Zoe’s phone buzzed. Her first instinct was to ignore it, but her curiosity got the better of her. She held it up to see what kind of notification she had. Messenger. So it was either her sister, or someone she usually didn’t talk to. She took the next step, and tapped it to see who it was. Not opening the message, just surveying whether she had the headspace to deal with it. Emily, Something. Not a name she immediately recognized. Squinting at the picture… Oh right Emily from uni. They hadn’t exactly been friends, but not for any particular reason. Zoe had just, not talked that much with her outside of class. Why on earth she was writing to her on a Wednesday at 20:31? It was too juicy a mystery for her to pass up.

She opened the message. Oh boy, it was long-ish. And Emily was already typing more. It started with the usual, hey long time no see, hope you are good, sort of acknowledging that this was out of the blue. Emily finally got to the meat of it. Apparently she had a friend, Samantha, who was stranded near where Zoe lived. That was where the first message ended, and Zoe was held hostage by Emily’s three dots. Dot dot dot… Then they stopped. She started over. Dot dot dot… Zoe realized where this was going. Emily was going to ask if Samantha could come by Zoe’s place. God, she must be strapped for places in the area if she wrote to Zoe. This was kind of stretching their very limited friendship, but if Emily was willing to reach out the situation had to be dire. Before Emily could finish her second message Zoe started trying to alleviate the tension of the three dots:

Hey Emily, good to hear from you, bla bla, does Samantha need a place to stay/hang for a while? She can totally swing by.

As soon as Zoe hit send the three dots stopped. Already Zoe hated the message. Hang? Totally? She sounded like a 90’s sitcom character. Luckily Emily seemed willing to give her a pass:

Omg, really? Thank you so much! I only ask because I am away with bla bla bla, canceled plane, replacement ticket, are you sure?

At this point Zoe was very much not sure she wanted a stranger in her apartment late on a weekday, but she saw no way to politely say no. Also it was November, and late. Emily would definitely not have written to Zoe if she had other options, and she seemed reasonable enough to not to be friends with the bad kind of weirdoes. After reassuring her that it was no bother, which it was, and that Zoe did not mind, which she did, Emily thanked her again and wrote that she had given Samantha Zoe’s name on Facebook, and she was going to be in contact.

Zoe sat paralyzed and started at her phone. She could have just not answered. No, Emily would have seen that she had read the message. She could have not opened it. Or not had a phone. Or ran away to live in a Swedish forest. She fell back into the couch and started at the ceiling. In moments a stranger would be in her apartment. This completely derailed her evening plans of smoking weed, marinating herself in mindless internet content, and trying not to sleep until 11 in the morning. A stranger was going to be in her apartment. She jumped up. Oh god the place was a mess. Well, a mess by ‘a stranger is about to judge you based on it’ standards. Quickly stacking old cups and plates she carried them into the dishwasher that luckily was empty. As she heaved a pile of laundry into her laundry basket her phone buzzed. Samantha had sent her a friend request. Zoe quickly picked up her phone and accepted it. Immediately she got a message from Samantha:

“Hey, friend of your friend here. Emily insisted you don’t mind, but if you do it’s fine. I can figure this out myself. No need to involve you lol.”

An out huh. Samantha didn’t seem thrilled about the situation either, so she was probably trying to avoid the whole thing as well. But at this point Zoe was committed:

“I’ll be honest, I was a bit surprised by Emily’s message, but you are still welcome to come by. November is not the best month to pull an all-nighter outside.”

After a bit Samantha replied:

“Alright, as long as I am not baring into your place and wasting your time.”

