We get to Orlando by seven o’clock. Then we get lost. This is because neither Claire nor I can read maps. I mean, it’s all very well putting road names on maps, but what about when you can’t see the street signs? Or if there is a no entry sign? Or a traffic jam that Claire feels we would be better off by avoiding, sending us deep into the back streets (no pun intended folks) of Orlando? And road names are no good when you have turned the map upside down so you can follow the direction you are travelling, because by the time you have deciphered the name of the street you have to turn into, you’ve missed it anyway. I think this goes part way to explaining why I failed geography in high school.
At quarter to eight, the car phone rings (bills paid courtesy of James Robertson, world’s most naïve and clueless man). I raise an eyebrow at Claire, silently questioning whom she has been giving our number out to. Pointless question really.
“Can you get that? It’s probably one of the guys wanting to know where we are.”
“You answer it. You’re the one that knows them.”
“Kel! I’m trying to concentrate on the road.” (This ridiculous statement is followed by a disbelieving snort from me). “Kelly, stop being silly. Answer the fucking phone!”
I hesitantly pick up the receiver. I don’t like answering the telephone when I am not completely convinced who is on the other end. Would you believe that despite the fact I meet an average of thirty new people a day on hospital rotations through my course, I have this incurable shyness thing when it comes to phones? I especially hate having to ring anyone: from takeaways to travel agents; family to friends. Claire has been known to joke that the only reason she is flat-mates with me is to cut down the phone-bills she incurred from being the one forced to instigate our telephone conversations.
“Hello?” I mumble timidly. Claire flicks me in the arm.
“Hi…Claire?”
“No, this is Kelly.”
“Oh right, hiya! Claire was telling me about you earlier…don’t worry though, it was all good.”
“Who is this please?”
“Oops, sorry! This is Kevin. I met Claire at the studio today? You guys are supposed to on your way over here now?” His voice is friendly, reassuring me somewhat about the whole ‘being on the phone to strangers’ issue I have going on.
“We are…well, we would be, but Claire got us lost.” I am rewarded with another thump in the arm for this. “Ow! That hurt!”
“Are you okay?” He sounds concerned now.
“Yeah, fine. Don’t think that Claire was too impressed with me blaming her for our current predicament.”
He laughs, rich and warm. “Tell me where y’all are at and I’ll try and get you out of there.”
I give the best indication of our location that I can from what I can see of our surroundings. As he gives rough directions that I relay to Claire, I begin to find myself lost in his voice. It is deep and amiable, with a tinge of a Southern accent that is somewhat contradictory: comforting and sexy.
“Kelly…Kelly!” I feel my cheeks burn as I realise that I have been oblivious to Kevin trying to strike up a conversation. I find it strange that I am so grateful he is unable to see my embarrassment.
“Sorry about that…I kind of drifted off for a second.”
“That boring am I?” Before I have time to protest and apologise further, he continues: “Anyway, I was just inquiring after you health. After all, I hear that you are the person best equipped to be answering questions about well-being.”
“Well…I’m getting there. Not quite Doctor Kelly, Medicine Woman yet. Hang on a minute.” As I cover the mouthpiece, I can hear Kevin’s deep laugh resonating. I briefly recognise that if he always laughs like that then I will have try to give him more reasons to do so. Pushing that thought aside, I turn to Claire with a look of mock irritation on my face: she has just hit me in the arm again.
“Kelly!” she hisses incredulously, “you are flirting! With a member of a boyband! Over the telephone, no less! Looks like the Florida heat has fried your brain too!”
I ignore her and return my attention to the caller. “Hey? Sorry about that, Claire thought she had something important to say.” My shyness kicks in as an indirect effect of Claire’s accusation that I am flirting: momentarily I am lost for words. In desperation, I blurt out the first thing that pops into my head: “So Claire tells me you are in a band?”
This is clearly a subject that Kevin enjoys to talk about, but as he begins to tell me about his band-mates, I groan inwardly. Claire is laughing at me for the same reason. Of all the tacky conversation starters, “I hear you are in a band” has to be close to the top of the list. I suppose I am lucky that he is serious enough about their music to dismisses my groupie-style question as pure interest. Or at the very least, he has the good grace not to rip the piss out of me for it.
Kevin continues to extol the virtues of his band and their music, and I am surprised to discover I am interested (bear in mind my anti-Take That prejudice here). I find myself laughing as I am told about Brian’s latest practical joke; shaking my head on hearing the latest in a what appears to be a long, ongoing saga that proves Nick’s mother the ultimate ‘stage-mom’; and offering words of encouragement as Kevin voices his doubts over his dancing ability.
Claire eases the car to a halt at the kerb of a residential road and hits me on the arm once again (I am going to have one huge bruise there) to indicate we have arrived at our destination. A tall, dark-haired man, engrossed in a telephone conversation, motions to us from the front yard of a house before he wanders over to the car.
“Hey!” she calls out, and points out an introduction. “Kevin, Kelly.
Kelly, Kevin. But it sounds like you’ve already got to know each other.”
Claire turns to me, then Kevin, and promptly cracks up. The blank look
on Kevin’s face is reflected in my own expression. Eventually, Claire
is able to force out the reason behind her present case of the giggles.
“Guys, now you are a small matter of ten metres apart, so stop checking
each other out and hang up the phones.”
Links to other sites on the Web
Get your own Free Home Page