Babel Novel
Chapter 17
“Naomi, your mother’s right. Invite him for breakfast before you guys set off for Ditch County. We’ll be good hosts,” Dean added.
Naomi contemplated this for a moment, then nodded. “Okay. I’ll message him about this later.”
Her parents were right, since she already agreed to help Charles, she might as well do it the right way.
Donna grinned at this. As much as she loved her daughter, she had to admit that Naomi was rather daft at times.
After dinner, Naomi offered to help clean up, but Donna shooed her away so that she could get ready for the upcoming trip.
Dean, too, talked her out of this and moved to help his wife clear the table instead.
Naomi went into the living room to text Charles about this new change.
Since Charles was a lecturer, Naomi did not know whether he would be free or teaching a class during this time, so she was used to messaging him instead of calling him directly. Another reason that she tended to do this was because of her last marriage.
The moment the message got through, Naomi put down the phone and went into her room to start packing.
At this exact moment, Charles was walking toward the parking lot, having just come out of a lecture. When he felt his phone buzz, he took it out of his pocket and froze when he saw the screen.
[Naomi: Are you free right now, Charles?] Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.
A glimpse of a smile crossed Charles’s face at the sight of Naomi’s name. His fingers flew across the keyboard as he typed a reply.
Naomi, thinking that Charles was busy and would not reply so soon, occupied herself by packing for the trip and thus did not notice her phone buzz. By the time she picked it up again, she realized that Charles replied to her almost instantaneously.
[Charles: Yes, I’m free.]
[Charles: Would you like me to call you?]
These messages were a few minutes apart. It was clear that he waited for a response.
Naomi felt guilty about letting him wait for almost half an hour for her response.
[Naomi: Sorry, I was busy packing and didn’t notice your message. Are you free now? I’ll call you.]
Charles knew that Naomi wanted to talk to him about something important, which was why he offered to call her.
Naomi put down her phone and decided to wait patiently for Charles to reply this time, for fear that
she would miss out on his message again.
To her surprise, her phone rang the moment she set it down.
It was Charles.
Naomi was rather surprised by this. She did not expect him to call so soon.
“Hello, Charles.”
“Hi, Naomi. Have you eaten?”
“Yes, I have. Sorry about just now. I got caught up in packing and didn’t see your message.”
“It’s okay. It happens to all of us,” Charles replied calmly. There was not a hint of accusation in his
tone at all.
Naomi smiled at this. “Well, there’s been a change in plan. I was thinking that since you probably won’t have time to eat breakfast tomorrow, why don’t you stop by my house when you pick me up? We can leave after having breakfast together. It’ll only delay our journey by about half an hour. What do you think?”