Don't Be Afraid To Love

Chapter 2

The following day, first thing in the morning I heard my phone beeping. I looked at the clock with foggy eyes and it read 7 AM. Even though I didn't drink too much, my head throbbed and my ears were ringing from the loud music, since I seldom went to parties. But I ended up staying until the party ended and danced with Maria and the others until my feet hurt.

I put the pillow over my head, avoiding the daylight at all costs, and tried to resume my sleep when a second beep followed. Seriously?, I growled, keeping the pillow over my head. After a few seconds, as I realized my sleep was compromised, I tried to search for my phone, patting the nightstand with my hand.

There were two unread text messages that said:

"Rise and shine, beautiful! It's such a lovely day outside!"

and

"How was the party? Did you meet anyone interesting?"

Both came from the same person.

"No, I didn't," I replied out loud with discontent in my voice, bothered by being waken up so early on a Sunday morning. I was too lazy to text back, I would send an actual reply later.

I got out of bed, forced by my bladder, and went straight to the bathroom and then under the shower. The lukewarm water and the tropical scent of my shower lotion did a really good job refreshing me, and my sleepy mood was almost gone.

I headed to the kitchen and contemplated whether to fix myself something for breakfast or to just skip it and have a coffee instead. I opened the fridge's door and stared at the empty shelves for a few seconds. I definitely have to go shop for some groceries, I said to myself and used that as a perfect excuse to skip breakfast, just like I was going to, anyway.

So I went to get dressed and left my small apartment, but not before putting on some make-up. I looked horrible in the morning, and leaving the house with no make-up on was out of the question.

My feet hurt like hell from the previous night because I wasn't used to wearing high heels, let alone dance for so many hours in them.

God bless whoever invented sneakers! I thought to myself while I put on my sports shoes and headed for the door. I grabbed my car keys, my phone, and my credit card and rushed out the door, heading for the gas station where I usually went to.

It was a twenty minute drive to the gas station, since it was situated on the other side of the city, close to the west exit, but it was my favorite gas stop, not because I thought their gas was of high quality or the prices were decent (quite frankly I never really filled up the tank from that station), but because they had the most amazing coffee to go. My favorite was the chocolate flavor cappuccino. I always bought the largest cup to get me through the day.

So I bought the coffee and a couple of pastries and went to the open terrace and chose a table where I could see the mountains. I could pick any spot since it was empty at that hour. The small terrace was covered to keep the sun away, and it had a few flower pots hanging from its canopy. It had a few rattan tables that had two armchairs each, being lined up along the gas station's building against its glass wall. I admired the view and took a sip of the hot coffee.

Mmm.. Good stuff! The first sip was always the best.

I looked at the phone's clock and it showed 8:30. I thought I should call my mother because if I didn't reply to her calls or texts she would usually freak out, but she was probably at church so I had to wait until 12 o'clock when the sermon was finished.

So while I ate my pastries, I browsed on Facebook. Among funny pictures, random articles, and different posts from my friends and acquaintances, I saw that Maria had already posted a few pictures from her wedding on her profile. When did she even have the time to post on social media? I wondered. She also tagged a lot of people in them, including myself. The photos didn't have a great quality, being taken with phone cameras, but they definitely depicted the happiness of the newly weds having fun with their friends and families, and that was all that mattered.