Page 40 of One Hot Summer

“Sounds like a plan. Speak soon.”

I put my phone down and went to check on Bing, who was now in a deep sleep on the rug. This time last year he had gone missing, and I’d spent so long worried about where he was and what he was doing. This year, he decided to sample a live wasp. I wondered what drama he would bring on us all next.

CHAPTER TWELVE

It was almost eight o’clock. I needed to give Sarah a call so we could plan bringing Bing over. It was going to be a major mission. A full, strategic plan of action was needed to make it as swift and smooth as possible and I needed to make sure the cat sitter was prepared. I’d been looking forward to speaking to Sarah for another reason. I wanted to find out more about the guy she had been messaging on the dating app. I hadn’t even thought to ask his name. She hadn’t sent me any emergency ‘help’ messages yet, so either they hadn’t met up, or she had met him, and it all went well, but if so, why hadn’t I heard anything about him?

She’d also hinted about chatting with Alessandro too, was something more going on there?

She picked up the phone after the first ring.

“Hello!” She sounded her usual happy self. In fact, she was possibly slightly happier than usual. “Five days to go, eek! I bet you’re so giddy now and driving everyone mad.”

“Oh, don’t. My stomach doesn’t know whether it is excited or nervous,” I said. “I barely know his parents and now I’m going to spend fourteen days with them. I’ve only just felt comfortable enough to fart in front of Zack, now I need to hold it all in for two weeks.”

“How much are you farting these days?” She laughed.

“You know what I mean! I can’t embarrass myself in front of them. I don’t even know if they know he’s moving in with me. It’d be just like me to slip up and give it away somehow.”

“Don’t worry about it! You’re both grown-ups, you’re allowed to live together in sin. No one bats an eyelid anymore. Just relax, be yourself, don’t fart too much in their company, avoid sex on the balcony and you’ll be fine.”

“I’ll try,” I said, ignoring her reference to our Zante disaster. “Anyway, we won’t be stuck to them for the entire holiday. They said that as long as we’re together for some evening meals, we can do what we like. I guess it’s their holiday too, so they’ll want to do their own thing without us.”

“Exactly, so stop stressing. Just think about how you’ll be sunning it up for two weeks with your office hunk. This time last year, you never could have imagined you’d be going abroad with him, never mind about to live with him. Just enjoy this break. No work to deal with, no politics, which is plaguing the news at the moment, just you and him for fourteen sunny days. And if you get a little bit worried, just give me a call. You know I’m here if you need to rant about anything.”

“I’ll need to learn the Greek word for ‘tea’. Speaking of phone calls…” Here was my window of opportunity. “The last time we spoke you were telling me about your new dating-app interest. How’s it going? Any progress?”

“Oh, there’s not much to tell really.”

“There must be something,” I pushed. “Have you met up with him yet?”

“We went for a drink last night, it was nice.”

“Well, I didn’t get a ‘tea’ message, so it must have been.” This was great news. “What does he look like?”

“He…” She hesitated. “He’s tall. Dark hair. Early-to-mid-thirties, I’d say. Quite an alternative dress sense, like he was probably into the Kerrang! scene in the noughties.”

“Nothing wrong with that.” I smiled to myself, thinking about my love for Green Day and Good Charlotte. “Sounds like we’ll really get on, which is great! I love when friends and boyfriends all get along. We’ll be able to go on double dates and everything.”

“Yes, well, it’s too soon to plan ahead really. I don’t want to jinx anything. We met once and it was great. We chatted for hours and we text every day. I’ll fill you in after your holiday. We can meet up and I’ll tell you all the juicy gossip, or spill all the tea, whatever it is the youths call it.”

I sat back in my chair, still giddy that Sarah could finally have met someone perfect. Someone decent. Someone who she likes so much she doesn’t even want to risk jinxing anything.

“Okay, okay, just promise me you will tell me everything when I get back?”

“I promise,” she said, “I’ll tell you all about him.”

“Good.” I was satisfied, knowing that my friend was happy. “So, when can I bring the great white savage feline around to you? We fly Thursday morning, so I can call around on Wednesday evening with him and all his stuff if that’s all right?”

“Yes, I’ll be free then. I’m meeting my friend again on Tuesday night, so Wednesday night is great, just promise me you won’t try and interrogate me until after your holiday. Don’t be sniffing around looking for clues.”

“I don’t know what you mean! Just ignore the webcam attached around Bing’s neck, won’t you?”

“Ha, ha. Very funny. Have you packed yet?”

We chatted for the next twenty minutes. Sarah dodged every attempt to mine for more information. I did respect her decision though. Mine and Zack’s first few dates were one disaster after another. I hoped that over the two weeks that I was away, things progressed for her and this mystery man.

“So, tell me more about the villa.” I lay my head on Zack’s chest as we relaxed in bed the next morning. “What does it look like? Whereabouts is it? How many bedrooms did you say there are? Tell me all about it again.” I was eager to visualise it, as Zack didn’t have any more photos to show me.

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