'You know,' said Fletcher to Valkyrie as they walked down the dark road on the way to her house, 'we should probably get each other's numbers.'
She frowned. 'What?'
'You know,' he said hastily, 'in case of emergencies. Or, like, you might need me for something. I don't know.'
'OK,' she said, passing him her phone. 'Whatever.'
He handed her his own phone, and started tapping at hers. 'Not that I actually want your number or anything,' he informed her, his eyes on the screen. 'It's just, it might come in handy.'
'Yeah,' she mumbled, trying to figure out how to add a new contact on his insanely expensive, state-of-the-art smartphone.
'You might as well give me Tanith's while you're at it,' he added cheekily.
'No,' she said flatly.
He shrugged. 'Ah well, it was worth a try.'
His unrequited love for Tanith was beginning to irritate Valkyrie for some reason. 'Haven't you noticed she's interested in Ghastly?' she demanded, finally locating the 'Add Contacts' screen and starting to type in her number.
'Well, yeah,' he said matter-of-factly, 'but I can dream, right? She is a goddess.'
Alarmingly, Valkyrie felt a pang of something she didn't quite recognize. Trying her best to ignore this new and unwelcome feeling in her stomach, she typed her name in over the number and pressed Save. 'New contact successfully saved' appeared on the screen, and she was redirected to Fletcher's contacts list. It was empty apart from her name, Ghastly's name and the names of a few people who'd been training him. He must have deleted everyone from his previous life. She wondered why. Was he that desperate to forget about it all?
She glanced over at him, but he wasn't looking at her - he was playing Angry Birds on her phone. It was strange to think how little she knew about him. They'd known each other for about eight months now, and he already knew a fair bit about her. He knew her given name, he knew a lot about her family and her past, and now it appeared he knew her phone number. But she still knew virtually nothing about him, and he certainly wasn't giving anything away.
Mentally, she shrugged it off and returned to the home screen of his phone. It wasn't like she cared, anyway, she reminded herself.
'Ah, bloody pigs,' Fletcher muttered, exiting out of Angry Birds, and they swapped phones. 'Thanks.'
'This had better be your real phone number, now,' said Valkyrie warningly.
'Of course it is. What do you take me for? Ring it if you don't believe me.'
She didn't bother.
They had reached her front gate by this point, and they stopped in front of it. 'Well, goodnight,' Fletcher said awkwardly.
She was already turning away. 'See you.'
'Don't miss me too much,' he called after her as she walked up the drive.
She caught herself smiling, but it was okay - it was dark, and he couldn't see her.
I'll try not to, she thought, and she let herself into the house.