Page 24 of Matched

My plan had been to have a lazy morning and drive back later in the day, but fuck it. Calculating how long it would take to get back to south London on a Sunday morning, I quickly set an alarm for 7:00 a.m. to give me time to shower and coerce Sophie out of bed.

Charlie:

It’s a ‘date’. Message me when you’re back and I’ll meet you

I grinned at his use of inverted commas around the word “date.”

Me:

See you then. Get some sleep

Charlie:

You too

Instead of letting the conversation conclude there, I kept on texting.

Me:

Did you see Glevum beat Newcastle 3-1 today?

Charlie:

Yeah! Did you see the goals? Emery’s overhead kick was fucking amazing

The room gradually grew lighter around me as the hours passed, and night turned to day.

My conversation with Charlie didn’t stop until my dad came shuffling into the kitchen two minutes before my morning alarm was due to go off.

“Already awake?” He glanced down at me.

I never fell asleep. “Uh…yeah,” I said. “Are you making coffee?”

“Black? One sugar?”

“Please.”

He gave me a thumbs up, and I quickly tapped out a final message to Charlie.

Me:

Got to try and wake myself up enough to drive back to uni. See you later?

Charlie:

I didn’t even notice the time. How the fuck did we manage to talk all night?

Good question.

Me:

No clue

Charlie:

I’m gonna nap now but I’ll set an alarm for 12 so I don’t miss you

Me:

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