Zoe reassured her one last time it was fine, and send her address. She swept the worst crumbs off the coffee table and felt her living room was at least presentable. She picked up her phone, but Samantha hadn’t written anything else, so instead Zoe tapped her profile to at least have an idea what she looked like. Samantha had long-ish dark-brown hair, seemed above average height, and based on the sunglasses she was wearing in her profile picture, didn’t take herself too seriously. She was pretty. Her smile seemed sure of herself without being cocky. Zoe started scrolling a bit through her profile and realized she was approaching Facebook stalking territory. She forced herself to close her phone, and suddenly became aware that she was wearing the same clothes she had worn for two days. She quickly dug something clean out of her dresser. Not like, fancy but at least presentable. Clean underwear, jeans, a good t-shirt, and a cardigan. Was it too much? Was it weird to worry about this when Samantha was probably going to be out the door in an hour or two? Oh God she was overthinking this. She checked her phone again, and with no massage flipped through Samantha’s pictures again. She was really pretty. She had the kind of effortless look that probably took a while to nail, but looked like she had just woken up like that. Zoe could feel herself getting nervous, and maybe not just because a stranger was coming over.

After 10 minutes of pacing, cleaning, and a herculean effort not to constantly check her phone, Zoe jumped when it did actually buzz:

“Hey, is this your building?” Samantha had taken a picture from the street looking up at her place.

“Yup, that’s it. Just ring and I’ll buzz you in.” Zoe replied.

The door phone rang, and Zoe hit the button. Okay, deep breaths. Stop pacing. She tactically placed a book on the coffee table so it looked like she had not just been pacing like a tiger in a cage this whole time.

As Samantha knocked Zoe opened the door. Samantha looked like her pictures, but it had been a while since she had posted new ones. Her hair was slightly longer, but it suited her. Zoe had a hard time imagining any haircut that would look bad on her. She did also look more tired than her pictures, which made sense considering the circumstances. After a slight pause at the door, Zoe decided to lead with a classic:

“Hey”

“Hi” Samantha answered.

Oh boy.

Zoe stepped to the side and gestured for Samantha to come in. As Samantha put down her backpack, took off her coat, and found a place to hang it she took in Zoe’s entryway. She looked happy to be out of the cold. Despite the undeniable awkwardness Zoe felt good that she had not taken the easy way out and ignored her phone.

With her boots off Samantha sighed and looked Zoe in the eyes: “I guess proper introductions are in order.” She stuck her hand out and smiled a smile that made Zoe a bit dizzy: “I’m Samantha, or Sam If that’s too much of a mouthful.” Trying not to look too shell-shocked Zoe shook her hand. “Hi Sam, I’m Zoe. Nice to meet you.” Sam? She never used pet names for people. Her first girlfriend had always joked Zoe sounded like a robot when referring to people, so why did she start now with a stranger?

…

“Uh, a cup of tea?” Zoe asked to break the silence that was relentlessly building.

“Yes! Please.” Sam said with an intensity that seemed to surprise her as well.

Zoe walked into her kitchen and Sam slowly followed after her. There was an intensity to the way she looked at the apartment that made Zoe happy she had cleaned a bit. As the water started to boil Zoe gestured to her teas on the counter:

“Just pick whatever you want. We can just make a pot of it.”

“Yeah, sounds good” Sam said with a smile. As she started browsing the teas, she suddenly paused. “Um, yeah thanks by the way, for this. Circumstances kind of got the better of me. I was meant to meet Emily, but like tomorrow. But my plans got all mixed up, and I ended up spending eight hours in an airport in Amsterdam, and then …” Sam sort of petered out as she realized this very convoluted story was more or less pointless.

“Anyway, the point is, Emily is gonna be back in town tomorrow early, so I just need to kill tonight before I can crash at her place, and then she said I could get a couple of hours out of the cold with you…”

Whether she was uncomfortable or it was just because she was even more tired than she looked, Sam was rambling. Zoe jumped in before Sam stated talking in circles:

“Hey no worries, it’s totally cool. I was stuck in an airport for 7 hours between two flights once. That does not put you in a ‘explore the city at night in November’ mood. Are you good with green tea?”

Sam Seemed totally taken aback by the question, but snapped back to reality: “Yes, that’s great. Thanks. Sorry, I am pretty tired” Zoe tried to smile reassuringly at Sam.

“Don’t worry about it. Airport fatigue is maybe the worst kind of tired.”

