Who?

Chapter 9: Incoming call

After the ice cream stop, my brother had proposed to stay with me for the night to spend some 'quality brother and sister time' as he had said. At first I had refused, not really knowing how to explain his absence. But before I could decline, Luuk had already whispered a 'don't worry, I won't ask any questions about him'. And true to his word, he had not.

For the second time in three weeks and a half, I had spent a lovely afternoon and evening. Together we had drove to the flat, watched three Simpson episodes and laughed a lot. We had even made a mug cake competition before he had spent a bit of time updating and checking my Dinosaurus.

Really with Luuk, I had the best brother I could have dreamed for. Before going to bed, I had hugged him and thanked him for everything.

In the morning, I woke up with an aching back. Luuk and I had share the only bed of the flat. This was a king size bed but Luuk had managed to take all the space, leaving me to sleep in an awkward position.

'Rrr Luke, remember me never to sleep with you again!' I blamed him. 'You almost kicked me out of the bed!'

'Come on Ev'! I am sorry if I am much taller than you and if I take more space.' he replied very amused by my condition. 'Despite, I think you will easily forgive the world's best brother' he blinked.

'Make fun of me Luuk! Make fun of me one more time and you will suffer my anger' I playfully threatened, punctuating my every words while grabbing a pillow to hit him.

But Luuk smiled and kept the play 'Please, oh please dear great Eva, forgive me, I fear your anger'. And after that he burst into laugher while he threw his pillow on me.

Not letting him won the game, I fought back and shouted: 'Fear me, oh little Luuk, as I am stronger'. But my phone started to ring and stopped our game. Once I grabbed it to check who was calling me, my smile immediately vanished and my heart stoped before starting to furiously accelerate.

He was calling me.

He was calling me after three weeks and a half without giving ANY news. With trembling fingers, I answered the call and left the bedroom to go in the bathroom, I did not want Luuk to hear anything about the conversation. Nor did I want him to think that I was stressed and still having weird emotional issues. I could not let Luuk fear that I would disappear again.

'Hello' I heard my voice saying. It seemed that I was watching myself from afar. 'Baptiste?' I asked.

'Oh Eva'. I heard him reply. For some reasons he seemed relieved. 'Are you alright?'

'Hum yes, thank you for asking. I hope you too. I. I. I don't know what to say. Hum well, yes I know. I am sorry. Hum. Yes that is it, I am sorry, sorry that you thought I was unhappy to marry you. And hum...' I kept talking in a very incoherent way as my brain was still unable to process the fact that he was calling me. This was real and I really wanted him to hear me out so I continued, hoping he would talk. 'And hum... I am sorry, I just woke up, I am quite hum... incoherent in the morn...'

But he did not allow me to complete my sentence, almost shouting in the phone:

'You woke up! I am really happy Eva! And really sorry as well for yest...'

But this was now my time not to listen to him:

'Oh you don't have to be sorry Baptiste, I was awake when you call, you did not wake me up.'

A brief silence crossed our conversation.

'You mean, you just woke up, because it's the morning?' he asked. But he seemed very confused and unsure. Feeling a little out of the conversation for some unknown reasons, I replied.