Thyme for Love – Tuesday Tales (twenty)

Here’s a snippet from my current work in progress, Thyme for Love.

This week we’re writing to the prompt ‘twenty’. Return to TUESDAY TALES for more great snippets.

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When her phone rang, yet again, Sally didn’t know whether to be amused or frustrated. She looked down at the caller ID, sat her paperwork down and shook her head. “Hey Izzy. What’s up?”

“You busy?”

“Not any more than the last twenty times you called,” she joked. “Just trying to finalize the layout of the vendors for the herb festival.”

“Sorry to bother you. I’ll call back.”

“No. It’s alright. I’m needing a break anyway. I think my eyes are starting to permanently cross.”

“I was just laying here missing you and wanted to hear your voice.”

“You all done with the moving?” Sally leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. Penciling in vendors on her piece of graph paper could wait. It wasn’t like she had anything else to do that night.

“Yeah. We got it all done. She had some other friends show up to help too, so it went faster than we all thought it would.” He paused. “They all went to dinner to celebrate, but I came back to my hotel room.”

“Why didn’t you go to dinner with them? You could have. You probably needed to relax a bit.”

“Naw. I’d had enough. By the end of the day I remembered why we’re exes. She’s a royal pain in the butt. I’m sorry I even volunteered to help her out.”

Sally smiled, knowing he couldn’t see her shit-eating grin over the phone. “Awww, poor baby. Had to be around the big-bad-ex all day.”

“No, really. You have no idea what it was like. Waa-waa-waa – she cries and whines over every little thing. I really didn’t remember how negative she always is. And whew, can she be a biotch when things don’t go her way. Fortunately I steered clear of her and avoided her wrath. You should have seen how she laid into one of the guys when he accidently dropped a chair and scratched it.”

Not sure how to respond to his comments without sounding like she was egging him on, even though she was enjoying hearing him talk about the ex like this, she bit her tongue and kept quiet.

Izzy continued, “I just wanted to get back here and get my Sally-fix. Although, I’d rather be with you right now, instead of talking to you on the phone.”

“I’d rather be with you too,” she agreed. A quick glance at the papers strewn across her desk remaindered her of her other commitments. “But you know I won’t be able to see you much this next week. I’m waist high in the final stages for the festival. There’s so much to do still that I’ll be lucky to even get some sleep.”

“Same here. I still have hundreds of herbs to repot to get ready. Can you fit in lunch tomorrow, before the week gets too crazy?”

“You’ll be back by lunch?”

“Oh yes. I’m leaving Austin early in the morning. I’m getting the hell out of Dodge. I never thought I’d get tired of Austin, but right now, all I want is my tiny, sleepy little corner of the world.”

“Don’t be saying that,” Sally laughed. “They’ll be confiscating your tie-dye shirt if they hear that.”

Izzy chuckled and then the phone line became quiet. He finally spoke, his voice softer and huskier than usual. “Hey babe, I really do miss you.”

Sally’s voice caught in her throat and her eyes welled up with tears. “I miss you too,” she finally said. “Hey, I’ve got to go. I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said and pushed ‘end call’.

She sprung up from her chair and started pacing the room.

Damn! I do not need this. I don’t have time for this in my life right now.