DUSK COVERS THE CITY. Pippa is lounging on the couch with a novel when she hears Joe Crocker serenade her with ‘You are so beautiful to me.’ At the first instant, she wants to answer it to hear the caller’s voice but stops herself to listen to the whole chorus. By now she knows when to answer it before it goes to voicemail.
‘Hi, beautiful,’ he says.
She doesn’t know how to reply to the greeting. After his visit this afternoon, she doesn’t trust herself to string a sentence together that wouldn’t betray her conflicting emotions. She keeps it simple. ‘Hi back.’
Joshua chuckles before asking, ‘Are you okay?’
‘Yeah ... Georgia, ah that’s my flatmate, she’s home.’
The blonde flatmate hears her name mentioned and stops pottering in the kitchen to eavesdrop.
‘That’s good. I’d hate for you t
