Leonard's 'phone call

Leonora shut her eyes and clenched her fists. She decided not to sit down, she always felt so much more assertive on the 'phone standing up.

"Hello Leonard," she said, as coldly as possible.

"I really didn't feel like getting into a ridiculous email exchange so I thought we could speak directly about Morocco," he said.

"Here are the options," he continued, before she had chance to interrupt.

"One, you fulfil your word and come with me as agreed.

"Two, you decide for once and for all that you are not coming, and pay me the difference that I will lose by cancelling the ferry.

"Three, you decide to go with your boyfriend and we transfer the booking into your name, and you pay that difference too.

"Is that clear?"

Leonora was speechless. But not for long.

"Leonard, it is not my fault that you deliberately misled me, and then went ahead and booked a ferry crossing after you had got my agreement to come through lies and deception."

Leonora liked that and was pleased with herself. She thought quickly though.

It would be a pain to cancel it now, and then later wish she had agreed to go, especially if she was no longer seeing Mark. And she wasn't keen on the idea of three weeks with Mark. She was having enough problems controlling Mark as it was. Prevarication was called for.

"Listen Leonard, I have to be honest with you," she said. Nice dig there she thought, more than you were with me.

"I've chucked my job, and I finish tomorrow, so I'm honestly a bit pre-occupied about that at the moment. I haven't really thought any more about this Morocco trip."

"Well, if you've chucked your job that's one thing less to worry about it, isn't it?" asked Leonard logically.

The thing was, Leonard did want her to come. He decided to be reasonable.

"Look, why don't you take the weekend to think about it? What isn't fair to either of us, is to leave it up in the air, or for you to keep changing your mind all the time," he said.

"That's a bit uncalled-for," she snapped.

"I'm sorry," he said conciliatorily. "I meant, it's not fair if you say you are going to come and then back out a couple of weeks beforehand and I lose virtually all the booking cost, or if you say you don't want to go now and then decide later on that you do, and the booking costs more."

Leonard was obsessed with the cost of things, she thought. He wasn't even poor.

"Anyway what about your man? Do you want to go with him? Does he even have a four wheel drive?" asked Leonard curiously.

"Yes he does actually," she replied.

"So what is it?"

"A Toyota Land Cruiser," she said, waiting for the sarcastic comment from Leonard, given that both of them were Land Rover enthusiasts.

But Leonard just said "Is it any good?"

"Yes, seems all right to me, parts are a bit dear, and it is a bit new for my liking, might suit you though," she said snarkily.

"Well, do you want to go with him?" asked Leonard, hoping she would say no, and he could knock that one on the head for good.

He had got used to being the permanent man in Leonora's life, and had discovered he wasn't keen on someone else taking centre stage.

"Don't know," said Leonora. "Don't know if I'll still be seeing him in a few months' time either. Listen, I'm seeing him over the weekend, I'll discuss it with him then, OK?"

She paused and then continued.

"You see, the other thing is, if I am seeing him, I don't know how he would feel about me going away with you for three weeks.

"After all, if it was the other way round, I don't think I would be very happy with him spending three weeks with another woman in a confined space," she said.

"You mean if he was spending three weeks with a grey-haired, overweight, bossy, middle-aged cousin who smoked?" asked Leonard sarcastically, given that was Leonora's usual description of him.

"Don't you trust him?" he added smugly.

"Leonard you are just being difficult now. Leave it. I've told you I'll speak to him about it this weekend. Stop hassling me," she said wearily.

He noticed the change in the tone of her voice and realised he had said enough.

"All right then, let's speak after the weekend when you have had time to think about it. Enjoy your weekend. Tata sends her love, of course," he said.

"Bye Leonard," she said, and put the 'phone down. She wandered dismally over to the sofa and threw herself on it, undecided what to do about anything.