The taller young man didn’t get back on the day he said he would. The girl sat by her large bedroom window. The curtains were still missing, somewhere in the dirty pile by the washing machine. She looked at her phone, pressed the button which lit up the screen, but nothing changed. Hours had passed from the time he was due at her house and still there was no phone-call. She thought about a plane crash, imagined how the plane would dip down towards the sea and what the water would look like from those little windows close up. Then she picked up the phone and rang him. There was a long pause before it made a noise, then those long beeps which meant the phone was in a different country. His voicemail came on, ‘Hi, you’ve reached…’ She rang him three more times, and on the fourth time there were no beeps, just the answering machine.
       The girl went downstairs and put her washing on. She watched as the machine filled with water. A week’s worth of knickers and her curtains. As they spun, the flowers on them crumpled into unfamiliar shapes.

       The next day the girl rang the shorter young man. He said he was feeling hung-over after meeting the Russian again, that she was insatiable and he’d have to break it off.
       ‘Have you heard from him?’ the girl interrupted.
       ‘No, I thought he was at yours.’
       ‘He didn’t come back. I rang him, but his phone rang out.’
       ‘How strange.’
      ‘And there’s been no plane crashes,’ the girl said.
       ‘I’ll try to ring him and call you back,’ the young man said and he hung up before the girl managed to say anything else.
       As the shorter young man didn’t call back straight away the girl went for a shower. She shaved her legs, like the previous day, although this time she did it quickly, without making sure she didn’t miss a spot.
       ‘He’ll call you,’ the shorter young man said when he rang her back.
       ‘What do you mean?’ the girl said.
       ‘That’s what he said.’
       ‘But where is he? Why is he not answering his phone?’
       ‘He’s still in France. He said just wait for his call, and he’ll explain.’
       The shorter young man wouldn’t tell her any more. The girl was going to be late for work if she didn’t hurry up, so she put her hair dryer or. She started crying and the hot air dried the tears. When she switched off the dryer, her cheeks were tight from the salt.
       All through work the girl kept her phone in her pocket. When she came off her shift, the phone vibrated. The text was about a 2-4-1 cinema offer. She tried to ring the taller young man and this time there were no long beeps, just the answering machine. She rang the shorter young man and he didn’t pick up either. The girl didn’t want to go home so she went for a drink by herself. She got a glass of wine and sat outside smoking American cigarettes brought back from the last trip. ‘I want a mistake free future,’ she thought, and then she got up and left the nearly full pack of cigarettes on the table.

6

  

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