Zoe picked up the teapot and gestured at two mugs that Sam picked up and followed her into the living room. Again, Sam inspected the room with what seems like genuine interest. For a moment she seemed less tired, and totally absorbed in the art on the walls and the books on the shelves. But when she sat down on the couch she let out a sigh that said more than a thousand words. Zoe sat down in a armchair across from her. Sam looked for a moment like she had no plans of ever leaving the couch. As she sunk into the cushions she closed her eyes and ran a hand down her face. Zoe nervously looked away from her and smiled to herself. Seeing how tired Sam really was, she was genuinely happy she had answered Emily’s message.

After a minute Zoe began to pour the tea. Sam caught herself getting too comfortable in a strangers apartment and sat up straighter. She took the tea with a heartfelt “thanks.” As she breathed in the smell from her cup she got the same smile on her face she had in her pictures online. Zoe wished she could have paused time and taken a picture of Sam, invigorated by a cup of tea on her couch, smiling like that. Clearing her throat, Zoe picked up her own cup and forced herself to change lane mentally:

“So uh, how do you know Emily?”

“Oh we go waaay back. I moved to her school in year 8 and she was the only person that didn’t flat out ignore me, so I latched on to her tight. Good thing too, we have been pretty close ever since. It’s been a while since last I saw her though. This whole thing was supposed to be us catching up, but the airline clearly had other plans.” Sam was clutching her cup of tea like it was the last of its kind as she reminisced. “What about you? Think she mentioned you guys were friends through uni?”

Zoe did a slight double take at the generous use of the word ‘friends.’ Emily seemed cool, but calling her a friend seemed disingenuous:

“Yeah, we met through uni. We had a bunch of required classes together, and we ended up taking some of the same electives.”

“Ah, literature right? Emily always talks about this post-colonial class she took last semester.”

Zoe smiled to herself. Post-colonial studies had been one of her favorites as well. She and Emily had ended up being in the same group:

“That’s one of ‘em yeah. We did a presentation together in that class.”

Sam gave a snort into her cup: “hah, wish I could have been in that classroom. Emily is awful at public speaking.”

“Really?” Zoe asked: “I just assumed she was nervous because our two other group members dropped the class two days before the presentation.”

“I mean, that probably didn’t help, but she was always so bad at speaking in front of the class. Whenever we did presentations back in school she was always stammering and shuffling her notes. Always asked me to start and cover any improv, even though she knew the material way better than me.”

“Yes, she totally did that! She acted like she was deferring to me, but I had skimmed the material at best. Thought she was going to faint when we had to do class engagement.”

Sam smiled, looking like she was imagining the scene: “That sure sounds like Emily. Wait, I think she told me about that presentation. In her version you managed to salvage her awful middle part with a brilliant segue into your conclusion and kept the class busy while she narrowly avoided a panic attack.”

Zoe almost chocked on her tea, and coughed into her sleeve. She had always been bad at talking complements, but the idea that Emily had described her as a confident public speaker to Sam made her a little shaky.

“She and I remember that day very differently.” Zoe said as she looked into her cup

The silence began creeping in again, but this time it was less uncomfortable. Sam had become comfortable enough to pour herself some more tea, and checked her phone as it buzzed. She frowned at it:

“Hey, can I plug in my charger for my phone? I am riding high on 4% and I need to keep in contact with Emily.”

“Totally, there is a plug behind you.”

“Thanks, you’re a lifesaver.”

Sam got up and walked into the hallway to get her charger from her backpack. On the way back she paused in front of one of Zoe’s posters. She took a step back and really took it in:

“This is that art style Art Nouveau right?”

Zoe perked up at someone recognizing it: “Yup, it’s by Mucha. The piece is called ‘Poetry’. He did a bunch of series of four pieces, and this is from the ‘art’ series.”

Sam who had not taken her eyes off the poster this whole time slowly nodded her head. “I like it. Gonna Google this guy at some point.”

