Lesson 118- If someone is worried about you, it usually means that they care.

“Is something wrong Tori?” I ask. He shakes his head.
“No.” He answers, but his tone is flat and basically I don’t believe him… At all.
“You sure?” I ask again and he nods but he is definitely frowning. He is fiddling with something in his pocket and it takes me a moment to figure out that it’s his phone. Ooooh I get it. I pull my phone out and hold it up.
“Tori, I need your number too.” I say with my sweetest smile. He nods and enters it into my phone, but he still looks a little put out. I nudge his arm and lean in close.
“Smile! This is for your caller I.D. Picture.” I explain. For half a second he looks confused, then a genuine smile crosses his face. I quickly snap a picture of the two of us. I send the picture to Torin so he has my number, and the photo. He seems way happier, crisis averted, he was probably just feeling kind of left out.

Eventually I manage to settle Eli down and then I help out at the bar. I get a constant stream of texts throughout the evening that seem to be mostly memes, silly pictures or selfies from Eli. Maybe giving him my number was a bad idea… Oh well, hopefully he will settle down. Surely he won’t keep sending me pictures ALL the time. That would be insane… On second thought he probably would.
“Eli, if you send me more than five texts in a row without me responding I will totally block you.” I warn him and he just laughs.
“Yeah, yeah… Starting tomorrow. Right now I have to catch you up on an entire month's worth of random pictures and jokes that I have saved in my phone to share with you.” He answers with a grin. I roll my eyes.
“Fine, starting tomorrow.” I agree, mostly because I’ve been deprived of my phone for a month and scrolling through a bunch of stuff today before I go to sleep actually does sound kind of fun. At least this way I can look at all the fun stuff without stopping for ads. Although I’m going to have about fifty random photos of Eli on my phone. Well, whatever. Not long after Laura leaves, I start getting texts from other people. I realise it’s the work group chat and I am thrilled to be included.

Laura- Hey all. Just letting you know I’ve added Rina to the chat!

Kyle- Ok

Mira- Oh about damn time.

I frown. Who is Mira? If this is the work chat, why don’t I know her? Surely if there were another staff member, I would have met them by now. I decide to text back.

Rina- Hi… Uh, am I supposed to know who Mira is?

Laura- Mira is Catcher’s wife. He sucks at answering his messages (unless they’re from his wife) so she’s in the chat to keep up with everything for him.

Rina- Oh, I guess that makes sense. Hi Mira!

Mira- Hello Rina, I’ve heard a lot about you. I’ve been meaning to drop by sometime to say hi, but it’s hard to find someone to watch the kids. They might sound angelic like their father, but they are wild little things.

Rina- Hahaha of course. Well I look forward to meeting you when you do get a chance to come by.

After that I get caught up making more drinks for the vampires who are as enthusiastic as usual. They’re generally the last ones to leave these days. By the time they leave, I’m pretty tired. But I need to stay up and call my brother again. It’s still way too early so I do the bar cleanup with Torin then once he leaves I chill with Jane while I scroll through the silly pictures that Eli sent me. I read out jokes and show the pictures to Jane. I have no idea if she understands them enough to think they’re funny, or even HOW she sees them. I just sort of face my screen in her general direction. She seems happy enough though. It’s unclear if she’s enjoying the activity or just the company and attention, but I suppose it doesn’t matter. I realise I haven’t seen Crash in a while and go wandering to look for him. Eventually I find him up in his little hammock sleeping. He is SO cute, and I FINALLY have my phone. I take about fifty cute kitten photos and send them to basically all my friends. I make sure to send at least five of them to my brother. About ten seconds after I send them, he calls me.
“Hey Damien.” I greet him cheerfully.
“Hey Rina. Are you alone?” He asks warily.
“I mean… Jane is here, but she mostly keeps to herself, and Crash too. He’s the kitten. Tori and I rescued him.” I explain.
“It’s a very cute cat. But that’s not why I’m calling. You were being all secretive earlier, I figured there was someone listening in. Can you speak freely now?” he questions.
“Damien, I WAS speaking freely earlier. I know I was being a bit secretive, but that’s because the secrets I’m keeping aren’t mine. Can’t you just respect my friend’s privacy, please?” I ask again. He sighs and I can tell he is not happy.
“At least give me your friend’s address, just in case. If you stop answering again I’ll be able to come and look for you.” He reasons. I sigh.
“Ahh… Sorry, I don’t think I can. For your own safety.” I search around for a way to change the topic.
“Oh! I’ve been helping out at my friend’s business and I’ve actually been making really good money. I’ll need to figure out what I want to do with it. Other than way too much online shopping.” I comment. Damien gives an irritated sound. He knows I’m changing the subject and he doesn’t appreciate it.
“Rina.” He says in an unimpressed voice.
“Damien.” I say back, mimicking his tone. He realises I won’t be giving in and huffs out a breath.
“Fine. I’ll figure it out myself. I’ll talk to you later tonight. Bye sis.” With a click he hangs up. Well shoot. Normally, my brother being cranky would put me in a bad mood. But right now I’m just glad to be talking to him at all so I don’t really mind.

As I close the call, I realise that Torin has answered my text with pictures of Crash.

Tori- He is very sweet.

He then sends through about a dozen more pictures of Crash. Apparently he’s been taking a few photos himself.

Rina- OMG so cute! Why didn’t you show me these earlier???

Tori- I didn’t want to rub the fact that I had my phone in your face…

Rina- Okay, valid I suppose. But for future reference, cute cat pictures are ALWAYS welcome.

Tori- Noted.

He sends another photo. This one is a selfie of him with Crash on his shoulder. It’s immediately my favourite. Partly because it’s just adorable, but also because Torin has his soft smile and for once he doesn’t look self conscious. I can see from the background that he took it while in his office. It’s cute because he looks so comfortable and relaxed. I can’t stop myself. I save the photo to my phone and add it to my favourites. Then I can’t resist the desire to get a cute selfie with Crash myself. He’s followed me into my room and I scoop him up into a cuddle. I take a selfie in my pyjamas with Crash curled up into my chest and a huge smile on my face. Then I text it to Torin. He answers immediately.

Tori- You look beautiful.

Tori- You should get some sleep!

Awww, okay so apparently via text Torin is all sweet and not nearly as shy. I suppose it makes sense, he has time to think about what he wants to say, there’s less pressure. Either way, I think having my phone back is going to be a lot of fun.