Page 26 of Open Water

LUKAS: NO TOM.

TOM: OK, fine. Lovesurprises.se has some brilliant cheesy gift ideas. Did you see the fruit baskets? What do you prefer, the exotic fruits or banana explosion?

LUKAS: DO NOT SEND ANY MORE SHIT TO SCHOOL. I WILL GET FIRED.

He won’t. But whatever.

TOM: No, you won’t. Do you prefer chocolate? The Belgian handmade collection looks amazing.

LUKAS: No. NO NO NO NO NO NO.

Lukas groans. He hasn’t got a clue how to stop this.

TOM: Tell me what you like. Tell me what would make you smile and I promise not to send anything else to your place of work.

LUKAS: I don’t trust you.

There is another pause.

TOM: I know you don’t. You don’t know how devastating it is to know that. I hope you will one day. I hope that we can be friends and maybe one day we can laugh about this.

LUKAS: We will never be friends.

TOM: Then why are you still talking to me?

Good point.

LUKAS: So that I can ensure that I still have a job next week and that Anita in the office won’t reject my timesheets for the rest of the term.

TOM: Would you like me to send Anita flowers? To apologise?

Fuck. This is going from bad to worse.

LUKAS: NO TOM. Please log out from Lovesurprises.se and delete your account. That would make me happy.

TOM: Really?

LUKAS: Yes.

TOM: On one condition.

LUKAS: TOM.

TOM: Just tell me one thing. What do you like? What really makes you happy?

LUKAS: NOT HAVING TO DEAL WITH SHIT LIKE THIS.

TOM: LUKAS.

LUKAS: Just please stop this.

TOM: Then tell me. Tell me one thing you love.

This is when Lukas should block Tom. Not reply. He should just stop. Because it’s not healthy. It’s messing with his head and to be very honest, Lukas was on the verge of smiling a second ago andthatis fucked up on so many levels that Lukas doesn’t even want to think about it.

He is happy. He is fine. He works, he goes out for a beer with Simon every Friday. He visits his Mum. He doesn’t worry about his finances, because apart from clothes he spends fuck all on anything. Apart from Netflix. And the internet.

He should buy a TV. He should get a dog. He should pull the duvet over his head and go to sleep. But then he knows full well that he won’t be able to sleep a wink right now.

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