Without any shutters, dawn lit up the room before five. Giselle turned around and hid her face behind a pillow. She fell asleep quickly again. Around seven, her routine forced her awake, but she didn't want to. Her head waved its Hello by providing a stable source of pain. It had been too much alcohol. Again. Not enough to make her throw up, but enough to make her feel miserable. She groaned and turned around. Laury seemed fast asleep. This wasn't a surprise, she was used to this place, the lighting, the city noises outside when the city woke up every morning. The brunette was envious of her friend at that moment, since she wanted to go back to sleep. Her body just made that awfully difficult.

After trying for maybe thirty minutes, she gave up and pushed herself up slowly. A stabbing pain shot through her from the back to her forehead. She hated it already.

While sitting on the edge of the bed, her eyes wandered through the room. The impressive wall of posters was just that. Very impressive. For a long time, at least ten minutes she guessed, she sat there and looked at every poster individually. Most had a romantic or erotic setting. The colours had been toned down and adjusted to allow for the mosaic image to emerge. All of it was brilliantly set up. Somehow Ian would've never approved of something similar. Maybe it was time to look for something else? Would Annie be more open toward street art?

Surprised of the thoughts about Annie, she slowly made her way into the other room. The door quietly closed with a little bit of help. From stories at work, Giselle remembered that Laury didn't have a coffee machine. She made it with a kettle which was easily found and disassembled. Water into the large chamber at the bottom, coffee powder into the filter-like chamber in the center, put it on the stove, turn on the heat and that was that.

While the kettle worked on its own, the brunette set up breakfast. Laury didn't own a dining table, instead the kitchen had a small island with bar stools and enough space to eat. She found toast together with the toaster, various toppings in the fridge, a couple of cocktail tomatoes and cucumber. No cereals, no bread, nothing useful apart from what she already put up. Then she fell onto the couch and glanced at her phone to distract herself until the coffee was done.

Ian: "Hey Giselle. I'm heading over to Gary's to watch some soccer later. I'll probably be gone by the time you're back."

Her hand gripped the phone tightly. Anger rose in her. It brought a helplessness with it that almost made her throw the phone at the wall. This intensity was very new to her. She disliked herself for being this angry, as it reminded her of school and her teens. She had been floating between quite popular and being bullied by her friends. It was the same anger, as if Ian was challenging her solely with the intent of being mean.

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Frustrated and wrestling down her anger, she opened her chat with Annie. They hadn't exchanged any messages for a while.

Giselle: "Hi Annie! How are you? Are things good with Cel? Guess I miss talking to you a little :sweat_smile:"

When the message moved from the editing area to the chat history, a checkmark appeared that it got delivered and for a while Giselle just stared at it. The kettle whistled and expected to be removed from the heated stove. Giselle provided that service and went back to sit down. Annie was typing something. That woman got up early, even on a Saturday morning it seemed. Soon after, a Ding announced the arrival of a response.

Annie: "Hi Giselle. Things are good. I haven't seen Cel in a while. Just yesterday she ditched me again and doesn't seem to have time today either"

Annie: "Sorry, didn't want to complain. Honestly I miss talking to you, too"

Her finger tapped thoughtfully against her chin once the big smile wore away. "Ah, fuck it", she whispered and composed a response.

Giselle: "Let's go out for coffee in the afternoon. My treat"

This time the response took longer. Maybe Annie wasn't sure whether to agree or maybe something else was up. After a while, just when she decided to get up and wake Laury, the notification popped up.

Annie: "I'll come over around 2 and we can go downtown together"

Giselle immediately sent a thumbs up and grinned in happy anticipation. When she woke Laury, she was glowing. Laury blinked at her sitting on the edge of the bed, "What happened to you? You don't have a headache and now you're glowing like a proton star?". The brunette laughed and it was very easy for her to ignore the headache as long as she didn't make sudden moves, "Something like that. I'll tell you over breakfast. I made coffee".

Irritated and surprised, her friend got up, but groaned when the headache seemed to overwhelm her. "Fuck me. I wanted to say, _Can you please move in with me_, but now I'm not sure I even want to get up", the woman whispered and held her head. After a couple of tries to leave the bed, both women shared a breakfast and coffee.

"I am going out with Annie in the afternoon", Giselle burst out happily. Her coworker frowned and said, "Really. Is that a good idea?". "Ian texted me earlier that he'll go to Gary and watch soccer. I miss Annie and he's not even around to distract me", the pouted over. "Isn't Annie with Celestine now? Did you think about that?", her friend asked and bit into a toast splattered with strawberry jam. "Yes, I did. Annie sounded quite frustrated that Cel doesn't have time for her at all anymore", she beamed back and sipped from the coffee. "Wait, Ian texted you earlier? Are we talking about the same Ian?"