Page 54 of I’m Dreaming of a New York Christmas

I rested my head on the back of the sofa and reached for my phone. Urgh, I needed Wi-Fi. I re-pocketed it and closed my eyes for a moment. This wasn’t going to happen, was it? My brain tried to rationalise the unexpected turn of events through a series of imaginary bullet points:

You shouldn’t get too close to him.

This isn’t you.

You’re not even on the pill.

At least you got some nice notebooks out of it.

My body told my brain to fuck off.

‘Hey,’ Ethan said, perching on the edge of the sofa and reaching for his glass to drain the final drops. It really was delicious champagne.

‘Howdy,’ I replied.

‘I think the gods have spoken, haven’t they?’

‘I suspect the moment may have passed, yeah.’

He threw his head back against the back of his end of the sofa. ‘Jeeeeeez, talk about calamitous.’

‘Nice word.’

‘It felt right.’

‘Lots of today has felt right.’

Careful, Flora.

‘Yeah, it has. It’s been really nice. Like, this is the best I’ve felt about myself in a long time, so… despite everything… thank you for reawakening me. Eww, that sounds gross. Ignore I said that last bit.’

‘Haha, it’s fine. I know exactly what you mean because it’s the same for me, too. This is a great space, by the way,’ I said looking around, trying to switch my train of thought to a different track entirely. The more I thought about it, the more I decided that sleeping with Ethan would have been a monumentally bad idea. I liked him too much.

‘Thanks, I’ve been here for about six months, but I can’t get too attached – a couple I know are subletting it to me while they travel.’

‘Where did you live before?’

‘A different part of Brooklyn.’

‘Alone?’

He set down his glass on the wooden coffee table and, in five twists, rotated it in a full circle by the rim before answering. ‘No.’

I squeezed his shoulder once in understanding, before extracting my phone again. ‘Hey, can I connect to your Wi-Fi?’

‘Sure, let me grab the passcode.’

He passed me a Post-it note from a drawer in the desk and I entered the code. Another message from Anneka appeared, but not on the group chat this time:

Anneka:

Hey, just an update: think the jetlag must have caught up with Mum as she’s out for the count! I should probably stay here and keep an eye on her in case she voms again (!). So, if you’re good to keep adventuring without us, that’s probably the best use of your time for now. Please keep me posted on when you’re heading back! A x

Huh. I rarely got one-on-one messages from Anneka, so I could only presume she didn’t want Mum to know that Anneka was looking after her – she was notoriously resistant to any acts of care or kindness.

Flora:

All good. I’ve actually… met someone??! So I guess you could say the timing has worked out pretty well.