It Started With A Tweet(49)

‘Not so much me; that’s my sister. I’m just here temporarily.’

‘That’s a shame,’ he says with a twinkle in his eye, sounding a little bit flirtatious. ‘I live over there.’

He points across the main road at a white-painted cottage halfway up a hill.

‘If you need owt, come and see me, I’ll sort you.’ He gives me a wink and leaves me in no doubt that his other comment was flirtatious. ‘You’re lucky with the weather. Blue skies,’ he says very chuffed, despite the fact that really you’d expect it at this time of year. ‘I must be going, though, I’m bidding on a hay bayler on eBay and it’s ending in twenty minutes so I’ve gotta get back.’

‘Did you say eBay? You’ve got Internet?’ I say, scouring the landscape for telephone poles.

‘Oh aye, I’ve got broadband,’ he says in a voice as proud as mine was earlier, when I was inspecting my wallpaper stripping. ‘Downloads my videos ever so fast.’

I’m too jealous to be curious as to what type of videos he’s downloading.

‘I’ll see you around. Pop in for a brew, if you’re passing,’ he says, like he lives right off the main road and not what looks like a twenty-minute hike up a steep hill. Two minutes ago I would have politely smiled, but that was before he muttered the magic word: broadband.

‘I might just do that.’

I look as if I’ve made his day and he goes bounding off across the field.

I climb back over the fence as best I can and I reach the end of the lane. If only I’d picked up my bag, I could have totally made it to the village.

I sigh and turn on my heels, thinking I’ll head back to the farm to take photos, when I catch the mailbox out of the corner of my eye and remember what Rosie said about checking it.

I try not to look at Jack’s box and cringe at the note I put in there a couple of days ago. He didn’t mention it when I saw him this morning, but then again, me being naked meant that he didn’t really mention a lot.

I turn the key in the lock and realise that Rosie’s got quite a bit of mail, including a big brown envelope which might just be what she’s after. I pick it all up without really paying much attention, until I see a bright pink piece of paper that has a note to me on it.



DAISY,

I DIDN’T MIND RESCUING YOU ONCE – FIRST TIME IS FREE, SECOND TIME I CHARGE. JUST BE THANKFUL THAT IT WAS ME AND NOT RODNEY WHO FOUND YOU – THAT WHOLE BUM THING WOULD HAVE TURNED OUT VERY DIFFERENTLY. HAVE YOU MET HIM YET? OLD FELLOW, FLAT CAP, DROOLS A LOT AT WOMEN (AND COWS WITH GLOSSY COATS).

ANYWAY, IT’S ME WHO SHOULD BE APOLOGISING ABOUT WALKING IN ON YOU WHEN YOU WERE HANGING OUT NAKED IN YOUR BARN. BUSTER ISN’T REALLY A PERVY DOG, HE JUST HAS A THING FOR PIGEONS AND WHEN HE SAW THE BARN HE MADE A BEELINE FOR IT. I WAS COMING OVER TO THANK YOU FOR THE NOTE, AS THIS WHOLE WRITING THING (AS YOU CAN TELL BY THE MESS I’M MAKING) ISN’T ME. PLEASE KNOW THAT I DIDN’T SEE ANY OF YOU OR YOUR GIANT BUM. I KNOW I SHOULDN’T JOKE ABOUT THINGS LIKE THAT AS WOMEN CAN BE SENSITIVE ABOUT THAT STUFF, BUT YOU ACTUALLY HAVE A NORMAL-SIZED BUM (NOT THAT I’VE BEEN LOOKING, BUT FROM WHEN I GRABBED IT.) AND, YES, I KNOW I’M DIGGING THE HOLE DEEPER. SEE, PROOF THAT I’M PRETTY CRAP AT THIS WRITING THING.

I’LL PROBABLY SEE YOU AROUND.

JACK.

P.S. HAVE GOOGLED PRICE IS RIGHT AND TO PUT YOU OUT OF YOUR MISERY IT’S NOT DES O’CONNOR



I flip the paper over and see that it’s a flyer for a local barn dance, and I picture him here picking up his post not long ago, hastily scribbling it in his block capitals.

I can’t believe he’s left me hanging about The Price is Right though.

I’m smiling as I walk back down to the farm and I make sure that I hide the note in my pocket so that Rosie doesn’t see it. She reminded me far too much of Mum the other day, with her eyebrow twitching at my walk with Jack, and, no doubt, she’d be matchmaking the instant she found out about the notes. I’d much rather keep this to myself, and if she wants to direct her matchmaking attention to me, Alexis is a much better candidate; so easy on the eye.





Chapter Sixteen

Time since last Internet usage: 5 days, 3 hours, 10 minutes and 58 seconds

‘I haven’t forgotten you,’ I say almost in a whisper to my phone, but it still echoes noisily around the shaft of the well. ‘I’m still working on a plan to get you out.’

I look down to where the light disappears and imagine my phone being all alone at the bottom. The poor thing. It’s been down there five whole days now. Five.

I think back to my earlier conversation with Rodney and wonder if I could pop over to his farm. I know he was a little amorous for his age, and Jack may have warned me about him in his note, but I’m sure he can’t be that bad. I mean, I only want to check my emails for a few minutes, I’d even forgo checking Twitter as long as I could satisfy my curiosity that my boss hasn’t come to her senses and rehired me.

I know that I could go and ask Jack, even a dial-up connection is better than no connection, but I wouldn’t want him to think I’m stalking him after the note writing.

It’s also not even the fact that I want to check anything, it’s that I miss having something to do. The thought of another evening stretching out in front of me is daunting; they’re definitely the worst. During the day I can at least kid myself that I’m busy with the house renovation; after all, I was used to not being able to monitor my phone when I was at work. But in the evenings, there was nothing to come between me and my blossoming relationship with my iPhone. Here, the only thing I have to look forward to is sitting around on uncomfortable chairs either under a harsh bright light, now that Rosie’s hung a single bulb from the ceiling in the lounge, or by candlelight, which is a bit weird now that Alexis has joined us. And I have to make conversation with Rosie, of course. Although it’s getting easier, we’re still a long way from being bosom buddies.