The dilemma

The phone keeps buzzing on the table in front of you. You know how the next twenty minutes go: a joke about your work, a dig at how you live, all wrapped up so you cannot quite call it cruel. One odd thing sits in the back of your mind though. He never misses a Sunday either, and he always slips in one sharp little question that shows he has been following your life more closely than he lets on. His name glows on the screen.

Your options

1. Pick up, like every Sunday, and keep the thread between you unbroken.
2. Let it ring out and take this one Sunday back for yourself.
3. Answer, and this time say plainly that the put-downs have to stop.