Delectable (Sinclair Bryant)

A Picture in Time

The end of Sinclair's expensive fountain pen tapped lightly on the top of his desk. He was impatiently waiting for Mandy to leave the office so he could try to call Sian again. Knowing she'd have been at work late last night, he didn't want to ring too early and disturb her sleep, so he waited.

10 seemed like a reasonable time to call, he thought, but then thought again. It was her day off, maybe she would sleep longer. It didn't matter anyway, Mandy had her head buried in her typewriter until lunchtime.

By that time the painkillers he had taken had fully kicked in and the headache he woke up with had subsided. However, his embarrassment that he'd fallen to sleep wrapped in Sian's scarf had not. He couldn't quite believe he did that; he tried to tell himself it was the whiskey but he knew it wasn't just that.

The moment Mandy left, Sinclair had his phone pinned between his ear and shoulder. His fingers tapped at the buttons but before the first ring finished he hung up. A phone call wasn't good enough, he should go see her. He checked his watch, he didn't have anything pressing for the rest of the day and if need be he'd stay back later tomorrow. Sinclair reasoned that he'd barely taken any holidays, therefore the loss of half a day wouldn't kill him.

He was packing up as Mandy came back, a wedge of papers stacked in her arms.

"Here, let me help," he offered and took them from her.

"Thanks. You off for lunch?" She asked as she watched him lay the pile down on her desk.

"I'm going to...I have an appointment, I won't be back" he lied, not wanting to share anything with her prematurely.

"Oh," she replied, the confusion clear on her face, "There's nothing in your diary."

"Yes, sorry, last minute."

"But everything is okay?"

"Perfectly," he reassured her with a smile.

Mandy was unconvinced but left it at that. They were fairly close but not so much that she liked to pry beyond his comfort level.

Sinclair hit the cold street, having passed by the Christmas tree that had been erected last night once the building had been shut down. The first of December and Sinclair did not expect to be ditching work to surprise the woman who seemed to be taking up most of his mind and scarily, his heart.

He wrapped his coat around him and made his way to a very fine and fairly local shop he needed supplies from. Going empty-handed wasn't an option. It took about half an hour to go over things with the shop assistant but once he was done, and everything was stuffed into his arms, he flagged down a taxi and was on his way to Sian's flat, hoping to God she was actually in.

The cabbie kept his mind fairly occupied as they talked about the streets and landmarks they passed. Sinclair sharing in his vast knowledge of the area. It was just past one when the taxi parked up outside the flat. The car behind honked aggressively but the cabbie just waved his hand out of the window, signaling for the other driver to go around him.

"Here," Sinclair said handing him a £20 note, "I'll let you get out of the traffic. Thank you for the entertaining chat. Have a good day."

"Cheers mate, you too," the cabbie replied, rather happy with the handsome tip that left him.

Sinclair bundled out of the car, the sizeable hamper and flowers difficult to handle but he managed it. He just about pressed the buzzer to Sian's flat with his elbow and then waited until he heard the window two floors above him open. He stepped back from the sheltered entrance to look up, squinting into the winter sun.