Doing

Alice answered the mobile from the blissful confines of her favorite chair. "Well, hello," she started, and engaged warmly with her friend. She'd give this one 15 or 20 minutes. "I have to tell you," Alice said (at the 19th minute), "there's a bit of a mystery afoot over here ..." and then she disconnected. They'd ring back a couple of times and she'd text her apologies in reply, saying she'd get back to them as soon as she could. Then she'd leave it and toddle into the kitchen for a snack. "Best this way," Alice said to Rumple, her devoted four-legged shadow. "Gotta leave them with a cliffhanger so's they call again, yah?" She bent down to tossle the hairs at the top of Rumple's head, slipping him a bit of cheese. "There are remedies for loneliness," Alice whispered (mostly to herself, heading back to the chair), "but they take a bit of doing."