"How have you been?"
"Good," she answered, then kept quiet, waiting for him to talk more, but he was also quiet. It seemed as though they were competing on breathing on the phone.
"You aren't going to ask how I am?" Carey asked.
"I know you're fine. I have been seeing your posts on Facebook. You won't talk to me, but you have time for your social media followers," Karen replied in a cold voice.
"I can't tell everyone about what I am going through. Do you want me to blurt out all my problems in front of the world? They don't fucking care," Carey explained.
"Let me get this right. Now that you have a problem, have you suddenly remembered I exist?"
"I didn't forget."
"Then why were you giving me the cold treatment?"
Carey thought back to the exact reason he had withdrawn from Karen and thought that he couldn't possibly tell her the truth.
"I'm sorry," he said instead.
Sam's full attention was on Karen. He saw how she looked tense and that she kept looking back at him as though to confirm if he was still at the restaurant.
He thought that she might have received a distress call and was giving an excuse as to why she couldn't make it there, so he slowly walked up to her.
"Is everything okay?" he asked, and she was so shocked to hear his voice that she jumped slightly in surprise and held her chest.
Sam saw her reaction and was quick to apologize for scaring her.
Carey heard the voice of a man, and suddenly, he boiled with anger. He had lines drawn all over his face, and he was almost unrecognizable.
"Karen, where are you? Who are you with?" He asked, but there was no response.
All he heard was Karen telling the guy that he should not have walked up on her like that.
Suddenly the line was disconnected, and Karen didn't pick up the call the next time he called.
"Why would you snoop around to listen to my conversations?" Karen asked. She was so annoyed at him for invading her privacy.
"I saw how tensed you were. I thought I could help?"
"Help? You and your thoughts? Why do you think you can be my savior Sam?"
"I am sorry. I really am," he said apologetically.
Karen looked at the apologetic face before her and all the anger she had suddenly diffused, and without getting a hold of herself, she moved towards him.
He smelled good, a sweet fragrance, just like he always had.
She moved closer to him to get more of his scent and leaned on his chest. He seemed shocked by her reaction at first, but he stretched his hand and embraced her.
She felt the warmth in his warm body and looked up.
He was also looking at her, and when their eyes locked, it felt as though they had entered each other's souls.
"I'm sorry," Sam said again.
That was the invitation Karen needed because before she knew it, she stood on the tip of her toes to get to his height and kissed him on the lips.
He didn't respond, and she moved away from his embrace, but he held her by the hands. Unlike before, she didn't react negatively.
Sam pulled her back towards him, and they kissed.
Karen got so carried away that she started fumbling with the buttons of his shirt, and he held her hands to confirm if that was what she really wanted.
"I wouldn't still be here if I didn't want it," Karen countered back.
"I just want to be sure so that it doesn't look like I am taking advantage of your emotional vulnerability," Sam said.
"Shut up," Karen said, kissing him once again.
They found themselves in Sam's car, where they got rid of their physical desires. When they were done, Sam once again asked Karen if she was okay with what had just happened between them.
"I am," she answered, sleeping on his chest.
That night, when Karen went back to Angie's, she found everyone asleep. She felt relieved by that because she couldn't face Angie.
"She will know right away if I lie to her," she said as she got into the bathroom to freshen up.
She slept late that morning, and she woke up to find a note from Angie telling her that she had left for work and that they would meet later.
Evans didn't mind Karen's presence because he was more worried about what option to choose between amputation and using crutches.
He was still on sick leave, and his employer was paying him half his salary, which was barely enough given he was the one paying Zac's high school fees.
He would stay in his room immediately after Angie left and only get to the living room when she was back.
He was thinking more of undergoing amputation because moving around in crutches was a problem.
Since he got discharged from the hospital, he hadn't even left the house because he had claustrophobia. He loved using the stairs through which he would exercise.
The biggest problem with amputation was how they would cater for the costs?
In the entire time Karen stayed there, they had uttered countable words to each other, and that's why they were both shocked to the core when an anonymous blog started spreading rumors that they were involved.