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This week Fandango provided the teaser sentence “She watched him and smiled as he looked at his phone, turned pale, and quickly left the room.” and set the Story Starter Challenge to build a story around it. This is what I came up with.

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“Stu, do you have a second?” Carley asked.

“No, why?” Stu said, making no effort to put down the Playstation controller or look away from the TV screen.

“It’s kind of important, Stu.”

Stu, all thirty-two years of him, paused the game and dropped the controller into his lap like his mum had just asked him to clean his room. “What?! What can possibly be so important that you’re making me pause Star Battalion 6? Right when I was about to attack the mothership.”

“What? This game? The one you’ve just paused and will resume from in exactly the same place when you press Play again?” Carley asked.

Stu stared at her, disbelief dripping from his face. 

“Er… yes… but now you’ve made me lose my flow!” he said.

“Really? Then I best make this quick.”

“Good, ‘cos I’m going out tonight too.”

“Oh, again?” Carley asked. 

“Yeah. And what do you mean ‘oh, again’? I’m allowed to go out aren’t I?”

“Of course you can. I’m getting used to it now,” Carley said, leaning up against the door frame and watching Stu carefully. “How’s that new eau de parfum working out?”

“What new eau de parfum?”

“You know, the one that makes you smell all manly,” Carly said, looking at the collection of computer games, discarded clothes and half-empty boxes of pizza stacked on the table next to the sofa. “Even if that’s a little off the mark.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Stu said.

“I’m sure you’re right.”

Carley turned in the doorway to leave the room. She stopped and turned back to Stu, “Oh, by the way. I’ve invited a new friend over. She’ll be here any minute. Might want to clean up this mess.”

Without looking in her direction, Stu lazily waved her away like an overstuffed Lion swatting at flies buzzing around a zebra’s carcass.

The doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it, Stu.” Carley said. “I get the impression Sarah thinks you’re great in bed. Didn’t know you had a fiancee though, so I thought I’d invite her over to get this silliness all sorted out.”

She pointed to the phone lit up in Stu’s jeans pocket. 

“Anyway, check the driveway camera. That’s the Sarah you’ve been sleeping with, right? Lovely girl. And it turns out she doesn’t like being lied to either.”

“Anyway she’s missing her boxing class to come and see you today. So let’s not keep her waiting.”

She watched him and smiled as he looked at his phone, turned pale, and quickly left the room.

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