By the time I walk down the stairs and exit the building, the moving van is nowhere to be seen. Rhodes is sitting in his car waiting for me, thank goodness he's not so mad as to drive off without me. I climb into the car expecting him to immediately start yelling, but he doesn't. He slips his phone into the cupholder on his side of the car and starts the engine, quickly pulling out of the parking lot. I almost would have preferred the yelling to this silence; it sits around us like a fog, making me feel incredibly uncomfortable.
"Rhodes..." I start to say before I'm immediately cut off.
"Let's talk about this at home," he says in a deadpan voice. Great, so now I have to sit in the car for the entire way home soaking in the awkward silence. I can almost feel him getting angrier as he drives; I know that the longer we don't talk about it, the more his mind is going to race.
I'm used to the shoe being on the other foot when it comes to these kinds of situations, Rhodes wanting to talk it out and me just wanting to walk away from him. The last time that happened was when he failed to mention his New York lunch date with his ex-girlfriend. I was semi-wrong in that argument though; I made a bigger deal out of it than was necessary. Still though, many of the blunders that have affected our relationship are to do with his job and his general way of living. This is relatively new territory for us, and yet it's also strangely familiar. I had hoped that these minor blunders would be a thing of our past now that we are in a relatively good place; obviously, the universe has other plans for us.
A loud ringing noise interrupts my thought as Rhodes's centre console lights up on the dashboard. The phone icon blinks on with the contact "Mum"—thank goodness, a saving grace. I hear Rhodes scoff beside me and I know instinctively he's going to ignore the call.
"Talk to her," I gently encourage him, daring to speak. We stop at a traffic light as his hand hovers in midair, his eyes peering down at me with a hint of exasperation. Sighing, he hits the accept call button and turns his attention back towards the road.
"Hello Mum," he says aloud once the call connects. Eloise takes a moment to answer, rustling around on the other end.
"Hello my lovely boy, how are you?" she responds sweetly. Her tone instantly makes me miss her.