People often commented on the posters in Zoe’s living room, but Sam looked glued to the poster. Like she was afraid she was going to miss something if she didn’t capture every detail. Slowly she sat back down on the couch and plugged her phone and charger in. She immediately looked more relaxed. As she stayed focused on something on her phone Zoe took the chance to check her own phone. She mindlessly browsed for a bit, but suddenly got worried she was ignoring her guest. But Zoe realized that this was probably the first couple of relaxed minutes Sam had had in a long time, so she decided to let her decide how much she wanted to talk. After a bit Sam locked her phone and put it down to let it charge. She sighed and leaned back like she had done when she initially sat down. She closed her eyes and almost immediately it looked like she was asleep. Her breathing had become slow and deep, and her arms had fallen into her lap. Zoe had realized Sam was tired, but she had done a good job of hiding how close she was to collapsing. Speaking of collapsing, Sam had started slowly leaning more and more forward. Quick and quiet Zoe got up and gently caught her. She slowly guided Sam back onto the couch, and half asleep she pulled herself completely on to the couch, curled up, and began snoring lightly. Standing over her, Zoe felt pretty lost, and completely on instinct grabbed a blanket and carefully put it over Sam.

Sam’s phone buzzed on the coffee table. Zoe didn’t want to snoop, but if Emily was trying to get in contact… She tapped the screen to highlight the notification and read some of it without opening it. It was from Emily: “Haha, yeah I should have seen that coming ;) . I mean, I am pretty sure she said she is bi so that’s not totally…”

Oh boy

Zoe quickly sat back down in her chair and stared wide eyed anywhere but Sam or her phone. But Sam was sound asleep. After getting her breathing under control Zoe put her face in her hands as she realized she could just send a message to Emily from her OWN phone, and not violate Sam’s privacy. She quickly wrote to Emily that Sam had passed out on her couch, and she was just going to let her sleep for now. Emily agreed that that was probably best, and thanked Zoe for letting Sam stay. Zoe replied that it really was no problem, and for the first time she really meant it.

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For a while she tried to just browse on her phone, but she kept looking over at Sam. She looked so peaceful on the couch. It felt weird to Zoe to keep glancing at this person she had just met, so she picked up her book. She tried to read, but the book was the fourth in a long fantasy series that required more concentration than she had at the moment. After rereading the same page 3 times she sighed and put down the book. Sam was still sleeping. It did made sense she had crashed so suddenly. She had spent the day in an airport, then on a plane, and then wondering the city in the cold. Still, it gave Zoe a warm fuzzy feeling that she felt safe enough at her place to pass out so suddenly. At least Sam had ended up falling asleep at her place, and not in some random bus.

Zoe caught herself staring at Sam again. She stood up and walked into the kitchen just to break line of sight. At this point she didn’t mind that Sam was asleep on her couch, but she was unsure of what to do with herself. Her original plans didn’t really make sense. For Sam to wake up to her stoned would be weird for both of them, but Zoe had a certain restlessness in her body she always got when she was in the mood to smoke. She had managed to curb cigarettes about a year ago, but a need for the ritual of smoking had never totally gone away. So once in a while she got high instead. Evenings like tonight, where she had nothing on the following day for example.

She poked her head into the living room. Sam had shifted a bit in her sleep, but otherwise looked undisturbed. Zoe suddenly got an urge to stroke the long dark hair out of Sam’s face.

God she was really pretty.

Oooooh boy

Instead she walked into her bedroom and got a cigarette and a lighter out of the box she stored her weed stuff in. She put on a jacket and shoes and snuck out onto the balcony, making sure to close the door as much as possible behind her. It wasn’t bone-chillingly cold outside, but only because the wind was mostly calm. The cold was actually kind of nice. It refreshed her and helped her clear her head. As she lit her first cigarette in a long time she expected the queasiness and headache she remembered from way back when she smoked her first. It never came, and slowly she felt the nicotine enter her system. After a couple of drags she did feel a bit woozy, but not in a bad way. It reminded her of getting drunk on cheap beer in a park and chain-smoking.  Like the wooziness, not an altogether unpleasant feeling. As she was about two thirds through the cigarette she heard the balcony door open. Sam stood in the door wrapped in her blanket with a look on her face like she just dropped in from space.

“Hey, uh, thanks for letting me in and all but I’m gonna, I don’t wanna be a bother so I am gonna go.” Sam muttered as she went back into the apartment. Zoe quickly extinguished the cigarette and practically ran after her.

