01

The shrill ring of the phone was impossible to ignore. Emily had just stepped out of the shower and wrapped a fluffy white towel around herself when it started. She tried block the sound out as she wrung out her long, wet hair, but after three rings she couldn’t ignore the annoyingly loud sound any longer.

« Phone ! » she yelled through the closed bathroom door, hoping someone in the house would hear her and pick up the call. It occurred to her that if her housemates weren’t hearing the phone then they certainly couldn’t hear her through a closed wooden door, but that didn’t stop her from yelling to them anyway.

The phone rang again, loudly. The voicemail wouldn’t pick up until the sixth ring and it had only been four.

« Ben, Kevin, phone ! » she shouted as she yanked the bathroom door open and stuck her head into the hallway. The cold air made her shiver as steam from the bathroom escaped around her and billowed up towards the ceiling.

Now it was on the fifth ring, one more and the machine would finally pick up the call. With a muttered curse she left the warmth of the bathroom and hurried down the hall and into her bedroom to pick up her extension.

She hated the sound of a ringing phone. It grated on her nerves and she had to answer a call, no matter what. It was one of the reasons she still used a landline and didn’t always carry her cell. Screening her calls wasn’t an option for her. She never managed to let voicemail pick up before she answered.

Her wet feet slid on the hardwood floor and she clutched the towel closer around her as she rushed into her room. She almost fell on her bed as she grabbed the phone and threw her wet hair off her face as she answered the call and pressed the receiver against her ear.

« Hello ? » she asked and was rewarded with a dial tone. « Hello ? Hello ! Of course, » she muttered and cut the connection before she slammed the phone down with another curse

« Now what did that phone ever do to you ? »

She turned to the source of the voice and saw Kevin, her older brother, standing in the doorway, grinning at her as he leaned against the frame. Kevin was ten years her senior, but they were as close as could be.

Kevin was thirty-four, but didn’t look a day over thirty. He’d always been an exceptionally handsome man and it had seemed that for the past ten years or so he’d looked more or less the same age. He’d looked much older than his age when he was a teenager and he’d always been mistaken as being older. When he’d hit his mid-twenties it was as if he’d just stopped ageing. His face was smooth, youthful and completely unlined, and his eyes still held a twinkle of youth when he smiled.

« Didn’t you hear it ringing ? » she asked grumpily as she stood, making sure the towel hadn’t slipped. She was freezing and she was very perturbed that she’d been forced to run out of the bathroom soaking wet in nothing but a towel, and all for a hang up. « I shouted too, did you not hear me ? » She pushed her sopping hair out of her eyes and tried to glare at him, but his lazy smile was infectious and she couldn’t help smiling back.

« I heard the phone, and I heard you, » he said with a grin. « But I was busy. »

Emily glanced over his shoulder and saw Ben, his boyfriend, walk past her door with a grin and a wave. He winked at her and lightly tapped Kevin on the butt as he passed by.

« So I see. » She grinned in spite of herself and waved back before Ben disappeared down the hall.

« We could solve all of this if you just got rid of the landline. You can always put your cell on silent, » he pointed out. « You can join the new age of technology along with the rest of us. »

« And give my cell out to every store and online application that needs a phone number ? » she said as she just gave him a look. « Yeah, not going to happen. »

« It’s really not the worst thing. »

« How about if I give them your phone number then ? »

« Alright, grandma, we’ll keep the landline. »

Emily wanted to roll her eyes but smiled at him instead. The only reason he still had a landline and even cable was because of her. She wasn’t opposed to technology but she didn’t really like it. She hated how things were being replaced by other things. Phones were for talking on and computers were for the internet and email, and while both Kevin and Ben had tablets she flat out refused to get one. She wouldn’t watch television shows or movies on her computer and she would not buy digital editions of anything. She hated the idea of paying for something that was intangible, so she still bought CDs, movies, books and actually printed out pictures.

She did like her mp3 player but she refused to get an ereader even though she loved to read. She preferred to read off pages and there was just something comforting about a bookshelf full of books and not a single little ereader filled with electronic files.

Kevin and Ben were very into technology and loved to have the latest gadget, and they loved to tease her about her aversion to change.

She knew she didn’t accept change and she didn’t like things to become obsolete because of the childhood she and Kevin shared. She’d spent so much time with nothing and being told she was nothing that she transferred her fear of becoming obsolete or no longer wanted onto objects. It didn’t make a lot of sense to anyone outside of their little family, but Kevin understood. He knew her better than she knew herself sometimes.

« I have a favor to ask of you, » he said as he watched Ben walk down the hall, a gentle and loving smile playing on his full lips before he looked back at her.

« How about I get dressed first, then we talk about favors ? » she suggested as she pushed her soaking hair off her face again. « I’m freezing my butt off here. »

« I’ll meet you in the kitchen when you’re decent. » He glanced back at her. « And quit dripping on my floor. »

Rolling her eyes she went back to the bathroom and grabbed a second towel off the rack to dry her hair with, and then tidied up for the next person before she went to her room to get dressed.

She pulled on a pair of comfortable jeans, a white t-shirt and a light pink zip up sweater with a hood. She towel dried her hair and then wrestled with a comb as she tried to comb out all of the tangles. Her hair was so long and so thick that she’d long since given up trying to do anything with it. When she straightened it any sort of humidity would make it start to curl instantly, and if she curled it half of her hair would forget that it really was naturally curly and fall flat. Now she just let it dry and would either pull it back in a braid or a messy bun when she didn’t want it down. Other than that she never bothered to do anything with it.

When she was dressed and mostly dried she hung her towels up in the bathroom and went downstairs to see what her brother wanted. She found him leaning against the counter in the kitchen. His arms were crossed over his chest and he was tapping his fingers on his arm, and he looked very impatient.

« How long does it take to get dressed and dried off ? » he asked, dropping his arms to his sides as he watched her walk towards him.