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‘We’re brunching. You’re on speaker.’
‘Hey, Cam,’ his older sister speaks finally.
‘So how’s it going?’ Chloe leaves him no time for a hello. ‘All ready for your trip back to the hometown?’
‘Packing as we speak,’ Cameron manages to insert, putting his phone on speaker and setting it on his bedside table so he can continue packing.
‘Brilliant. I’m so excited to see you. I’ve barely seen you since …’
The three seconds of silence is long by Chloe’s standards. It’s enough for Cameron’s stomach to start eating away at itself.
‘Well,’ Chloe ends lamely, avoiding mentioning anything specific.
‘Since you broke up with Braden,’ Carrie finishes for her, having no compunctions about exacerbating Cameron’s self-flagellating stomach.
‘Anyway,’ Chloe says loudly, but not loudly enough to cover the sound of someone being slapped on the arm. ‘Lunch for us on Monday is all booked.’
‘Don’t you have uni?’ Cameron folds his polo shirts and stacks them into a pile on the bed, then starts on the pants.
‘I can’t miss the family reunion! And everything’s online anyway.’
‘You’re still arriving late-morning?’ Carrie asks.
‘That’s the plan,’ Cameron says.
‘Okay. I’ll come grab you from the hotel and we can walk over together. Chloe’s coming straight from uni.’
‘See?’ Chloe says. ‘I’m not completely unstudious.’
Cameron laughs as he grabs his suitcase from his wardrobe, contentment a warmth in his chest, a rare feeling since he left Sydney.
‘And we know you have the welcome drinks Monday night,’ Chloe keeps talking, ‘so Carrie reserved tickets for you to see the symphony on Tuesday.’
‘I’ll meet you at stage door after. We can grab a drink,’ Carrie says.
Cameron shakes his head, placing his suitcase on the bed. ‘Am I going to have any nights to myself?’
‘You get Wednesday night off so you can prepare for your presentation on Thursday,’ Carrie says.
‘Gracious of you.’ He says it with sarcasm but his shoulders loosen knowing he has the night to run through his speech a few times.
‘Everything good with you?’ Chloe asks of his silence. ‘You don’t sound thrilled to be spending time with your family.’
‘I am.’ Cameron starts arranging his folded clothes in his suitcase.
‘Really selling it there,’ Carrie says.
Cameron sighs, hands stilling. ‘Braden’s going to be there.’
‘Ah,’ Carries says. ‘That explains it.’
‘Yeah.’ Cameron drops onto his bed, the pile of polo shirts listing towards him.
‘You know, maybe that’s a good thing,’ Chloe says.
‘Seeing the woman who made me leave Cable, who has since taken my old job, will be a good thing?’
‘Maybe you can get closure.’