“Woah hey, sorry I just, you suddenly just fell asleep and you look so tired I didn’t want to wake you, but I also wanted to give you some space…” Zoe began to trail off as Sam turned around and started to really wake up.

“Yeah, no, I guess I am really tired but I don’t even really know you, and now I am monopolizing your living room to nap and you probably have stuff to do.” Sam said as she picks up her phone. As she scanned it Zoe felt a twinge of panic about Sam already leaving

“I am super not busy. I have nothing going on today, and nothing going on tomorrow.” It felt weird to put it that way, and from the look on Sam’s face, it was weird.

“I … what I mean is, you aren’t, it’s not like you are taking up any important time for me. Please, I, when you fell asleep I wrote to Emily that for now you were just sleeping here. Unless your plans have changed you can totally crash on the couch. If you want to, I mean.”

Sam, realizing she still has the blanket draped over her, started to take in the situation. “Um, thanks but I couldn’t. It’s very kind but. I don’t want to be a nuisance to one of Emily’s friends…” she muttered

Zoe smiled and says: “Really, it’s no big deal. Like I said, no grand plans tonight anyway. I would feel awful knowing you had to prowl around for the rest of the night. So if anything it would be more of an inconvenience if you didn’t crash here.”

“Well in that case, I guess let’s just go with the path of least resistance eh?” Sam said with a smirk that left Zoe a little week in the knees.

“Haha, yes least resistance. Sounds good.” Zoe giggled nervously. The fact that Sam had decided to stay instantly released a tenseness in her she hadn’t noticed before.

“But on one condition.” Sam said. “You just do whatever you want to do. It’s your place, so the least I can do is let you have a good evening.”

“No seriously, I had no real plans.” Zoe said. She felt light like a feather and the words just kept rolling out of her. “I was just gonna roll a joint and watch dumb shit online.”

oh boy

For a split second Zoe was sure she had made Sam unbelievably uncomfortable. After a moment her face changed form a shocked look to a goofy grin.

“Hey, don’t sell getting high short. That constitutes plans in my book.”

“Oh thank god she is cool with it” Zoe thought to herself

After clearing her throat Zoe said: “Right, so feel free to either fall asleep on the couch, or join me on the balcony if that is your thing. Either way you won’t be a nuisance. In fact, in the latter case I would be happy to have company.”

Sam shifted her wait from left to right as she considered her options:  “Well, when the host offers it is rude to say no, right?” she finally answered.

Zoe got her box from the bedroom and started rolling the joint. Sam poured herself the last of the tea, and pulled a face than made it clear it had either gone cold or bitter.

“Would you mind making another pot?” Zoe asked as she was fiddling with the filter. “I could use another cup myself.”

Sam practically jumped up: “Yes, on it!” she said as she dashed into the kitchen. Zoe smiled to herself. Sam seemed terrified of being a nuisance, so asking her to do something felt like the best way to put her at ease. The kettle clicked off in the kitchen as Zoe was putting the final touches on the joint. The base was a bit shaky but otherwise she was happy with her work. Sam returned to the living room with the tea, still draped in the blanket. Following her example Zoe also grabbed a blanket, and with a cup of fresh tea each they braved the elements and huddled up on the balcony.

Starting the joint Zoe got it burning and after a few puffs held it out to Sam, who had been discretely looking at something on her phone. She looked up and suddenly hesitated. She stopped her hand halfway to receiving it, but instead looked first at the joint and then at Zoe.

“Look uh, if you don’t wanna, that’s fine…” Zoe muttered

Sam squinted and half-smiled. “No it’s not that, it’s just. We met like an hour ago and…” She let herself trail off and instead smiled and accepted the joint. Leaning back in her chair she took a not unimpressive drag and slowly exhaled. She didn’t seem uncomfortable smoking with Zoe, but something about her demeanor seemed to have changed. She took another drag and handed the joint back to Zoe. When Zoe reached for the joint their hands met for a second before she got her grip and Sam slowly pulled her hand away. They continued passing it back and forth while sipping at their tea in relative silence for a while.

