*Chapter 4: The Fourth Wrong Number
434 Words
David didn't sleep that night.
He lay in bed staring at the ceiling. 12:14am. 1:33am. 3:07am.
His phone was on his chest the whole time. Dark. Silent.
He kept thinking about her voice.
_“Wrong number.”_
But it wasn’t wrong anymore, was it? That was the third time. And somehow, every time felt less like a mistake and more like... fate.
He picked up his phone. Typed her number. Deleted it.
Typed it again.
_What excuse do I even have?_
_“Hi, sorry, wrong number again”_ sounded stupid. She’d hang up.
By 5:40am the sky was turning grey. David gave up on sleep. He made coffee he didn’t drink and paced his small apartment.
He needed a reason. Any reason.
Then it hit him. The delivery.
He’d ordered food yesterday. The rider called and said the address was wrong. What if... what if he used that?
His fingers shook as he dialed.
One ring.
Two rings.
_“Hello?”_ Her voice. Soft. Tired. Like she just woke up.
David’s throat went dry.
_“Uhm... hi. Sorry. Wrong number?”_
Silence.
Then a small laugh. Not amused. Tired.
_“This is the fourth time, David.”_
His heart stopped. She remembered his name.
_“You... you remember?”_ he asked before he could stop himself.
_“I have your number saved as ‘Wrong Number #4’ now,”_ she said. He could hear the smile in her voice even though she was trying to sound annoyed. _“What do you want?”_
_“Nothing. I mean— I just... couldn’t sleep.”_
The truth slipped out.
There was another pause. Longer this time.
_“Me neither,”_ she admitted quietly. _“This week has been weird.”_
For the next few minutes they didn’t talk about wrong numbers. They talked about nothing. About bad coffee. About Lagos traffic. About how Wednesdays felt longer than Mondays.
It felt easy. Too easy.
Then Ada’s phone beeped.
_“Hold on,”_ she said. _“I’m getting another call.”_
David frowned. _“From who?”_
_“Unknown number.”_
She answered. Put it on speaker without thinking.
And David’s blood ran cold.
Because the voice on the other line was his own.
_“Hey... is this Ada?”_ his voice said. _“Sorry, wrong number?”_
But David was on the line with her right now.
So who was calling her?
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- Writer
