Chapter 38
787 Words
38
Culverhouse’s head was starting to buzz, either through exhaustion, stress or a caffeine overdose. He hoped it wasn’t the latter, though, as he poured himself another mug of black coffee.
‘Going to be a long day,’ Ryan said, as she sidled up next to him and made herself a cup of tea.
‘Mmmmm,’ came the response.
‘Any matches yet?’
Culverhouse looked at her, waiting for her to elaborate.
‘On the app.’
‘Don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Yes you do. I can tell. And I can tell something’s happened with it, too.’
‘Isn’t there some filing you can be getting on with?’
‘It’s my job to know when people are hiding something from me. Come on, out with it.
‘If it’ll bloody shut you up, I got a message from some woman yesterday.’
‘What did she say?’ Ryan asked.
Culverhouse took his phone out of his pocket, opened the app and plonked the phone down on the sideboard. Ryan picked it up and scrolled through the messages.
‘Hey there, Casanova. You’ve got the hang of this, haven’t you? Why didn’t you reply, though?’
Culverhouse shrugged. ‘Didn’t know what to say.’
‘Did you think about “yes”?’
‘Thought about it,’ he replied, shuffling his feet.
‘Then say it. You do know she can see that you’ve read her message, right? It says 8.16pm. All she can see is that you read the message straight away, then didn’t bother replying.’
‘How?’
Ryan held the phone towards him. ‘Look. The little indicator there. If it’s just an outline of a heart, it means the message has been sent. If it’s filled in red, it means it’s been read. She can see you read her message, and as soon as she asked for a date you just bombed out and ignored her.’
Culverhouse had to admit he really didn’t understand technology, nor did he like it particularly when it had a habit of spying on him like this.
‘So what now?’ he asked.
‘Now you reply to her as quickly as possible and apologise for not doing it yesterday. Say something came up at work while you were replying and you got sidetracked. Make up some excuse. But whatever you do, say yes. Don’t leave her thinking you were just trying to come up with a way to blow her off.’
Culverhouse stood and stared at the phone.
‘You do want to meet her, don’t you?’ Ryan asked.
Culverhouse let out a long lungful of breath. ‘I dunno. I mean, yeah, I think so. It’s hard to explain, though. It’s... It’s been a long time.’
‘I know. I get that.’
‘No you don’t, you’re twelve.’
‘If you say so. But I know what it’s like to be out of the game. Mandy was my first proper girlfriend. Not only did I have no real experience of dating before her, but I didn’t even know who or what I wanted until then. All I knew is I wasn’t particularly interested in boys, and that my love life had been completely non-existent until then. That happens for a lot of people. Sometimes, if you don’t know what it is you want, you just assume you want nothing. Until someone comes along and surprises you, and then you realise that was what you wanted all along.’
‘I’m not about to turn gay if that’s what you mean.’
Ryan laughed. ‘No, I guessed that. What I meant was you should meet up with her. See how you get on. You might be surprised. And if you don’t like each other, so what? You’ve lost nothing. But at least this way you know the answer. If you don’t meet with her and find out for yourself, you’ll never know.’
‘Yeah. That’s what I’m worried about.’
‘What, not knowing?’
‘No, turning up and finding out she’s some sort of fruit loop, or worse that she’s perfect but doesn’t like me. I’m too old to be getting into all that s**t again. I’ve been there, done it, got the t-shirt. And it doesn’t fit any more.’
‘Fashion changes. Some women like tight. I was talking about the t-shirt, by the way. Listen, just reply to her. Suggest meeting up somewhere for a few drinks and a chat. It’ll be better than forever wondering what could have happened.’
‘Listen to you,’ Culverhouse replied. ‘It’s some bird who’s sent me three messages on a dating app. We’re hardly Bonnie and Clyde.’
‘No, but you like her and you want to meet her. I can tell. You want to find out more. You’re just scared of finding out more because you’ve been close to women before and you’ve been burned. There’s a large part of you that thinks if you keep yourself to yourself and stay out of the dating scene, you can’t get burned again. And you think that a lifetime of solitude and loneliness is better than risking being hurt again, even if that does come at the expense of your own happiness.’
‘You sound like a bloody horoscope.’
‘I sound like someone trying to make sure you don’t make a daft mistake. Someone who wants to see her boss happy. After all, you’ll be less of a git to us if you get your leg over.’
Culverhouse looked at Ryan, ready to admonish her, but smiled. ‘Alright. I’ll message her back. But if she turns out to be a crazy cat lady with a Barry Manilow obsession I’m blaming you, alright?’
- Writer
