Wrong Number

Chapter 3

"Oh…Oh I'm so… Sorry is th… this not Marcie's phone?" A voice on the other end chocked out.

"No, no I'm afraid it's not."

"Oh… Sorry to have bothered you." Archie was just about to let her go, but the pained inflections in her voice made him do otherwise.

"NO! Wait, wait, I realise you don't know me, but… But you know sometimes talking to a stranger helps," Archie blurted out, even unexpectedly to him.

"Oh no, I… I couldn't, I am very sorry to have bothered you."

"It's no bother at all, please… Please tell me what's wrong, I can't let you go, I would worry about you."

He heard her sniffle a little before she answered.

"Ok," she replied in a small voice. However she didn't seem to want to elaborate further.

Just as Archie was about to speak again, he hear her take a big intake of breath, "I just walked in on my boyfriend," Her voice wavered, although he knew what was coming next, he decided to let her finish in her own time, she took another breath, "I just walked in on my boyfriend, with another woman…"

"Oh, I'm very sorry." Archie knew his response was automatic, and lacked real sympathy. He winced at how cold he must of sounded.

"It's ok, not like you forced him." She laughed a little.

That's good, Archie thought, at least she's got a little bit of humour in her at a moment like this.

"No I didn't, but that's what someone is supposed to say in a situation like that isn't it?"

He realised that he may sound impertinent in his question, but he wanted to keep her mind off what had happened.

"Yeah, I suppose it is, I've never really got why, natural human reflex isn't it? To apologise for everything, God, I'm really getting into my British roots here aren't I? Thinking about apologising for everything, maybe I should go over to Marcus's apartment and apologise for over reacting," She let out a humourless laugh.

"You're British?" Archie asked, for the first time picking up on her accent.

"Yeah, I came over a couple of years ago. Straight from Uni."

"Where abouts in Jolly Old England you from?"

Isobell let out a small breathy laugh at his reference to England.

Picking up on her slight laugh he asked; "What are you laughing at?"

"Your name for 'Jolly Old England', I've been here two years, and have never heard an American call England that!"

"Well I'm glad that I'm the first, it's an age old privilege." He smiled into the phone, then stopped realising she couldn't see him.

"Nottingham."

"Excuse me, what?"

"I'm from Nottingham," she laughed, he obviously had a short attention span.

"Nottingham?" He repeated, copying the inflections in her voice, "now why do I get the feeling I've heard of that place before?"

"Oh it's Robin Hood capital, that's probably why."

"Oh yeah! Robin Hood and his merry men! Yeah I've heard of that place. Don't suppose you go around shooting people with bows and arrows, and racing round on horseback everyday do you?" He grinned into the receiver, his muscles relaxing into the conversation.

Isobell laughed slightly again, "No, sorry to break any illusions, but I don't. I don't even like horses, so that would be a no go."

Archie mocked gasped, "Damn, way to ruin the nice little image I had goin', and how can you not like horses?"

"Bad experience in childhood I'm afraid."

"Ah one of those deals, well you know what they say, you have to get back up on that horse."

There was no response to what Archie thought might make her laugh. A few seconds past before all of a sudden gales of laughter erupted down the phone. Confused, as it wasn't that funny Archie waited till she had calmed down, although the sound of her laughter was having an interesting effect on him.

"That was so unbelievably rubbish!" Came the sudden explanation from Isobell down the phone.

Archie broke out into a full grin again, going slightly pink in the cheeks from embarrassment. At least it made her laugh, he thought, just not in the way he had intended.

Clearing his throat, Archie shifted slightly before replying gingerly, "Yeah it was really, but hey it made you laugh."

"True, true." She admitted smiling, the fog that had formed around her starting to dissipate, leaving her feeling lighter.

"How does New York compare to Nottingham then?" Asked Archie, jumping on any chance to keep her mind from veering back to the subject of why they were having this conversation.

A surge of anger swirled through him at the thought of someone cheating in the most intimate way. Sure he may have dated, and slept with a lot of women, but he never cheated, Archie had always made sure that the women knew they were in no way exclusive. Not that, he knew, it helped stop some women from getting hurt, but what more could they expect? He was who he was through and through, but it didn't stop this self-righteous bout of hypocritical indignity.

"Oh, so very different, unbelievably different really. When you walk around Nottingham, you almost get a sense of history, seeing the castle, and some streets are still cobbled. But here… Here is so difficult to describe, I like the way everything has a sense of new about it, a boldness to it that the city is unashamed of. Of course I'm not saying you don't have history here, because of course you do! But it's a different type… Gosh I'm rambling, I'm so sorry."

Archie had let his mind wander as he mulled over her words about New York, it was pleasant to see it through someone else's eyes. He had been here for over ten years, so it ceased to have the same kind of impact on him, only the dark nights in dark bars seemed to hold his attention at the moment.

"No worries, I felt rather swept away by your vision. Nottingham sounds cool, I wouldn't mind checking out the castle one day, see where Robin Hood lived."

Suddenly Isobell heard a banging on her apartment door followed by faint sounds, of what sounded like her friend Marcie telling her to open her door.

"Oh, I'm sorry but I'm going to have to go, my friend Marcie… The one I miss-dialled the number for is here. Thank you for listening to me ramble on, to be honest, you've made me forget for a little while, I feel a lot better for it, thank you."

"It's no problem you can misdial me any day." Archie slapped his forehead.

Misdial me any day? God what kind of cheesy moron are you? Archie thought to himself.

He heard her laugh faintly once more, before she softly murmured goodbye. It wasn't before Archie heard the click of the phone that he replied with his own goodbye.

Setting down his phone, Archie sprung up from his chair, suddenly restless at not having anything to do. Looking round his apartment, his eyes couldn't help falling back onto his phone. He realised that he hadn't even asked her name, but oddly enough Archie was ok with that, it felt good to have a somewhat normal conversation with someone who wouldn't be swayed by his stardom.

Before Archie could stop himself his hands swooped down and star sixty nined for the girls number. Luckily she had her number listed, and he quickly took it down. Walking round with the piece of paper being fiddled between his fingers, Archie was debating on whether he should call her back.

He kept on swaying between yes, no and maybe. What if she didn't want to be spoken to again? No, Archie thought, she genuinely seemed to be enjoying talking to him, she even laughed at his lame attempt to make her laugh.

For some reason, Archie just couldn't let her disappear into thousands of people living in New York without knowing more about her. Their conversation had helped him forget too, for a moment he felt normal, the sound of her laughter still ringing in his memory, leaving a soothing feeling at the thought.

Finally with purpose he stuck it on his fridge with a magnet.

"Just in case." He murmured.

A/N let me know what you think!