Her Last Digit ✔️

~Chapter Three~

It had hardly been five minutes since Nathan suggested the idea and he'd already persuaded Cameron to type the digits in for the first number. He'd strongly refused to call it up to that point simply because he had no idea what he was going to say; hence why the plan was to put off the call for a few days- until an idea struck.

To be perfectly clear, Cameron was nervous. Not only was there the worry as to how the call would go with the girl but now how it would with nine other people.

Knowing that he couldn't hold up his friend from work for too long spurred on the hurry to speed things up. Nathan reassured him that a big order of plates for some big event nearby was coming in soon and they had to shut the shop briefly anyway, but he remained unconvinced that he wasn't being a bother.

Call number one, Cameron thought to himself as dial was hit and he held his breath. The dial tone rang for quite some time and Cameron started to wonder whether they'd even answer when suddenly the call went through. He panicked realising that there still wasn't much of a plan as to what he was going to say yet so his mouth just gaped in reply to their curt greeting.

"Hello?" They repeated with annoyance. Nathan proceeded to whack Cameron on the arm which snapped him into action.

"Hi, is this Aurelia?" He managed to splutter just to then immediately realise that was not what he should've said. The voice on the end was thick and deep.

So not Aurelia.

"What? No mate." The man was clearly annoyed.

"Wrong number." He mumbled quickly before attacking the red button to be sure for definite that the call had been ended. He then slammed the phone down on the table in front of him and covered his cringing face.

Through the small gaps between his fingers, Cameron sheepishly looked to Nathan who had a mixture of disappointment and yet also amusement on his face. "What was that, man?"

He gave him an uneasy smile and leaned away from his stare. "Uh, she isn't interested in a second date?"

Nathan's eyes became wide. "So that was the girl?"

Cameron hesitated, frozen, before slowly shaking his head. "Afraid not."

"Dang it."

Cameron was a little amused at how Nathan was getting more into it than he was but then again the only reason that was, was that Cameron had been nervous on top of the excitement.

"So, what now?" Nathan broke the silence.

As much as Cameron was relieved to have some back up which gave him just a smaller amount of extra confidence; Nathan's boss had already popped his head around the corner a few times with a disapproving look. Nathan tried to reassure him by letting him know that the big order they were expecting was late and his boss was simply on edge because of that.

Despite that, a little concerned as to giving Nathan a bad name in a store he only just started working at somewhat recently, Cameron decided he probably needed to leave soon.

Where to, he didn't know yet.

After a few more minutes of comfortable small talk and encouragement from Nathan, Cameron packed up his few things and decided to hit the road. It was still chilly, thanks to a bitter easterly wind that had swept over England, but with a distraction at hand Cameron could see the afternoon moving quite quickly.

***

Once on his own, Cameron had promptly made the second call not wanting to lose the streak of confidence. It had been an annoyingly high pitch toned man who was very deep in some kind of work, a lawyer it seemed and he had not appreciated the short amount of time of his that Cameron had wasted. Having two straight up terrible calls certainly wasn't helping Cameron's fleeting mood that afternoon, but he simply had to keep in mind that one of these numbers had to be the girl and there was no other way to find her.

Work called shortly after that call, wondering where he was for an absence wasn't the usual for Cameron. Although it was completely possible to have caught a bus and been there within the hour, because it was already getting later and later, he decided he didn't want to. Having a day off to relax a little was growing on him a little, and while he wasn't relaxing exactly, every moment not spent intensely working for once was relaxation enough for Cameron.

He found himself wandering down alleys around town that he had never seen before and they would take him to the most intriguing of places. Small offices with useless products, empty libraries and shut down bakeries were the most common so far though it was a weekday so perhaps they weren't so deserted on weekends.

The time to make call number three rolled around pretty quick which was the moment boredom began to set in so he finally got his phone back out.

Dialling the numbers, he turned an unfamiliar corner knowing the direction to head in but not the street he was on and without looking up continued the vague journey. Or at least as far as was possible before he was forced to come to an abrupt stop that involved a cup of tepid, rich coffee, two distracted people and only one path between them.

"Oh!" The stranger Cameron had collided in to cried out while he was dazed by the spray of dark liquid that spilt in ever direction possible, including over the both of them. They were both drenched and completely stained and while all Cameron could do was stare in horror, a laughter was heard.

"I'm so sorry." He began but her laughter didn't let up. It was a sweet, melodious laugh, and it reminded him of the enchanting person from noon who had helped him to pull over that useless excuse for an auto-mobile.

His eyes met hers, the very same blue irises from just an hour before coupled with the familiar looking dark curls still neatly tucked behind her ears before they cascaded down her back.

"Hey!" She beamed, ever as smiley as before. "It's you."

"Hi, uh, yeah." Nothing ever seemed to come out right for Cameron on that day.

"Cameron, right?" She quizzed her memory as she composed herself and tried to contain what was left of the liquid in her coffee cup. "I'm terribly sorry, I was in such a rush," a quick glance to her watch- "I still am actually."

"Oh, right-" he hopelessly looked down to the smart outfit he quickly recalled she'd been sporting earlier that was now not only smeared in a few places but utterly drenched in dark coffee.

"Don't worry about it!" She insisted with a convincing smile and a hand that waved so casually it was almost unnoticeable. "It's just been such a rough day, it feels good to laugh again." She took a long breath and relaxed a little.

"Well, glad to help." Cameron shrugged, just managing to speak without a stutter or pause.

The device on her wrist that looked like a smart watch beeped at her, and all trace of contentment vanished from her rather breathtaking face and was replaced with pure stress. A strangled noise escaped from her throat as she tried to turn it off, the bags hanging from her wrists getting in the way. Cameron stepped forward and took a few to help.

She gave him a small, more genuine but still dazzling smile.

"Thank you." Was the last thing she uttered before disappearing off yet again once he'd returned all her bags, not a trace of her left behind besides some rogue coffee that had met the floor. Who the mysterious girl was, it seemed he'd never know.