Tuesday 30 June 2015

Scintillating!

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Scintillating!
Gavin stared at the word on his screen; a message from Tina, just one word. That word.
‘Scintillating!’ He said to himself, tasting the word, rolling it around his mouth like a new wine. He’d heard it many times before obviously, but he wasn’t 100% sure he knew what it meant. ‘Scintillating!’ He said it again, louder this time, more confident that he’d got the stress right.
‘A scintillating conversation,’ he said to no one in particular. Passers-by looked at him but Gavin was well used to the odd looks he got when he spoke to himself. He used to hide it when he caught himself doing it, turn the words into a song, or a hum, but these days he didn’t give a toss what people thought. Everyone spoke to themselves, the madness was in denying it.
‘A scintillating conversation,’ he repeated; he was getting used to the word now, reminding himself of the meaning, or at least an approximation of it. But why had Tina sent it? What did it mean in the context of their budding relationship? It was a good word wasn’t it? Maybe she was describing him; fascinating, amusing, witty, he liked that. But it didn’t fit the conversation they’d been having. He scrolled back up through the dialogue. Their last exchange was three hours ago.
Gavin: You’re not gonna work through lunch? J
Tina: Nothing gets between this girl and her food.
Gavin: I knew you were going to say that. J
Since then there had been radio silence, until now, until that word. Was she being sarcastic, telling him his conversation was boring? Was it autocorrect changing a word she’d spelt wrong? But what on earth would the original word be? Was it a mis-sent message, a message to a friend about him? Or a message to another lover about the other lover? Or a message to a friend about the other lover? He looked at the word again; it sat there like a child, looking all sweet and innocent but he knew it hid a terrible secret.
Should he ask her about it? Challenge her? Ask her what the hell she meant by it? Should he just ignore it, pretend it never happened, hope it would go away? Should he reply coolly, something like  I thought so,’ and leave it at that.  God he wished Miley was here, she’d know what to do, but Miley was off being a social butterfly somewhere, so he was alone left to stew in his own low self-esteem.
He put his phone in his pocket, he’d have to think about it later, he’d arrived at his client’s office and had a deal to make.

‘We know your product is good Gavin but the question is what more can you offer us?’ Mr Norman said. Normally at this stage Gavin would launch into a spiel about the support package and the training provided, but this time he didn’t answer, instead he was staring at the newspaper folded on his client’s desk. The man had been doing the crossword while waiting for Gavin, the same crossword that Gavin and Tina had been doing last night. Mr Norman had only filled in one answer, it was the only answer Gavin and Tina hadn’t got. 1 Across – I scan tilting roundabout with learner shining brightly.  (13)

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