Zoe was beginning to feel a heaviness in her limbs and a feeling of peace in her mind. Her thoughts were usually running at top speed, but in 1st gear. Her mind would be racing, but nothing would get processed. But when high, for a few hours, she could focus only on whatever was in front of her.

“Hey, Zoe. Earth to Zoe?”

She had totally spaced out. Sam was holding out the joint to her with a look on her face like she had been holding it forever.

“Oh shit, right.” Zoe said as she took the joint from Sam and grabbed the lighter to relight it. “Sorry I was somewhere else.”

Sam laughed a bit to herself. “Hey, don’t apologize to me. I’ll smoke your weed and drink your tea all day.” Sam said with a smirk as she clutched her mug in both hands.

Zoe held out her arms in an exaggerated gesture of hospitality: “Mi casa es su casa”

Sam snorted, almost chocking on her tea. “Wow, didn’t know you spoke Spanish as well.”

“Eh, it’s like they say at uni. It’s all just words, init?” Zoe replied in an awful British accent.

They both started giggling, trying to suppress it. That of course just made them laughing harder, like they were trying to keep quiet in a classroom. Zoe handed Sam the joint, forcing her to get her laughing under control. After a few attempts she succeeded for long enough to inhale. As she exhaled she sighed deeply to herself.

“Thanks for this Zoe.”

“My pleasure. Like I said, I was going to smoke anyway.”

“No, I mean all this. Letting me come over and crash, and being chill enough to offer me your weed when you don’t even know me. And let me borrow a…”

Sam suddenly realized she never asked for the blanket she had been living in since she woke up. She looked quizzically at Zoe. Blushing slightly, Zoe looked away and muttered:

“Uh, when you feel asleep I didn’t want you to be cold, so…”

For a moment Sam looked away abashed and drew the blanket closer around herself before continuing:

“My point is, thank you. I don’t think I realized how spent I was. I just expected to drop by and grab a bit of power for my phone and then be out of your hair. But then you immediately offered tea, and made a big deal about being cool with me being here. And now you let me smoke with you. Like, the only thing you haven’t done is feed me.”

Zoe took the joint from Sam, and after a quick drag said:

“There’s some leftover pizza in the fridge if you are hungry.”

Sam put down her mug and put her face in her hands: No, Zoe that’s not what I, you are waaaay to nice. Christ, are you gonna offer me you bed next?”

“Sure, you seem more tired than me and probably need some good sleep.”

Sam looked like she was about to unravel when Zoe couldn’t keep a straight face anymore.

“Kidding, I’m kidding Sam. But you haven’t given me a reason to be anything but hospitable to you, so why not?”

As she received the joint from Zoe, Sam looked into the night while weighing her words.

“That’s a nice sentiment.” She finally said

“Plus” Zoe started “you are friends with Emily. I’ll be honest, we are not that close, but I can’t imagine she would have stuck with you this long if you didn’t deserve some hospitality. Emily seems like a good judge of character.”

Sam glanced at Zoe and smiled: “Yeah, I guess she is huh?”

They smoked the rest of the joint in silence. Whenever they passed it their hands met, just for a second. Every time it made Zoe’s heart skip a beat. Finally Sam squinted at the last of the joint, took a small drag, and coughed. She pushed it into the ashtray, extinguishing it.

“Cough well that is the end of that” she managed between coughs.

Zoe looked at the end of the filter sticking out of the ashtray. The end, both literally of the joint, and of smoking it. The thought bounced around her head like a dvd-player screensaver. She downed the last of her tea, which was cold at this point, but she was just happy it was wet. Wet was a weird word to describe tea. Not inaccurate weird, but it felt strange to call a drink wet… She caught herself drifting again. This time Sam hadn’t snapped her back to reality, because it looked like she was drifting hard as well.

“Hey, Sam? … Sam, hey!” Zoe glided her hand in front of Sam’s face.

Sam jolted back to reality “HUH? Yeah, yo, what’s up?”

Zoe suppressed a laugh semi successfully: “Wanna go back inside?”

