Second Chances

It was a warm Thursday evening. Alex had just gotten home from work and was putting his jacket away when his phone ringed. He didn’t bother to look at the caller ID, assuming that it was his best friend Rian who was supposed to come over in about half an hour, before answering.

“Hey buddy, you on your way already?”

It wasn’t Rian.

“Err… I’m guessing that you weren’t expecting me to call you?”

It totally wasn’t Rian.

“Alex? You still there? Oh, shit. You probably don’t recognize my voice…”

Oh, yes he did.

“It’s Jack, Jack Barakat.”

Finally Alex found his voice again, even though it came out a bit choked. “He-hey. Sorry about that, I just... You surprised me.” The blond man looked down at his shoes and noticed that he had dropped his coat. He picked it up, threw it over a chair and went to the living room.

“Umm… Sorry if this sounds rude, but why are you calling? We haven’t spoken for like… six months, I guess?” Actually in six months, two weeks and five days.

“Yeah, sorry about that. I just… I was wondering if we could meet up. I wanna talk to you.”

“Well, why can’t we just talk on the phone?”

“I just… Please? Is it okay if I come over tomorrow? You still living where you used to?”

“Okay, fine.”