Saps' phone call

"Hi."
"Hi."
"I haven't heard from you for ages."
"No you haven't."
"... is something the matter?"
"No."
"Why are you being so cold?"
"You made a decision for both of us and this is the consequence."
"So that's it? You're just going to let it all go? I thought you loved me."
"I do."
"I've made a decision, I want to follow through on our plans. We can go somewhere and be together."
"It's too late."
"It's never too late. Isn't that what you always say?"
"Yes."
"So that's it then?"
"..."
"Fine. Maybe I'll see you around."
"Goodbye."

The phone rang. Sap blearily opened his eyes not quite believing that someone would choose to call him at this time of day. What time was it for that matter? He forced his tired eyes to focus on the numbers displayed by his recently 'acquired' digital clock he had acquired recently. 4:30pm? Damn! It was later than he thought. Quickly shaking himself into wakefulness, Sap answered the phone. He hoped desperately it wasn't his mother calling to lecture about whatever his most recent failing had been.

The screen flashed into life. Having a vid screen attached to this unit had stretched his meager resources further than was probably wise. It gave him a significant amount of freedom though. His phone could now double up as a very limited computer. It would also show TV from their pirated feed. Having the privacy of his own room when he didn't feel like hanging with the others was worth the price in itself. Saps eyes widened in shock when he saw who was calling him. Of all the possibilities this one hadn't even come to mind. It was her.

He couldn't believe it. The letter had arrived such a long time ago. It must have been at least four or five months. Sap believed that the intervening time had allowed him to gain some perspective on the whole thing. Perhaps it had but the emotions were obviously still there.

Sap looked at her on the screen. He noted that she had done something to her hair. She was also wearing a new and presumably fashionable outfit. It had probably been chosen to either excite his interest, or intensify his longing. The way it followed her natural curves and exposed slightly more cleavage than was her custom made this readily apparent. It was working too. She was still beautiful, that much was breathtakingly obvious and the outward hints of a personality that had enraptured him so completely last time were still there. He could pick them in the way that she moved and the hopeful hesitancy in her eyes. Sap didn't say anything. There was nothing he could say.

"Hi." Her voice was soft and smooth. She had continued with the voice lessons it seemed. Each word was warm almost throbbing with compasion and muted desire. It was a fiction of course, he knew her too well for these tricks. The nervousness that lay below her well constructed fascade was apparent. He had to admit though, she had improved immensely since they last spoke.

"Hi." What else was there to say. He wasn't about to have an emotional outburst, the time for that had long passed. If she was calling to play with him there would be scant satisfaction.

"I haven't heard from you for ages." The voice had changed to a slightly hurt reproachfulness. Sap watched her carefully on the screen, taking note of tell-tale things in the way she was sitting and her expression. The whole thing was definitely an act, but it was fueled by actual emotion. She missed him. Unwelcome elation tugged at him. There was no way he would allow that though. Life on the street had taught him that, you show weakness you die. Sap had already experienced the joys of being vulnerable to her.

"No, you haven't." She had obviously expected a longer answer than that. Perhaps relying on how much hurt she knew the letter would have caused him. It was true that in normal life he was quite talkative, this situation was far from normal though. Here was the one that had spurned him. The one who hadn't even had the decency to do it in person. The answer obviously troubled her. She had started chewing on her bottom lip, a tell-tale that had caused no end of reprimands in negotiations class.

"... is something the matter?" The way she leaned slightly forward and frowned slighly made it seem that there was true concern for his well being. The exposure of significantly more cleavage to the camera was probably not intentional. That sort of thing had always made her nervous.

"No."

"Why are you being so cold?" Sap had to restrain a mirthless chuckle. He knew for a fact that she wasn't this stupid. Had she forgotten that he also had a brain? Perhaps she just couldn't accept that her feminine wiles were failing for possibly the first time.

"You made a decision for both of us and this is the consequence." If Sap were to be completely honest, something he tried to avoid wherever possible, then she was getting to him. The true concern behind her carefully constructed mask and the undeniable sensuality before him were bringing back good memories. Experiences they had shared. Strolling through parks up her end of town, listening to birds sing for the first time. The pleasure of a bike with her riding pillion. Long sweaty nights in this very room.

"So that's it? You're just going to let it all go? I thought you loved me." Sap had lost the objectiveness that allowed him to observe her with such clarity. He knew that the expression of hurt that she showed him was at least partially for affect. How much of it though, was beyond his reckoning.

"I do." As the words came from his mouth he regretted saying them. It was true. That didn't change anything though. That someone should know his distress cut to the core. Her knowing was infinitely worse.

"I've made a decision. I want to follow through on our plans. We can go away and be together." His heart leaped at the suggestion. The secret plan they had worked on for so long together. A course of action that had once been a source of real excitement, and such happiness. The reaction was purely internal though. There was no way he was going to give her the satisfaction of knowing how much he still wanted it.

"It's too late." There was a pause as she struggled to work out a way to talk him into doing whatever it was that she really wanted. It had never been this difficult for her before. Surely she realised that being able to break a thing didn't necessarily mean she could fix it again?

"It's never too late. Isn't that what you always say?" A clever ploy, using some of his beliefs combined with a whistful voice against him. It didn't matter though, this was a special case.

"Yes." The word hung in the air, a complete sentence unto itself. She was obviously expecting more though and waited hoping to prompt him into expanding on it through silence. When this failed she began to see just how hopeless the cause was.

"So that's it then?" Her voice was slightly choked, holding back either tears or disbelief. Sap didn't know which he would prefer.

"..." It was interesting he mused, waiting to see if she would try anything else, how silence when done correctly could be a statement.

"Fine. Maybe I'll see you around." A statement, but also a question.

"Goodbye." Like the last word in a book. Perhaps he should have said "The End" instead Sap mused. He reached out and hit the disconnect button not bothering to watch her reaction. Having finished the phone call a weight he hadn't realised was there lifted. Sap grinned to himself at his little joke and quickly pulled on some worn clothes. Throwing a jacket on as he left the room Sap felt happy for the first time in quite a while. Enthused about life once more he clattered downstairs to see what the boys were up to.