“Oh, god, well, we can’t have that, not while you must be exhausted. Come in! Come on, come in. I made you the best spinach frittata you have ever eaten and ever will eat, unless you eat another one of my spinach frittatas in the future. I mean, no offense, but you look dead on your feet.”
“Well, gee, with friends like these, huh?” I laughed, hands on my hips, before I gave her a once-over. “You didn’t mention you were going to wear stilts out to meet me.”
“I told you I’m six foot,” she laughed.
“Are you sure you’re only six feet? I’d believe it if you were rounding down.”
“Comeon,” she laughed. “Get inside before I have to carry you in. It’d be easy with my lumbering giant build.”
Aside from the fact that her face was so much higher up than I expected, she looked uncannily the same as she had in selfies, video chats, old Snapchat exchanges, same glasses and messy bun she wore like it was a uniform, and it was funny how surreal it felt. Like I’d never really processed that she was a real person, like I was meeting a fictional character from my favorite book series.
It was comforting, though. It felt like being home, even in a place I’d never been before, and I was all too happy to follow her into a beautiful house filled with all Daniela’s pops of color everywhere. She was a design consultant for a real estate firm, and even though she had periods of traveling a lot for work, mostly she worked from home, and she had a million keepsakes from her on-site work travels through her home. It felt nostalgic and new at the same time recognizing most of those keepsakes—little figurines and framed postcards, books in different languages, street artist drawings, and a million things each with their own stories, most of which I knew.
Daniela led me inside, chattering away the whole time, talking about the big party tonight to celebrate my arrival. I stripped off my ballet flats at the door and set down my luggage, and I joined her in a big, airy kitchen with bay windows that looked out over the Green Mountains, the room rich with the scent of her food. She guided me to sit down while she spoiled me—rushed around me and set down a mug of tea, a smoothie,a piece of frittata and potatoes and a croissant with what looked like two different kinds of jam.
“Jesus, woman, I’m not a vacuum cleaner,” I said, and she patted me on the back.
“You don’t have to eat it all. Just making sure there’s enough food for whatever your body needs. You can’t run halfway across the country and not be hungry.”
“Okay, first of all, Boston to Vermont is not half the country, and second of all, I didn’t run, I took a car.”
She laughed. “Just eat up,” she said, dropping down across from me, at a place set with just as much food on her side, and her eyes sparkled as she looked at me. “It’s kind of wild seeing you in person. You look just like… well, you.”
I put a hand to my chest. “Thank you. What a great compliment.”
She grinned. “You know what I mean, though, right? Like, you’ve just been a face in my screen for years.”
“Yeah, honestly. I’d been thinking the same thing. I’mreallygrateful for you letting me do this… the last thing I want to do is impose.”
She shook her head. “Nuh-uh. None of that! I invited you. Make yourself at home.”
“It’s a beautiful house. Thank you so much. I’ll do something to pay you back, even if you don’t want me to. Just watch!”
She laughed, digging into her meal. “So, what’s the story? Did you get here okay?”
“Yeah, that… I almost drove into a tree.”
She choked on her croissant, a hand over her mouth, as she shot me a wild-eyed look. “You didwhat?Oh my god, are you okay?”
“A tree fell in the road right on a blind corner, and I got in before they closed the road. I came this close to hitting it,” I said, holding my fingers up close together. “I’m still a little shaky.”
“Jesus. But they’ve closed the road off now?”
“Yeah, and my car’s still there…” I scratched my head. “I couldn’t drive around, and it would have taken ages to reroute to get here from the north. But someone was there doing work around it, and her car was on the other side of the tree, so she just took my luggage and drove me here.”
She stared wide-eyed at me. “You took all your things and got in a stranger’s car?”
“She said she knew you. In fact, I didn’t even have to tell her your address, I just said your name…”
“Oh.” She laughed, relaxing back into her seat. “Thank god. Jesus, that’s terrifying. Who was it?”
Yeah… that was the hard part, wasn’t it? I kept on a smile as I said, “Her name’s Jade.”
She smiled a nervous smile, folding her hands on the table. “Oh… I guess I could have figured that. I’m glad she was there to help.”
I hesitated before I ventured in a careful voice, “So… you two are friends?”
She shrugged, looking away. “It’s a bit messy right now. I mean, friend groups are always like that, right?” she said, busying herself with her food. “I swear I know half the town just because I go to the Birdhouse all the time. Jade and I were close for a while, but there was kind of an… argument recently. I’m hoping things blow over soon.”
