Gavin woke up to the sound of Maggie stirring beside him, he could tell she was restless as she tugged at his arm, urging him to get up. He shook his head and rolled over, just a few more minutes, he thought to himself. He heard Maggie huff in annoyance and jump out of bed padding out to the kitchen, scuffing round for some food. I'm going to have to get up, he thought, she won't leave me alone. And sure enough her expectant bark echoed down the hall at the discovery that her food bowl was empty.
'Bloody dog', he muttered before heaving himself out of bed.
He looked at the clock, the numbers 6:30 glowed angrily at him in the darkness. Why did he buy an alarm clock with red numbers? It always looked so accusatory. Especially since he already felt guilty about sleeping half the day away. He had settled down for a nap at two after a late lunch, thinking he'd only be asleep for an hour, and now it was time for tea. It was no wonder she left him.
He pulled his old, plaid slippers on and shuffled down the hall, passing the many pictures of far off, exotic lands that reminded him of who he used to be. As he passed the dresser his fingers brushed lightly over their picture and for the millionth time he considered pushing it down and forgetting, but for the millionth time, his heart stopped him, getting in the way of the logical side of him which forever screamed that he needed to get over her.
As he trudged into the kitchen Maggie brushed against his legs, sometimes he swore she was more like a cat than a border collie, a very fat border collie. He sighed as he poured food into her bowl, knowing he should pull out his old gear and take her hiking again, but he wasn't sure he could face the memories. He walked over to the bench and found a half drunk cup of coffee which he placed in the microwave to reheat as he checked for any missed calls on the land line.
The clear, robotic tones of the automated female voice rang through the kitchen seemingly harmonising with the dull electronic throb of the microwave. Gavin rubbed his hand through his hair and across his face.
'You have three new messages'
'Gavin', an older woman's voice wafted from the phone, 'it's your mother. I'm just calling because your Aunt Joan was wondering…'
Gavin speedily pressed the delete button at the mention of Aunt Joan, he didn't need that doddering old woman telling him he was wasting his life, he'd already figured that out himself.
'Gavin'
At the sound of the next voice Gavin froze. It was young and soft, though at this point in time was tinged with anger and sadness. He knew it was Ellie without her telling him, and he wasn't sure if he was up to hearing what came next.
'Gavin, it's Ellie, just calling to say that I got another one of your mobile bills and I'm mailing it over. I would really appreciate it if you got your address sorted as this is the fifth time and, to tell you the truth I'm getting a bit fed up…'
At the sound of her voice rising Gavin pressed delete, he didn't need to hear another account of what a crap human being he was, he got enough of that when they broke-up, and quite a bit before too.
'Gavin, it's your mother again'
This time he didn't even wait to hear the message. Instead he got his coffee cup out of the microwave, walked over to the fridge and pulled out a cold piece of left over pizza before walking over to the couch and turning on the TV. He heard Maggie trotting behind him and lifted his arm so she could climb onto the couch and put her head in his lap, before he settled down and decided that 'Strictly Come Dancing' was the best thing on.