“Yeah, it’s cold as fuck out here” Sam said, sounding almost surprised. “I thought the whole point of coming here was getting out of the cold.”

“I thought it was the path of least resistance” Zoe quipped back

“Heh, that’s the thing I said earlier. Nice callback.” Sam said, still not getting up from her chair.

Zoe got up and offered Sam a hand. Sam looked at it, and then up at Zoe with the look of a goldfish.

“What not enough flourish for you? C’mon, get your ass up, I’m freezing my tits of here.”

“With a goofy grin on her face Sam mumbled: “Well we can’t have that now can we?” and let Zoe pull her out of the cheap patio chairs, and back into the warm living room. With their teeth clattering they sat down in the couch and armchair respectively. Zoe had left her phone on the coffee table and on reflex picked it up. A while ago Emily had sent a message. She wrote she had gone to bed. With Sam crashing at Zoe’s they could just meet up the next day, and she was happy it sounded like Sam was having a good time. She ended the message with a winky face. In her state, Zoe was totally blindsided by the emote. She never used them much herself, and her and Emily had only ever messaged about uni practicalities. Looking up from her phone she caught Sam looking at her, and then quickly dart her eyes down onto the coffee table, and Zoe’s book.

After clearing her throat, Sam asked: “Uh, what’s that book you are reading?”

“Oh asking me that is a mistake. I’ll tell you, but just a warning, I am a huge nerd so this is gonna take a while.” Zoe answered eagerly, sitting forward in her chair.

Well apparently I am not going anywhere until morning, so I have all the time in the world.” Sam answered and made herself comfortable on the couch.

At first Zoe talked about the book, and that reminded Sam of a podcast, and that reminded Zoe of a song, and suddenly they stopped looking at the clock. They talked about art, ideas, and aspirations, but mostly about nothing at all. They talked in the living room while finishing the last of the lukewarm tea, and in the kitchen while reheating pizza. They barely stopped talking while eating, and continued long after there were only crumbs left. When they were not talking, they were laughing. The kind of laughter that makes your stomach hurt, and makes you wipe tears from the corners of your eyes. They finally stopped talking when the weed started wearing off, and went from invigorating them to just making them mellow out. Zoe got out her laptop and put on a nature documentary about frogs, and they both sat on the couch and let the silence settle on the living room. This time, there was not a hint of awkwardness left in it.

As David Attenborough was really getting into it, Sam yawned and put her head on Zoe’s shoulder. Without thinking Zoe lifted her arm and put it around Sam, who snuggled into her and closed her eyes.

Zoe felt a calm wash over the living room. Everything was perfect. The warmth of Sam’s body against her own felt like another half she never knew she had missed. Looking down at Sam’s face she brushed a strand of her dark hair behind her ear. Sam, who was not quite asleep yet, shifted her weight a bit, smiled, and sighed contently to herself. Zoe turned off the lamp behind her, closed the laptop, and dragged Sam down onto the couch with her. Zoe reached her arms around Sam to properly spoon her, and as they both settled into the embrace Zoe felt truly content. The whole evening had been lightning in a bottle. Even if she never saw Sam again, even if she woke up tomorrow and it had all been a dream, Zoe would always treasure this moment. Her last thought as she fell asleep to the sound of Sam’s breathing was to thank Emily for dropping this perfect woman into her lap.

Zoe awoke with a strange empty feeling. Something was missing. Opening her eyes she was a bit taken aback with seeing her living room, and not her bedroom. Why … oh shit, Sam! Sam was gone. Frantically she got up, sure that she had just fallen in love with a phantom when she heard sounds from the bathroom. Oh thank god she is real. Zoe realized she had been holding her breath, and tried to breathe normally. The whole of last night came rushing back to her. Zoe only remembered a fraction of what they had talked about, but she did remember admitting things to Sam she had never said out loud before. With her mind racing she walked into the kitchen to make coffee, both to busy herself with something, but also to have some coffee. Also also because the bathroom was on the opposite side of the living room. As she was staring at the coffee slowly dripping into the pot she tried to tie down at least one of her thoughts, but all of them returned to falling asleep holding Sam, and then she was flooded with a feeling not unlike a panic attack. The bathroom door opened, and Zoe could hear Sam walk into the living room, hesitate for a moment, and then come into the kitchen.

