It Started With A Tweet(35)

‘You’d do that for me?’ she says, wrinkling her nose in confusion.

‘Uh-huh, but only if you give me my phone back from the well.’

‘No deal,’ she says sighing, as if I’d got her hopes up. ‘I’d rather take my chances with Rupert. You’re doing so well, one day in, you can’t give up now. Your fingers have only just stopped twitching.’

I examine my hand and wonder if my fingers were moving without me noticing.

‘OK, fine,’ I say. ‘I’ll stay here without my phone.’

It’s not as if I’ve got anything to rush back to in my ordinary life.

‘Thank you.’ Rosie hugs me for the second time today. This time it’s not an awkward embrace but more a genuine hold.

I hear footsteps coming back down the stairs.

‘But I’m going to have to find something to do without a phone. I need a distraction,’ I say, whispering as Alexis comes back into the kitchen.

‘Luckily, there’s more than enough for you to do work wise, without looking at him,’ she whispers. ‘In fact, seeing as you’re going to be here for so long, why don’t you help me with the project management?’

‘Me? Project manage a building site?’

I try the title on in my head and I quite like it. I’ve seen more than enough Grand Designs, I know that it’s about good organisation and the ability to sweet-talk builders and contractors with tea and biscuits, and I am the queen of making tea. It would also put me on a more equal footing with Rosie, and be less like I’m just her little sister.

‘Yes, help me sort out a plan of what we’re going to do and when. I imagine you’d be all over a Gantt Chart and working out the critical path.’

‘Now you’re talking my language,’ I say, thinking that’s much more my cup of tea than getting my hands dirty.

‘There is much work,’ says Alexis. ‘We start tomorrow.’

Rosie nods. ‘So, your photo on the help-ex site,’ she says, as she unplugs the kettle and fills it up with water, ‘it was of you and your girlfriend?’

She looks a lot calmer now that I’ve agreed to stay, and it’s as if she’s thawed in her attitude towards Alexis.

‘My girlfriend,’ he says nodding as he pulls out a chair and makes himself at home. ‘Or, how do you say it, my old girlfriend?’

‘Ex-girlfriend,’ I chip in helpfully, nodding at the nugget of information, much to Rosie’s disdain.

‘Yes, that’s it. We travel together in Spain, and when I come here, alone, I forgot to change the photo.’

I notice that I’m sitting up a little straighter and tucking my hair behind my ear. I’m sort of glad that I’m not wearing a shapeless fleece, despite being chilly in my light cardigan.

I realise that I’m falling in lust mainly due to that sexy accent he speaks in. Although he is attractive in the conventional tall, dark and handsome way, I still don’t really know him yet. For all we know he might turn out to have a personality reminiscent of Dickhead Dominic. But unlike Dickhead Dominic, whose words, I imagine, if you closed your eyes, would still wound your soul, Alexis could be telling me how he murders kittens and it would still make my insides stand to attention.

‘So, you said there’s no Internet at the farm?’ He pulls his phone out of his pocket and I almost make a lunge for it. He stares down at it. ‘This does not work also.’ He looks at it sadly.

Welcome to my digital detox world, Alexis.

He shrugs his shoulders and pops the phone on the table. ‘No matter,’ he says.

Why is everyone else coping with the lack of mobile signal and Internet so well? If anything, Rosie’s been relieved since her phone’s been down the well, yet I can’t stop thinking about mine.

While I’ve stopped hearing phone sounds, mainly because I’m trying to tune out noise for fear of it being rodents, I am still reaching for it all the time. Like now, I’m desperate to text Erica to tell her about the arrival of Alexis. He’d so get the flexed arm Emoji in his description. I’d also be trying to take a sneaky snap of him for Instagram – you know, to make it look as if I’m having the best time up on this lovely farm with my sister and a sexy, suave French dude. I’d look proper cosmopolitan.

‘Right, are you hungry? We were just about to make tea,’ says Rosie, standing up.

‘I don’t like tea,’ he says. ‘I’ll just have water.’

‘OK,’ says Rosie, biting her tongue. It must be hard for non-native speakers to understand all the little nuances of our funny language. ‘Would you like some food, for dinner?’

She gets out two pizzas from the fridge and switches on the oven.

‘Food, now? It’s only just after five.’ He looks at us like we’re weird.

‘Of course,’ says Rosie, switching the oven back off, ‘we’ll eat later.’

She must be able to hear my stomach growling as she automatically goes over to the toaster and pops in a couple of crumpets.

‘This ’ouse, then,’ says Alexis, ‘there is a lot to do.’

I’m not sure if that’s a question or a statement.

‘There is,’ says Rosie. ‘I’m getting builders in to do the big things, but then I guess there’ll be a lot for us to get stuck in to. Of course, you won’t have to work all the time.’