"Yeah."
"Hi Eliot."
"Oh. Hi." Eliot jerked the wheel to the right, parking his truck on the side of the road. He'd been waiting for this call. Not anxiously, but he'd been expecting it.
"Bad time?"
"No."
"I just wanted to call."
"It's been awhile. You okay?" He turned off the engine.
"I'm good."
"Good."
"You?"
"I'm fine." Eliot paused, listening. Seemed this call would completely ignore what happened the last time she'd called.
"Read any good books lately?"
Yup. Last call never happened. He could work with that. "I just finished one on Qin Shi Huang Di."
"Should I know what that is?"
"First Emperor of China."
"Oh, the one where they discovered all the terracotta soldiers."
"That's the one."
"Good book?"
"It was okay. The pictures were fantastic, but I'm not sure I agree with some of the conclusions, but it could have just been me."
"Oh, how so?"
"I was reading it in the original Chinese and my written skills aren't very good."
"Oh. Oh!"
He was laughing. "You were going to say something, weren't you?"
"No, I've learned my lesson."
"Okay, so you? Have you read anything good?"
"Really, you really read Chinese?"
He chuckled. "Badly, but yes."
"So," she paused then continued, "in your spare time you teach yourself Chinese?"
"Among other things. What do you do in your spare time?"
"Shop, watch TV, go to movies, the usual things." There was a long pause and she laughed. "Did you say something? Something about usual if you were a "girl"?"
"I would never say -girl." He was chuckling and she was laughing.
"So how long did it take to read the book in Chinese?"
"The first half took a couple of months. The last half not so long."
"Because you were better at reading, or because you skimmed it and looked at the pictures?"
He grinned. "It was just so damn boring!"
"Why didn't you just put it down?"
"'Cause my friend sent it and wanted me to read it and I said I would. Stop laughing!"
"I'm not laughing," she laughed.
"I'm hanging up."
"No, wait." She was still chuckling, but pulled herself together. "Before you go, I just wanted to say…"
He waited.
"I tried some mango strawberry chutney. It was very good." There was another pause. "Thank you."
Her voice had gone soft and he suddenly thought she was thanking him for something other than chutney. "I should have … you know, sent you some."
"No, you were… fine. All's good."
"Good, 'cause you know..."
"Yes, well, I should go."
"Okay."
"Good night Eliot."
"Good night, Maggie."
When the line went dead he looked out over the hood of his truck at the night sky. He felt like they'd settled something, and yet, not. He restarted the truck and eased out into traffic and headed back to the gym. He hated the uncertainty of calls like this. Was she thanking him for passing her off to Nate? Was he reading too much into it? Maybe she really liked chutney. Crap! He needed to hit something.