12 Days to Find a Husband

Chapter 9 - Back in the Game

Greg was in a bad mood. Not only was he temporarily blind, he didn't have anyone to help him around the house. All afternoon he'd been tripping over furniture and items such as shoes and magazine racks. He imagined his bruise count was up to around five by now by the way his shins and legs felt. He had finally resigned himself to the couch for the evening.

Every time he thought about his current situation one person came to mind; Anna-lea Warrington. His blood boiled at the thought of her, mainly for two reasons. One, he was only in his current state because he had tried to help the woman and, although she had apologised and taken him to the doctor, she didn't seem to care that he needed help this afternoon when he rang her; and two, he hated to admit it but he was becoming more and more attracted to her. God knows why, Greg thought to himself, she's such a menace. He also hadn't been attracted to anyone in the slightest since his wife had died so he was in new territory and it scared him. Could he really be contemplating dating again? He didn't think he would ever want to after he lost Sarah. Did that mean his heart was finally healing? Could he really move on in life without his true love? The last person he ever thought he'd be attracted to was Ann-lea Warrington. She always seemed to rub him the wrong way. Maybe that was the attraction, he thought. All the other women he'd encountered after Sarah had fawned over him like he was a piece of meat, but Anna-lea couldn't care less, even in her current predicament.

He must have thought about Anna-lea at least a hundred times that afternoon. He was still mad at her for the way she'd spoken to him on the phone but he was also ashamed of himself for letting her get to him and hanging up on her. Granted, he had been fishing for information about how her date with the policeman had gone, but he hadn't expected her to snap at him like that. He didn't seem to be able to control himself around her and was acting way out of character.

Finally, Greg concluded that an apology to her was in order. After fumbling around the coffee table for the phone for a minute, and picking up the remote several times mistakenly, he located what he was looking for. As he didn't know her telephone number off by heart and couldn't look it up on his phone's contact list, it took him another minute to dial the four digits for directory services so they could connect his call.

After connecting his call, her number rang four times before it was picked up. Greg immediately said hello before realizing an answering machine had picked up the call.

"You have reached Anna-lea Warrington. I'm sorry I'm unavailable to take your call. Please leave your name, number and a short message after the beep and I'll call you as soon as I can. Thank you."

Greg listened impatiently to the message and the long beep that followed and then spoke, at first with some annoyance. He hated talking leaving messages.

"Hi. Ah, it's Greg. Gregory Benton. I really wanted to talk to you in person. Are you there?"

He paused for a moment in the hope Anna-lea was at home and would pick up the phone. It was such a horrible night and he couldn't fathom why she wouldn't be home.

"No? Okay. So, you're not home", he continued, suddenly remembering that she had been with the policeman that afternoon and realizing she might have gone out with him again that evening.

Greg paused again briefly. He wanted to apologise but not to a machine. When he spoke again, he changed his tone to a friendlier one.

"Ah, I really wanted to talk to you in person. Can you please give me a call? You have my number. I'll be at home, of course, as I can't see, but you know that," he said, forcing a little laugh. "Anyway, please give me a call. Bye for now," he finished and disconnected the call, hoping he hadn't screwed up any chance he had of getting to know her better.