Page 53 of Sunflower

Some scuffling carried on before the sound quality changed, and instead of just one voice talking to Callum, there were two.

“Callum. Do you have any idea what time you’re calling me?” the woman asked, but she didn’t sound irritable. More like how a sister ribbed their brother.

He grinned. “Knew I could count on you to still be at work, Marcy.” He paused, taking a deep breath, and letting it out quickly. “Need your help, but first, I gotta tell you that you’re on speaker right now. I’m not alone.”

An awkward silence filled the car as Callum kept his eyes on the side streets that we kept zooming past. Never having been someone who thrived in uncomfortable situations, I stumbled to fill the quiet and decided to introduce myself. “Uh, yeah. Hi. Nice to meet you? I’m—”

“My date for this evening,” Callum said, cutting me off, purposely not looking at the way I narrowed my eyes and frowned at him. I grumbled to myself, but apart from a quick upturn of his lips, he steadfastly continued to ignore me.

“Callum’s on a date?” the young guy asked aloud, sounding all sorts of astonished. The way his voice carried over the speaker, it was clear he wasn’t talking to us, but to this Marcy person. “Have we slipped into an alternate dimension or something?”

A shocked, agreeable, but very feminine grunt was the only response.

News of Callum on a date was unusual to these people? Irrationally, this filled me with all manner of delight that I would seriously need to contemplate later. If there was a later. As we flew through another set of traffic lights, my finger jointsscreaming at me about how I was holding myself steady, I began doubting that eventuality.

“Marcy, we’re in my car, and we’ve unfortunately picked up some rubbish that I can’t seem to get rid of. Can you direct me to the nearest dump site that’s open?” He flicked his eyes to a street sign as we barrelled past it. “I’m on Chesney, and I’ve just gone through the intersection at Ninth.”

The uncomfortable silence came back with a vengeance for a second, before Marcy’s voice lost the carefree nature of earlier and became distinctly business-like. “On it. Give me a second to check.”

“Thanks, Marcy. Kiddo, you still there?”

“Yup,” the younger guy eagerly replied, a little excitement peeking through the same seriousness that Marcy had given, which he was trying his best to emulate even from just a single word response. I could easily imagine him bouncing up and down in enthusiasm for whatever Callum was going to say next.

“I’m gonna need to do a deep clean when I get home, because this shit is turning out to be nasty as fuck.” Callum tapped his fingers against the steering wheel in agitation when he had to pull to a stop at a red light. “Can you get a home care bundle together for me to pick up on the way by later?”

“Sure thing, Callum!”

I grinned at the oh, so keen way he responded to Callum’s request. This kid gave off the biggest eager-to-please golden-retriever energy I’d ever come across. He was adorable.

The noise of fast typing filled the car, before Marcy announced, “Callum, I’ve found one for you, but it’s a bit of a hike. Nothing else is open at this time of night anywhere closer. I’ll text the directions to you now.”

“Thanks Marcy. Appreciate it. You too, Kiddo. I’ll call later to let you know when I need to pick that bundle up, okay?”

“Okay!”

Callum slightly slowed the car enough so he could reach forward and end the call and flick to his texts. Sure enough, a map with clear direction markers was waiting for him. “Joey, I need you to be my navigator while I try to shake this guy.” He turned the phone and its holder to face me, before refocusing on the road in front of us.

“Sure.” I looked at the screen, noted the address and flicked over to the maps app on his phone to enter the destination Marcy had sent him. I let out a deep breath of relief when the directions came back, and I noted they were relatively straightforward. “Uh, take the second left up here onto Nereda.” I pulled back to look at him whilst he followed my directions. “What was all that?”

He flicked his gaze to me momentarily, a single eyebrow rising in question. “What was what?”

Rolling my eyes, I sighed. “I thought there was a mole where you work. Why’d you call them for help? Also, cleaning package? What?”

Callum chuckled. “Okay, first, those two are about the only ones wecantrust outside of George. Marcy has just come back from a lengthy, but well-deserved maternity leave, and Kiddo has only been with us for about a year. The mole has been active for quite a few years, which discounts Kiddo’s involvement, and the issues kept going even when Marcy was on maternity leave. Neither of them is the mole.” He made the turn I’d told him to, heading out of the suburban hell we’d been in and onto a wider thoroughfare.

“If we can trust them, why didn’t you want me to introduce myself?” I asked idly as I poked at the map on his phone.

Callum pressed his lips together and sighed, his eyes still firmly on the roads in front of us. “I don’t know if the lines have been tapped. I’d rather not chance it.”

“Hmm.” Nodding slowly as I once again filed all that info away to look at later, I glanced at the directions again. “Fifth right into Plover. Tell me about the cleaning package and why we need it tonight.”

“Kiddo is putting together a kit for me that will include a sweep I can use to detect anything out of the ordinary in my apartment, and a signal jammer. I don’t want to use the signal jammer until we have to, because it’ll affect my neighbors and their Wi-Fi, but it’ll come in handy when we need to talk.” He glanced my way, gauging how well I was following what he was saying. “Cleaning package is what we call the kit when the line isn’t secure.”

“Ah,” I said with another glance at the directions when Callum took the turn I’d mentioned. “Freeway entrance coming up. We’ll be on that for a while, by the looks of it.”

“Okay.”

Resisting the desire to turn around and look behind us, I asked, “Is he still behind us?”

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