"It's me," he told her as she answered the phone. The serious tone in his voice alerted her to the fact that this was a phone call with a purpose.
"Hey you," she replied, as flirtatiously as she dared, swallowing a lump in her throat and trying to sound breezy. She had a fair idea what the subject of this phone call would be about, and she really did not want to broach the subject. Flirt with him, she told herself, dispel the serious note in his voice, and convince him that you're fine; you're always fine.
She heard him pause in confusion, as he tried to understand why she was flirting with him. She smiled inwardly; she'd bought herself some time at least, a few precious moments to think up an excuse, as he tried to process the fact that she was flirting with him for some reason. "Are you alright?" he asked her, eventually.
"Fine," she replied, dismissively, hoping that these were just the polite pleasantries at the beginning of a conversation. "You?"
"Good, yeah," he dismissed it instantly. "I mean it. Are you alright? I've missed you these past few days."
She allowed herself a brief smile at the knowledge that he missed her, before turning to the matter at hand. "I'm fine…" she insisted, even though it didn't quite ring true, even to her ears.
"You took a week off work! Either you were skiving…"
"I could've been…"
"Or you've been ill," he continued, ignoring her interruption. "And I've never known you to slack off, not for one day, let alone a week, so surely you can understand that I'm concerned?"
She sighed, biting her lip as she tried to decide what she should tell him. "I… I just, I've not been feeling too well these past few days, that's all. I didn't think you'd want me to come into work, not if I had the flu…"
"You don't sound as though you've got the flu," he replied, suspiciously. "You're not telling me everything here, are you?"
"Well, you know me, I'm a woman of mystery," she joked, forcing a laugh. It was forced, and it sounded forced. She'd never been good at hiding her feelings from him.
"No, you're a terrible liar," he corrected her. "What's the matter? Tell me, I want to help if something's wrong…"
"It's nothing," she told him, making every effort to sound carefree and cheerful. "I had the flu or gastroenteritis or something…"
He sighed. "If you can't tell the difference between the flu and gastro…"
"Look, Ric, I'm a busy woman, I've got a million and one things I need to do, yeah? I'll be in tomorrow, I promise." She bit her lip as she heard how harsh she sounded, but she couldn't apologise for that now.
There was a stunned silence before he spoke. "Fine. I'll see you tomorrow, Diane." He sounded hurt, and she mentally kicked herself for snapping at him like that. But… if he knew, if he knew, then he'd understand.
"Bye," she said softly, before hanging the phone up and sinking down to the floor, feeling herself beginning to cry.