere or doing something. Groggily I peer round the pillow at my silent alarm clock and the slow realisation dawns on me that I haven’t got to be anywhere and in fact I can’t go anywhere even if I wanted to. Just like yesterday and the day before and the day before that. I lie there gazing disinterestedly at the ceiling. I don’t feel like doing anything at all.
Perhaps this is what happens to people when they get old and retire, unless they are one of those active individuals who take up golf or petanque or something, they just end up staying in bed longer and longer until one day they simply can’t get up. Like the four old grandmas and grandads in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. That’s it – it’s all over. I think I’ve been on my own too long. In rebellion against my thumping head and in active defiance of the hideous future I have predicted for myself, I leap out of bed and wish I hadn’t. How many Old-Fashioneds did I drink last night? Too many, judging by the fact my feet no longer feel as though they belong to the rest of my body. Yet it can only have been a couple; it’s not as though I can get away with much these days.
For the next ten minutes I blunder about randomly, trying to find a shirt and manage to slip up on my iPad, which I’d left on the floor by my bed. Not a bright idea in view of the fact I’ve only narrowly managed to avoid smashing it to smithereens. I should really take more care of it. There’s no way I could get another if I break