“Godmorning”

“Hey, morning”

…

“I uh, am making coffee, if you want some.”

Yes please. No matter how well I sleep I can always use coffee.”

Zoe blushed a bit at the comment. Sam on the other hand seemed much less affected by the situation.

“Oh by the way” Sam said leaning against the counter opposite Zoe; “I borrowed a brush for my hair.” I would have asked but you were sleeping like a baby.”

“Sure, I did say ‘Mi casa es su casa’ didn’t I?” Zoe managed in response

Sam exhaled through her nose sharply and smiled: “You did say that. Just words, init?”

They both shared a small laugh as the coffee finishes and Zoe poured them two cups. Sam took her coffee almost half milk and downed a large sip before looking heavenwards and making a satisfied sound Zoe would have climbed mountains to hear again.

“Good lord, the perfect addition to a wonderful time. I know I have said this a million times, but thanks for this Zoe. I was gonna have a really shitty evening and night and you have me an amazing one instead.”

“My pleasure.” Zoe said with a smile. “And thank you as well. I was going to have a very average night, and you made it a whole lot more fun. But you gotta let Emily know that if she has any other wayward friends they don’t all get the treatment you got.”

“Oh little old me got special treatment?” Sam teased before taking another huge sip from her coffee. While the evening had been relatively tame, there was now a slightly different charge in the air. The way Sam was eying Zoe over her coffee cup made Zoe want to do unspeakable things to a women she had met twelve hours ago.

“Oh I’ll show you what special treatment looks…” Zoe was interrupted by Sam’s phone buzzing

“Oh shit what time is it?” Sam whipped her phone out and cursed some more to herself. She drained her coffee in a final gulp and rushed into the living room to scoop up her charger, but lingered a moment as she felt the still warm couch. She frowned at her phone, before reluctantly rushing into the hallway.

“Sorry to rush out on you like this, but I gotta go. Emily is already waiting for me and we have places to be.” Sam said while pulling on her boots.

“Oh, yeah of course” Zoe managed after a bit, following Sam into the hallway. She had completely forgotten why Sam had even come by in the first place.

“Well I hope you had a good time. It was, uh, nice to meet you.”

Sam had gotten into boots, jacket, and backpack with the speed of someone who was not a stranger to running late. After zipping up her jacket she looked at Zoe with a strange look

“Nice to meet you? You make it sound so final. I assume we are gonna talk about it.”

Now it was Zoe’s turn to give her a strange look: “It? Talk about what?”

Sam had already gotten the door open and was half out of it when she turned around and grinned at Zoe:

“Right, talk about the kiss.”

Zoe went from confused to totally lost:

“Kiss? What ki..” before she could finish the thought Sam covered the distance between them, and replaced the word ‘kiss’ on Zoe’s lips with an actual one. She grabbed Zoe by the waist and pulled her into an embrace with one of her hands on the back of her head. Zoe melted into Sam for a few seconds she would remember for the rest of her life.

Sam broke the kiss as quickly as she had begun it, and looked at Zoe with the biggest grin on her face:

“At least I assume you wanna talk about that.”

“Y-yeah that seems, yeah let’s do that” Zoe affirmed in her best imitation of speech. Her head felt like a bell that Sam had just rung. Walking backwards out of the door Sam said:

“So let’s keep in touch. Maybe I can have some of that ‘special treatment’ you threatened me with,” and with that Sam casually raised her hand in way of a goodbye. When Zoe dumbly imitated the gesture Sam burst into a sudden laughter that was still audible after she closed the door. The laughter, and the sound of Sam skipping down the stairs, was now all that was left of the whirlwind that had swept through Zoe’s apartment, and more notably her heart.

Shambling back into her kitchen Zoe picked up her coffee and through the window saw Sam dashing across the street. She paused on the opposite side and looked up at Zoe’s place and waved before hurrying off to meet Emily. That was all it took to send Zoe’s heart into a flutter.

“Ohhhhhhh boy”