It was the end of another long work day for John, who was sitting at the kitchen table in his still sparsely furnished apartment, reading glasses on, as he picked at a ready meal with a fork whilst simultaneously continuing to look over some case files.

His concentration was broken by the alert from the laptop that sat on the table, telling him a video call was coming through. He clicked accept with a smile, knowing who the caller would be without even looking.

"Hey dad," Kelly said, coming through via FaceTime.

"Hi Kel, how's it going?" John said brightly.

"I got a 93 for that presentation I did."

"That's brilliant," he said, every inch the proud father.

"How are you?" Kelly asked after a second of silence, frowning in concern.

"Good," John replied with a nod. "The offer finalised on the land for the cottage, so the contractors can start next week."

"That's great," Kelly smiled, before pausing. "I saw Lise on Saturday."

He visibly brightened. "You did?" he asked, brow raised. "How is she?"

"She's doing well, the job is going great. She did say she hasn't spoken to you since she left though."

"Yeah, uh…" John said, scratching at his beard. "I've been busy."

"Too busy to send an email or a text?" Kelly asked in an accusatory fashion.

John sighed. "She's got a new life, new job, new friends...she doesn't need me bothering her."

"Dad, trust me, Lise wants to speak to you," Kelly sighed, "to see you. The two of you, you...need each other; I see it even if you don't. You're...better together. Please, just send her a text."

"Alright," he reluctantly conceded, nodding in defeat.

"Good," Kelly said with satisfaction.

John wasn't lying when he said he had been busy: Dyson had been giving him more and more overtime, although in truth he was glad because it helped keep him occupied, and he guessed that she sensed as much. But still, his reluctance to contact Lise had been more than that. He was, to put it simply, frightened.

The way they had left things had been open and hopeful, and it was easier for him to live off that memory than face what he believed to be probable rejection. In his mind, Lise had moved on quickly, forgetting about her former life in Algonquin Bay, and had probably already met people younger and far more interesting than himself.

He shouldn't have been surprised that Kelly had seen Lise however; they had always got along well and were now living in the same city. Their burgeoning friendship had given him new hope though; if Lise hadn't forgotten Kelly, then that must mean he still featured somewhere in her mind.

He was never good with phone calls either, and it hadn't occurred to him a text might work before Kelly suggested it. His daughter was wise enough to know that being a man of few words, John valued face-to-face conversation more; it meant spaces of silence weren't uncomfortable, and that his facial expressions could relay his feelings better than his words could. While texting may not be the perfect answer, it would work to break the ice, then perhaps he would suggest FaceTime.

'Hi, how's it going?' were the simple words he chose to text Lise in the end, after 30 minutes or so of typing, deleting and debating them. 'It's John, by the way,' he decided to add, just in case she had removed her number from her contacts.

Less than a minute later, his phone indicated he had a reply.

'Hi! :) I'm good, how are you?' was Lise's cheerful response.

Lise certainly seemed happy to hear from him, he thought, smiling emoji and all; maybe Kelly was right afterall.

He decided to answer honestly: 'Good, but work is busy as always.'

After he'd sent the message, he typed another: 'It's not the same without you.' His finger hovered over the send button while Lise watched the three dots indicating he was writing eagerly, but was left wondering what he never said when the dots disappeared and John deleted the text.

'Dyson still overworking you then?' she asked John.

He smiled as he typed his reply. 'As always! How is the new job going?'

'It's going well.' Lise bit her lip, trying to carefully think of how to word the next part. 'I miss the old team though.'

While he knew he shouldn't be pleased Lise felt like she hadn't quite slotted in yet, John got pleasure out of the idea that he was the main team member she missed. 'It'll take time,' was the best he could eventually come up with as a response, still too cautious to say that he missed her too.

'I've got to go now, they've got me working this crazy late shift tonight,' Lise typed and then sent. 'But text me again soon?' she added.

Hesitant of sounding too enthusiastic, John decided that 'Sure' was a solid response. He added a smiling emoji as an afterthought.

'Goodnight :),' Lise signed off, her smile echoing the one she'd represented on screen.


'I was wondering,' John texted Lise almost two days later, trying hard not to look over keen, 'if we could FaceTime?'. Not wanting to sound in any way demanding, he added, 'If you have the time.'

When Lise finally got a chance to look at her phone - she'd been busy for the previous hour interviewing a difficult suspect - seeing John had texted her gave her a lift to her day.

'I'd like that,' she told him. 'I can call you at eight if that's for you?'

John pondered for a minute whether or not to send the first words that came to mind, but eventually he decided to go with them, 'It's a date.'

There was a knot of excitement in the pit of Lise's stomach when she returned home from work that evening. She opted for Chinese takeout for dinner, and ate it on a kind of autopilot thinking about the pending video call. It was ridiculous, she knew, to be feeling like a teenager again over a potential chat with her former co-worker when she had already slept with him; it was like she was experiencing things in her relationship with John in reverse.

The month since she'd last seen him, Lise had started her new job - where she was finally starting to feel like she could settle - and moved into her new apartment. The rooms still looked sparser than she would like - much as they had in the Algonquin Bay apartment she occupied solo - but she had never been great at putting down solid roots, even when she was with Josh. Although she tried not to overanalyze herself too much, it had crossed her mind that maybe she never really felt at home in those places, either alone or with the people she'd shared them with.

Lise was never big into makeup, but she decided to apply a little concealer and mascara pre-FaceTime; she told herself it was because video calls could really wash you out, but the desire to look attractive John lurked at the back of her motivation.

Phone in one hand and glass of white wine in the other, she awaited the call to come through, with the TV on in the background for some kind of distraction, not that she would've been able to say what was on it. A few seconds after her phone signalled it was 8pm, John's call came through, filling Lise with reassurance because it was exactly like him to stick rigidly to the time.

"Hi!" she beamed, placing her wine glass carefully on the coffee table.

"Hi," John said, equally as happy as she was, but in his usual less demonstrative way. He took a shaky breath of what came across as relief before he eased the conversation into beginning, "How was your day?"

"Oh good, but you know how it is with difficult suspects..." she sighed, before brightening. "How about you?"

John gave a slight smile as he cocked his head to the side before answering, "Pretty much the same as yours I think. At least Dyson is off your back now."

"I don't know," Lise said thoughtfully, "Dyson isn't so bad." She scrunched her face in thought before making a confession. "I kind of miss...her." 'I miss you too,' she wanted to add.

"Yeah," John agreed, "she's not so bad." The conversation stilted for a moment, Lise still thinking about what she hadn't said, but John decided to be the one to break the silence. "So, Kelly said she saw you at the weekend."

"Yes," Lise replied, sunnily, pushing her hair behind her ears in a nervous tick that reminded her why she usually kept it taken back. "It was so nice to see her again. She's doing great in school," she continued, oddly prideful. "I think she misses you." 'So do I,' came the next words, dying inside her throat.

"Yeah, I uh," John fumbled, "I'll have to come down and see her again soon."

"Yeah, you should," Lise encouraged warmly, biting her lip. "I'd like to see you too." The words now out there, she held her breath in hope of a positive response from John.

"I'd...I'd really like," he replied, a smile creeping onto his features.

"Yeah?" she asked him.

"Yeah," John confirmed, emanating a warm relief that they were both on the same page.