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No. I was going to have to deal with it myself.
Mum was brimming with gossip from her little village. Given her French was rusty at best, I was always amazed by how much tea she had to give me.
After a long catch up with her, she passed the phone over to Dad. Our conversation focused mainly on my studies and the cricket. Neither topic was of particular interest to me, but I didn’t let that show.
The phone call killed another hour.
Lunch I managed to eke out to a grand total of forty-five minutes.
After all of that, it wasn’t even 1:30.
Was it just me, or was time actually moving slower?
My hand hovered over my phone as I debated whether or not to check my dating app. My friends had picked out another man for me—Steve. He’d been thoroughly vetted by the three of them before I’d even been allowed to send him an introductory message.
I didn’t mind though. I liked having friends who cared enough about me that they wanted to interfere.
Steve and I had been messaging back and forth all week. He seemed…nice. Normal. But then again, so had Jeremy.
He’d suggested meeting up for a date tonight, but after seeing the news about Colin, I was feeling extra wary, the reminder of how fast it could go wrong too fresh. With Leo so far away…I didn’t want to risk it. And it wasn’t like I could expect Sebastian to miraculously turn up whenever I needed saving.
Hmm. Sebastian. I needed to make him something to say thank you for his kindness the other night. He was always cold, yet I’d never seen him with anything more than a coat. He needed a scarf.
I purposefully didn’t look at the many cakes and balls of yarn as I grabbed my house keys. All my yarn was now arranged by colour in several glass cabinets surrounding the TV Ferry and Leo had built together. It made it much easier to see what I had.
On the surface, it was perfect, but in reality, it wasn’t a good idea. Not if I wanted to continue spending all my disposable income on pretty yarn that I didn’t actually need.
Which I absolutely did want to do.
So now I was reduced to pretending not to see the cabinets and ignoring any twinges of guilt that followed.
It’s fine. At least it’s not drugs. It could be worse. It’s just yarn. Yarn makes you happy.
Humming under my breath, I left my house and made my way to the bus stop. It was a glorious day. Autumn was in the air, the smell of lit fires intertwining with the sharp chill of the breeze.
I loved all the seasons, but autumn was definitely my favourite. There was nothing better than snuggling up under a blanket with a mug of hot chocolate topped with whipped cream. Halloween had already passed, and Christmas would be here before we knew it.
Perching on the bench at the bus stop, I pulled out my phone to check the travel app and immediately regretted not having looked before I left home. Thirty minutes until the next bus. Oh well, that gave me time to come up with a response to Steve.
I ran through our last few messages. He was perfectly nice. Polite with a good sense of humour. Flirty without crossing the line. Asked excellent questions about my life and seemed genuinely interested in my responses.
So why wasn’t I more excited by the idea of meeting up with him? Where were the butterflies?
You don’t need them, remember? We’re after solid and safe.
Well, Steve certainly fit that description.
I glanced up as a vaguely familiar black car screeched to a stop at the kerb. The window rolled down, and my stomach jolted as Sebastian’s perfect scowl appeared.
“What are you doing?”
“Umm, waiting for a bus?” Surely me sitting at a bus stop made that obvious.
Sebastian rolled his eyes, telling me yes, it was obvious. “Where are you going?”
I tugged at my scarf. What was it about this man that had me so unsettled? “To a yarn shop over in Woolston.”
Sebastian scowled at me for a moment. “Get in.”
