35
THE VOLUNTEER
“Hey, thanks for coming.”
I opened my door to Whisper smiling in greeting. He was holding a white plastic bag—I would recognize that bag anywhere even though there was no logo. I gasped.
“How did you know?”
“Av left me very thorough instructions. Including how many soya sauce packets to grab. He was insistent it had to be exactlynine packets, no more no less.” He laughed. “I think he might be obsessed with you.”
“A little, yeah.”
I shouldn’t have been surprised Austin knew about all of my weird little quirks. It still made me smile and blush like an idiot that he noticed how many packets I grabbed from my favourite sushi place.
“Make yourself at home.” I waved him to the table while I headed to the kitchen. “Do you want chopsticks?”
“You have chopsticks?” He laughed over the rustling of the bag and plastic take out containers.
“Duh. Yes or no?”
“Sure, why not.”
I grabbed two soya sauce dishes, two plates, and two sets of chopsticks. He eyed the matching black set with an eyebrow raised.
“What?”
“Nothing. You’re just full of surprises. Shall we get started?”
We talked over dinner. I didn’t know much about Whisp. In fact, I was surprised to find out he knew my mum. He was interning at city hall every summer as part of his degree. Mum was his boss.
“Wait, can I— Sorry, you can tell me to get lost if I’m over stepping, but are you by any chance Dominic Archer?”
“And I had done such a good job of keeping my identity a secret. At your service.” He mock bowed. “How did you know?”
“Mum talked about you all the time.Oh, honey, did I tell you Dom got his marks back for his final exam? He got 95%, he’s such a smart boy.Or:Dom brought in lunch for the whole office, isn’t that so sweet?And my personal favourite:You should come by and visit your poor mother some time. I can introduce you to Dom. He’s a good boy, you know, and you’re not getting any younger.”
He laughed harder with each quote.
“Oh man, I had no idea. I mean, she talked about you all the time. She was always hyping you up, but she hyped you up to everyone. She loved the hell out of you.” He gave me a sad smile. “I wish she’d tried harder to set us up, though,” he teased.
I laughed, grateful he was steering the conversation back to lighthearted territory.
“You’re lucky Av’s not here. He’d kill you.”
Whisper shrugged. “I’m his only ally in all of this. He can’t kill me. Besides, he hasn’t put a ring on you yet, he can’t be that serious.”
I couldn’t hide my smile, or the heat rushing to my cheeks.
“About that…”
He gaped at me. “No, nooo! He did? When? Where is it?”
My grin grew as I slipped my necklace out from under my shirt. The ring hung there and I took a second to admire it. I hadn’t wanted to take it off this morning when I went to work, but I couldn’t exactly go in and expect no one to notice. Then there would be an insane amount of questions I wouldn’t be able to answer.
“Holy fuck! That’s gorgeous. Jesus Christ, that must have cost a fortune. The gem alone was probably?—”
“Stop. I don’t want to know. I’m stressed out enough as it is, walking around this shithole. Knowing will make it ten times worse.”
