With a hint of a smile in his voice, he enlightened her. “You haven't told me your son’s name yet.”
Ariana hit her palm on her forehead in a resounding slap. How in the world had she not given him his name? “Sorry, it completely slipped my mind. His name’s Max,” she quickly told Holden.
“Got it, Max, it is. I'll make sure to keep that in my memory,” Holden quipped with a light chuckle. “Send me your number. I'll give him a ring tomorrow.”
“Thank you so much.” A sigh of relief escaped Ariana’s lips. She could finally release the tension that had been furrowing her brow.
Amoment of acknowledgment passed between them before the line went off.
Lowering her phone, Ariana found herself entranced, caught between the eerie resemblance of that voice to Theodore’s and the warmth of Holden’s tenor. The haunting similarity left her in a daze. It wasn’t until after she had dispatched her contact details to him that her tumultuous thoughts started to dissipate.
Perched at the edge of the couch, Ariana couldn’t help but unlock her phone again, her compulsion driving her to pore over the man’s sparse social media presence time and time again. She hunted fruitlessly for any breadcrumbs of information.
His online presence yielded nothing but an outline of a life shrouded in ambiguity. She exhaled disappointedly, her hand falling limp in her lap, her thoughts drifting to the brief encounter with the Theodore doppelganger from earlier that day.
Awave of defeat washed over her, a feeling that had hollowed out her very core. Was she so desperate and delusional that she now saw his apparitions wherever she turned? The very thought left her feeling hollow.
Sinking into the plush cushions of the couch, Ariana took a slow, deep breath in an attempt to calm her tumultuous mind. She scrolled through the man’s profile once more, but it revealed nothing about her lost love, Theodore.
Of course not, she reprimanded herself. What had she expected to unearth about Theodore from this enigmatic man she had never even met?
With a rueful shake of her head, Ariana locked her phone and shuffled off to bed, the images of those vacant social media pages trailing behind her like a specter.
Melon was uncharacteristically silent the following morning and seemed more like a shadow of his typically effervescent, chatty self.
Ariana’s fingers ran tenderly through his hair as she coaxed, “I’m certain Daddy will be calling very soon, my sweet. Perhaps even today!”
Melon regarded her skeptically, his lips puckered with doubt, silently musing, “Are you truly expecting me to believe that?” Without a word, he returned to listlessly turning the pages of his picture book. Ariana’s sigh carried a weight of guilt as she gazed at her sad son.
Her anxious gaze was constantly drawn back to her silent phone. She had been anxiously anticipating the stranger's call since she woke up.
Just then, an unfamiliar number flashed across her screen. Her heart leaped as she swiped to answer, eagerly saying, “Hello?” To her surprise, it was Sonia’s exuberant voice that greeted her, bubbling over with playful teasing.
“Well, well, you sound eager!
Waiting on a special someone’s call, | presume?”
Hearing the knowing lilt in her friend’s voice, Ariana couldn’t help but laugh, a sound tinged with amusement and resignation.
“Why call me using an unfamiliar number?”
Sonia’s voice dripped with exasperation.
“Ugh, my old number got leaked, and | was inundated with spam calls all day. | switched to this new number to escape the madness and wanted to ensure you had it.”
“Oh,” Ariana said with an amused smile.
After a brief catch-up conversation, they bid each other farewell.
As Ariana ended the call, the doorbell chimed. She placed her phone facedown on the couch and hurried to answer the door. It was the delivery service with a package. While she was signing for it, her phone rang once more.
Melon's gaze flicked between his mother at the door and her buzzing phone. After a moment's hesitation, curiosity got the better of him.
He reached over and pressed the green button.
“Apologies for the late call. Meetings all day,” a genial male voice flowed through the speaker before Melon could utter a word.
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