The following is an excerpt (1st draft) from my current work in progress (StarName)

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[Hi, you’ve reached Jackie, David, and Shaun. Please leave a message at the beep.] - [BEEP]

Sebastian paused as he wasn’t expecting to hear a strange man’s name. He knew his career, especially lately, 
kept him busy but now he was questioning just how long it had been since he last called. These last six months 
had been especially hectic but now he feared it had been longer than he had realized. He hadn’t even been 
aware of her seeing anyone. Doing his best to push down his initial fear and resentment, he tried to focus on 
her being happy and finding somebody to share her life with, even if the world was on the verge of ending. 
He felt a surge of panic as he considered just what kind of issues might be going on between this new man 
and his son. He started to speak and found that the words coming out of his mouth were born of his suspicions, 
“David? Is there something I need to know about?” He immediately felt guilty and knew he had no right to 
question Jackie’s choices and he just made himself sound petty. “Damn that came out wrong. Sorry.” He exhaled, 
“I don’t know why you still have one of these archaic machines when the rest of the world uses stuff technology 
that allows me to erase stupid gaffs and rerecord themselves.” He gave a quick laugh, “Sometimes I think you still 
use it so you can catch me when I’m not at my best.” His voice then softened, “Which is probably more often than 
I would like to remember seeing how we aren’t together anymore.” He paused and his brief moment of silence 
started taking root and growing. “Anyway...”