My mother stroked my head when she came downstairs. I lay on the couch, occasionally sucking on a straw from my iced coffee and watching TV. Well, not really. My eyes weren't really following the action. I was very tired and could hardly take in any more information. But I hadn't been able to sleep since earlier either.

"Would you like a fried egg too, my darling?" my mother asked me.

I looked up at her and she smiled.

"Would you make scrambled eggs too?" I asked with a slightly pleading smile.

She grinned and then slightly flicked my forehead.

"Sure thing."

"Hey," I said, but rather half-heartedly.

We ate together, both lost in our thoughts and silent. But it wasn't awkward. It was more like a subliminal mutual agreement that we both got on well with. For a short while, all you could hear were the sounds of our food, the chirping of birds outside the dining room window, which my mother had opened, and a few sounds of normal life, such as cars driving past, a lawnmower - which was probably always a must on a Saturday. Then my mother cleared her throat and looked at me.

"What are you doing today? Can you keep the evening free?"

I was still chewing on my omelette and motioned for her to give me a moment. Then I swallowed and looked at the clock hanging in the kitchen, which I could just about see from here. It was 11 o'clock. That late already?

"I'm meeting Val, Ariana and another friend of hers at the outdoor pool today. Taking advantage of the last few warm days. Tonight," I thought about it for a moment, "I actually wanted to have a movie night with the girls, with sleep over and all that stuff."

I grinned briefly at my mother. Then I put another forkful of the food in my mouth and rolled my eyes with pleasure.

I guess you could call me a foodie because I liked to eat almost everything that other people served me. I didn't like cooking myself, I preferred to eat other people's food and I really wasn't fussy.

"Why do you ask?" I said, looking into my mother's beautiful blue eyes, which I had inherited and was very proud of.

She shrugged her shoulders, put her own now empty plate to one side and pushed it away from her. Then she interlaced her fingers and looked at me through her eyelashes.

"I thought maybe you could meet Ravi tonight."

She let the sentence hang in the air for a second, but then, seeing my raised eyebrows, quickly added, "I could make your favorite lasagna and we could have a glass of wine together or something."

I snorted.

"I think I'll try a few days without alcohol. I'm only just getting over my last hangover. But," I paused for a moment to keep my mom on her toes, "we can have dinner tonight. I'd just like to join the girls afterwards, it's been arranged and I'm looking forward to it."

She nodded quickly.

"Of course, he'll understand that too."

I looked at her scrutinizingly.

"So that's the new one, huh?"

I knew I was being a bit mean. But I always had this slightly protective instinct when it came to my mother. I knew she was good at standing up for herself because she was a woman who usually knew what she wanted and what she didn't want. But with men, she could easily be a bit blind, even if there were some red flags. And I took a rather cautious approach. Not just to see how long it would last, but also to assess who these men were. Were they ever good enough for my mother? No. But some of them made a real effort, I had to admit.

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"Sorry, I meant I was curious to get to know him. But," I put my hand lightly on her arm. "You really like him, don't you? And he's good to you?"

She smiled broadly and cast her eyes down as if remembering a fond memory.

"Yes, he really is. Believe me, you'll like him too. I've already told him you're a tough shell to crack, but I think that's great too."

She stroked my cheek briefly and then stood up.

"Thanks for breakfast, Mom. I'll do the kitchen in a minute and then I'd better get going," I called after her.

She made a sound that she had heard and then disappeared. Ravi. What an interesting name.

__

"Hey you, beautiful woman, can I give you a lift?" Ariana called out to me, sitting in her car on the street outside my house half an hour later, her windows rolled down.

She was wearing brown-tinted sunglasses on her small, straight nose, which was also covered in freckles like mine.

I laughed, spun around once and then looked her deep in the eyes over the rim of my narrow black sunglasses - which I found very stylish myself - in a seductive manner.

"You always are, sexy."

She laughed and I got into the car. I kissed her briefly on the cheek as we drove off towards Valeria in her little blue Fiat 500 covered in white flowers drawn onto it.

The car was incredibly cute and Ariana was also very proud of her baby. She had been given it by her parents, but not for her 18th birthday like many others, she had practically earned it herself. She had helped her parents out for a long time when things weren't going so well for them financially. They were both self-employed and had therefore found it difficult to earn enough money. As a thank you, when everything was better, they gave their daughter a second-hand but really nice Fiat, which she had wanted for a long time.

And as she was now the only one in our little group - Ariana, Valeria and I - with a car. We took advantage of that a little. But that was okay too. After all, we always shared the gas bill.

"How were you yesterday, did you get some rest?" she asked jokingly and poked me in the side.

"Hey, eyes on the road," I protested, pointing out of the window.

"It's an exaggeration, she was only going 25 mph and there really wasn't anyone out - a trait when you came from a super small village where there weren't many people and even fewer on Saturday-filling-the-road drivers," she grinned and shrugged her shoulders.

"I had a very nice evening with Yuma, he spoiled my hangover away," she said with a laugh.

"Do I really want to know how?"

"I'd rather not. But he was a bit hurt that I had talked to Jamiro for so long. I guess he had to prove to me that he was the only one for me," she explained.

Ariana and Yuma. A mix that no one would really have made at first.

Ariana had always been an extrovert with lots of energy, a loud laugh, flowing light blonde hair and big brown eyes that just went so well with her name. She was often misunderstood as a result, for example as being fake or too interested by some men, who were quick to read more into it.

It was understandable that Yuma struggled with this.

He was a bit of a poster child for an introverted, computer-savvy and quiet person who was very good at listening and even better at reading people. But he was very much in love with Ariana and she with him, you could see that every time you saw them together.

And although they were very different, they seemed to be very good together and to trust each other completely. They had been together for about two years now, not studying at the same university, but living together.

I sometimes envied them, because the way I experienced it from the outside with them was not the same with Reese and me. It might have been deep and intimate, but we had often argued, and instead of sitting down together and talking it out, we had often hurt each other. And then there had been the issue that had ultimately led to the end of our relationship.

Ariana had said something.

"What?"

"You mean 'Excuse me'," she corrected me and then pushed her sunglasses up the bridge of her nose.

"I asked if you could please text Val, we'll be right there," she reminded me.

"We drove about half an hour to the outdoor pool. When we got there, the sun was at its zenith and I pulled one of the hats that Ariana had brought for us as a precaution, as she simply had too many of them, low over my forehead."

"It's the end of August, how can it still be this hot?"

"There's something called climate change Darling," came from Valeria.

We trudged over things and blankets until Ariana finally exclaimed "There she is" and headed in a certain direction at the other end of the outdoor pool.

From a distance, we could already see the dark long hair of Ariana's friend Selma. When she spotted us, she waved to us and called Ariana's and my names. We smiled and walked towards her.

Selma had already chosen a nice spot next to a thick tree, far enough away from the water that we wouldn't be disturbed by other people, but close enough that we wouldn't have to walk far to the water.