Mattie: Giles kissed me yesterday.
Frankie: WHAAT!? How was it??
Mattie: Kind of amazing…
Frankie: AHHH I’m literally screaming!! He’s so attractive. I’ve got a google image search pulled up now to get the visual of him making out with your face.
Mattie: 1. Gross. 2. Stop stalking him. I need your advice. What the hell do I do now?? I’m dreading running into him again. It’s going to be so awkward.
Frankie: Why? Did it seem like he wasn’t into it?
Mattie: I mean, I think he was? It seemed like he was trying to take it further before we got interrupted…
Frankie: Then take it further!!!
Mattie: Like a rebound?
Frankie: LOL you can try, but you are so not a rebound girl.
Mattie: I could be!
Frankie: You dated your high school bf for 3 years. Then you met Garrett and immediately got together. Now here you are 8 years later, a single serial monogamist.
I groaned, reading her words. She was right. I was a relationship kind of girl. I loved them. And getting married was still very much high on my priority list. It was tough for me not to start fantasizing about a future with a guy as soon as he showed any interest.
Mattie: It would be different with Giles. I can’t live here forever. It would have to end when I moved back home.
Frankie: Oh, I fully expect you to move there if you start something with Giles. Have a nice life!
Mattie: Ha. Ha.
Chewing my lip, I scrolled through my messages until I saw Giles's name. Bev must have given him my number back when I first started. The only text exchange we ever had was him telling me Bev had to do something in town and was running late one day. My fingers hovered over my phone as I debated what to type.
Mattie: Hey, can we talk about what happened yesterday?
I hit send and immediately threw my phone across the room onto the bed.
Ugh, why couldn’t I play it cool?
Now I had to anxiously wait for his response.
I started to tidy the kitchen while periodically checking my phone for a message from Giles. After the tenth or so time, I had finally given up. If he wanted to pretend like nothing happened, I could do that too.
Unfortunately, after I stopped obsessing about Giles, my fingers were itching to redownload social media to see what my former friends were commenting on Garrett’s big announcement. Instead, I decided to shut off my phone and stick it inside a cabinet to avoid temptation.
The wind was howling outside. It felt like the perfect time to cozy up under a blanket, watch a movie, and hide from reality.
* * *
A loud bangingsound against the window startled me out of my nap. I jolted up from the couch. Racing over to the window, I saw that it was just a tree branch getting thrown around in the wind.
The time on the microwave told me that it was already almost eight p.m. After binging three movies and eating all the junk food I could find in my studio, I must have dozed off on the couch.
I was about to open the fridge and rummage through the bare contents when a massive gust of wind threw another branch into my window. At that exact moment all of the lights in my apartment turned off.
I screamed instinctively.
The power must have gone out. The white snow outside reflected some light through the windows, but I could still barely see a thing. I took two steps toward the living room before colliding with the edge of the table.
