In Drunken Matrimony ✔️

Fourteen - The Calm Before The Storm

Oʟɪᴠᴇʀ

"Why don't you just ask her?" Charlotte inquires tiredly from her end of the phone line. Shuffling settles in the background, then comes a faint feminine giggle twisted with the ring of Elijah's distant voice, and I find myself grimacing.

Their relationship doesn't offend me, but that doesn't mean I much appreciate having to endure their blatant flirting when I ring my baby sister for advice. That said, I must admit they've hardly had much time to do said flirting it in private, considering I've been pestering her incessantly this past week. All in the hope that she will have had better luck that my friends and I when it comes to prowling the internet in search of the name which still quivers on a tangible tension between Hallie and I.

The days succeeding Minnie's talk show have swirled past in an indecipherable blur, consisting of a week filled with numerous interviews each as gruelling and invasive as the last. Photoshoots to accompany, involving many pictures where the intimacy of our nonexistent love story was expected to transparent. The rules of contact were solidified firmly by Hallie preceding such, and soon after she mentioned the alleged 'lazy bedroom eyes' I offer any attractive female - celibacy for the next three months is a necessity from both sides. The bedroom eyes are currently being put on hold.

I have even been accompanying Hallie to her office to join her during small business discussions to introduce me minutely to the world of her métier. All the while, we have proceeded to ignore the slight shift in the atmosphere which has settled itself upon the house.

It is not that the small mention of the mysterious Daniel has distanced us - not in any sense - nor has it strained our continually improving relationship, but I hold that down to the fact we have yet to poke the sleeping bear with the proverbial stick. She hasn't told, and I haven't asked - not yet, anyway, I'm holding out to see if my small cohort of amateur detectives can return with a result more positive that 'I don't know', or 'stop fucking calling'.

"I can't just ask, Diabla. That's a major invasion of privacy." I try to tell her, all while scrolling on page twenty four of Google, studying the tags which include both Hallie and Daniel.

"Didn't she walk in on you while you were showering?" She retorts. I can envision the lifted brow of scepticism.

"To get her makeup -" I answer through a mumble, before raising my attention wholly to the conversation I'm having with Charlotte. "Wait, how do you know that?"

"Monty told me." She responds with an equal lacklustre to that I held only moments ago. I assume, however, her disinterest does not come because she is too busy prowling the internet, but because she is too occupied ogling at her boyfriend.

I frown further. "Why the hell have you been talking to Monty?" I say sharply. If my tone worries her, she doesn't let it show.

"He called - I answered. That's besides the point, Wolly. Now it's time to get your makeup."

I huff indignantly, straightening my posture away from Hallie's computer screen. I must remember to wipe the history - and not for porn this time. "Sorry Zimmermann, I don't have time to crack your telegram right now! Can you stop being cryptic, por favor?"

"Just fucking ask her!" She cries down the phone so shrilly, I have to pull her away from my ear. There is no way she counted to ten, then.

I sigh miserably, wiping the history and shutting down the laptop. "You're right." She mumbles, something that sounds vaguely like 'I always am' and I can't help but crack a small smile. "Will you come see me soon?"

She softens, and I can hear the grin on her side of the line. Charlotte and I have always been close, the closest of all our siblings consequence of our close age and equal pleasure in wreaking havoc across the land, and so I know my invitation will have warmed her. "You know I'm free any time. I don't start uni for another month."