Honesty

Carson had forgotten all about his promise to call until Sunday evening, when he was flicking through his contacts to find his belle-sœur's number and instead found Ellis's.

He hadn't thought twice about pressing 'dial'.

"Hello, who's speaking?"

He grinned: her voice was tired, but husky. Sexier than in real life.

"Hey Ellis. It's Carson. You know, you sound real sexy over the phone."

A short silence, then: "Oh. Hi, Carson. Yeah. I get that a lot."

Her tone was flat and low, and he couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not. Neither would have surprised him.

"I bet you do," he chuckled. "Anyway. I was just calling to see if you're alright."

Another, longer silence.

"Ellis?"

A sigh. "Yes. Yes, I'm fine."

A default answer; a lie easily detected.

"Sure. Good weekend?"

He had never phoned anyone who took as long to answer as Ellis did. "It was okay."

"What did you do?"

"Nothing."

"Oh come on, you must have done something."

An almighty sigh. "I stayed at home and I stayed alive. That's all."

Carson laughed again. "Hey, what are you doing on Wednesday?"

Then - "Ellis?"

"Ellis?"

When, a minute and a half later, she still hadn't answered, he simply said: "Alright, we'll go for lunch after Grammar. My treat."

She sighed, and then hung up on him.

-

"You coming to lunch?" Juliana asked as their Grammar lesson finished.

Carson looked over to where Ellis was slumped and shook his head.

"No," he replied, "I'm taking Ellis to lunch."

Juliana's eyebrows raised almost clear off her face. "Hey! You've never taken me to lunch!"

Carson chuckled, ruffled her hair and said: "Maybe next time."

Juliana laughed along with him, and watched as he went over to the quiet girl on the other side of the classroom.

"Hey."

Ellis didn't answer, bust Carson didn't let that worry him.

"So my friend told me about this really nice Korean place in town. Do you like Korean?"

She shrugged dispassionately.

"Ellis, speak now or forever hold your peace. Korean: yes, or no?"

"I..." Her hand drifted to press to her stomach, an action that went unnoticed by her, "I'm not very hungry, honestly."

Carson's mouth twisted into momentary disbelief, but he brushed it off. "Okay. Then how does a walk along the canal sound to you?"

"You're not going to let me just go home, are you?" she asked.

He shook his head, and she sighed again before giving up. "Fine."

Carson's grin was almost blinding.