A snippet - Chapter 15, scene 1

I thought I'd share a snippet of the start of the next chapter, to show it is being worked on!

As ever, this is an unofficial story til it's completed and signed off.

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Quaranteam: Hebridean Hame, Chapter 15

Late morning, Sunday, 4th October 2020

Near Eilean Arthriagh, Inner Hebrides, Scotland

“So what do you… think?” Mira asked, the end of her question broken by her yawning into the back of her hand.

Callum flicked the indicator off and shifted up the gears as he pulled from the access track onto the road towards Fort William - a trip he was beginning to believe he could make with his eyes closed. 

He glanced over to where Mira sat in the passenger seat, waiting for her to finish her yawn before he answered. Mira waved towards the road with the hand she’d used to stifle her yawn. 

Neither of them was as well rested as they should have been. After returning from the Lodge the previous night and fetching his car from the mainland at low tide, there‘d been a lengthy group chat as everyone checked and discussed the new match's profile.

Luckily, the day’s later morning tide time meant they didn’t have quite so early a start. 

He and Mira set off into a light drizzle at about 11 a.m., leaving Catherine and Sarah with the still-unconscious Nicole at the house. Emma and Alison remained at the Lodge, though they planned to return the dogs to the house later. 

Callum fought off a yawn of his own before carefully answering. “I keep thinking about how shitty it is that one person is left to make these decisions, while the person asking is left hanging. I’d almost rather be told who’s been allocated to me.”

Mira had returned to reviewing the screenshots of Lauren’s profile that he’d sent to the group chat. She looked over at him questioningly. “Really?” 

He sighed, moving in the seat, physically reflecting his discomfort with his thinking on the subject. “I can’t help but think how horrible it must be for her. For any woman, really. Putting themselves out there and risking rejection. She’s had to make an important decision, choosing which stranger to give herself physically to, and now she just has to wait to see whether that stranger deigns to accept. And the more time that passes without a response… I don’t like it.” He paused to take a breath, habitually checking the mirrors. “And then I have to make such a serious decision involving someone I don’t know. I knew you guys. I’d met Nicole. That made things easier. I don’t know Lauren, but I still need to decide, guided by what looks to be dating profile matching.” Callum focused on the road as he spoke, hoping Mira wouldn’t delve too deeply into the other, uncomfortable source of his uncertainty. 

Mira was silent. He flicked his eyes away from the wet tarmac ahead to find her looking at him with a thoroughly unimpressed expression. 

“You think the process was easy for us?” She asked, her tone equal parts amused and annoyed. 

Callum grimaced, involuntarily ducking slightly in the seat as if she’d taken a physical swipe at him. “Okay, so I fucked up, and it wasn’t as straightforward as it should have been. You know I’m sorry for that. In my defence, in a warped way, I really thought I was doing the best for you guys. I thought I couldn’t be good enough and acted like a child.”

She touched his arm gently. “You were trying to protect yourself emotionally, and given all you’ve been through, it’s understandable. Even if it wasn’t the most sensible way to go. It’s fine, Cal. I shouldn’t have joked about it.”

He lifted his arm slightly, bringing her fingers close enough to kiss them lightly. 

Mira smiled at him momentarily before slowly nodding and returning focus to her phone. “I do understand what you mean about the partnering process. It’s a crap situation and a difficult decision for anyone to have to make. But you’ve avoided the question I asked. Which was ‘what do you think?’”

He was silent, focusing on the road and the slow swish of the windscreen wipers.

Mira sighed. “Out with it then. What’s up?”

Callum took a breath, blowing it out slowly. He’d hoped Mira wouldn’t see any deeper into his reluctance, but knew better than to expect anything else. “It’s… I just..” He sighed. “I feel really rubbish for thinking like this. I know it’s pretty fucking awful. I feel bad about myself for thinking it, never mind discussing it. It’s almost exactly what I think is so crap about the process.” Callum paused to find the words. He knew without looking that Mira would have an eyebrow raised, so he pushed on. 

“I mean, I looked through everything that’s there. Multiple times. Delphi seems to think she’d be a good match. But…” His explanation faded as he tried to find a nice way of explaining his feelings. 

“Go on,” Mira prompted. 

“I’ve just been, well, uninspired?” He knew his explanation was lacking, but he struggled to say what he meant because he recognised it was mean and hurtful. And unfair to Lauren. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Mira tilt her head as she watched him. “Uninspired? What with? The idea of another partner, or Lauren in particular?”

“I just feel horrible about it because she might be lovely. She probably is. But from what information there is, she just sounds boring. Her profile makes her sound unattractive. And her pictures. She’s wearing chest-high waders, a life vest and shades in two of them. She’s just a formless green and black blob. In the third one, she looks so awkward.”  

“Awkward?” Mira offered while flicking through the pictures. 

“Yeah, just awkward. There’s no confidence there. And her hair.” Callum sighed. 

Mira chuckled. “Yeah, the hair is an interesting choice. Very old-fashioned. You don’t see bobs with that style of block fringe any more. I think it makes her look much older. And messes with the proportions of her face.”

Callum nodded to show he was listening, slowing the car as they approached a giant puddle covering most of the road. 

“You don’t find her attractive, do you?” Mira asked quietly. 

He looked apologetically at her before changing down through the gears. “No. And it feels so… shite… of me to put so much value on that. Delphi might think she’s a good match, but from the photos, she looks so… Dowdy. Frumpy, even. And not just because of what she’s wearing, but how she carries herself.”  

“Hmmm.” Mira went quiet as she looked more closely at the three images. “I think attraction has to play some part in things. But.. You know, I think it’s more than ‘lust at first sight’. Take Catherine, for example.”

Callum chuckled, despite his mixed emotions. 

Mira shrugged, smiling in response. “When you met Catherine that first day, what were your thoughts about her?” 

He snorted, shaking his head at the memory as they passed through the wet area, and began accelerating again. “Honestly, I was tempted to tell her to fuck off back to Edinburgh.”

Mira nodded. “Would you have described her as dowdy?” She asked. 

He contemplated briefly before answering candidly. “Stuck up bitch was more what came to mind, initially. I remember thinking she was dressed sharply, but her attitude was terrible.”  

“Would you have slept with her then?” While she asked the question with a slight grin, he understood the earnestness of her query. 

He answered with a shake of his head. “No. Not at all.”

“And what about me?” Mira asked quietly. 

Callum blinked, just too late to catch where the conversation was going. “You were a different kettle of fish entirely,” he answered hesitantly. 

“So you’d have slept with me that day?” She asked with a smirk, before she answered her own question. “No, you wouldn’t have. Because that first day you saw me as broken and needing to be put back together.”

Callum cast her an apologetic glance. 

Mira chuckled. “Have you ever noticed that people look different when you get to know them?”

Callum shrugged. “I suppose, yeah. I remember asking my mum about it when I was a kid.”

Mira continued, gesturing at her phone and the pictures of Lauren. “So you looked at her profile pictures without any sort of knowledge of who she is. And you took what you saw at face value.”

He nodded, but frowned. “Okayyy… I’m a little insulted. I think I looked through her profile with an open mind.”

Mira laughed lightly again, reaching over to pat him on the knee. “I know you will have Cal, but let’s look again later, before you write her off.”

“If you think it’ll make a difference, sure. We’ll need to go through everything after Nicole’s awake anyway.”

Mira’s smile faded to the slightly worried and contemplative look she’d worn throughout the morning. “And before it’s my turn to be unconscious.”

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