THERE AND BACK AGAIN (Joseph Quinn)

The Next Day

Thankfully Sarah's first Lecture wasn't until 11am.

She peeled her bleary eyes open and almost fell into the kitchen in pursuit of tea, and paracetamol, in that order. She'd had every intention of going in early today to get some rehearsal done for her recital that was happening in a few weeks. That simply was not going to happen.

As she savoured the hot sweet tea in her mug, switched on the news and then grabbed hold of her phone, there was a message from an unknown number. It took a moment for her hungover brain to realise that it wasn't an unknown number. She had been too pissed (or love drunk?)  to save the number under Joes name. The message was from HIM!
Sarah's stomach did a sickening flip as she opened it,
'Hey gorgeous, hope you slept well ❤️ meet you at Leicester Square station at 8 tonight, Zedels booked 😉 Joe xoxo'
'Hey Joe, feel like I have a pheasant nesting in my head, but 8 sounds good 😌 see you there xoxo' her hand shook with excitement as she pressed the send button. She smiled and threw the phone down on her bed and walked away from it, staring at it like it was an unexploded bomb.
She returned to the bed after putting an extra sugar in her tea and crawled back in it for a few glorious moments, fleetingly picking up her phone and squinting at the screen to see if there was a reply, there wasn't. She threw the phone away in disgust and laid back on her pillows, whilst she waited for the caffeine and painkillers to hit the spot.

As she eventually arrived at work she made a beeline for the staff room, in search coffee. One of Sarah's colleagues watched her tip two large heaped teaspoons into her relatively small mug.
"Woah, you ok Sarah?"
"Yes, Miriam? Why?"
"Two teaspoons of death coffee?"
"Late night mate" quipped Sarah "very late night" scrunching up her nose in reply
"Well you look great for someone who has had a late one!"
"Ah bless you Maz" Sarah tapped her on the shoulder and walked away towards her room she felt a bit like she was floating, she was still hanging, but floating!

Her cogs oiled by two 'death' coffees, the lecture went better than expected and she was able to slip away unnoticed early. All day she kept checking her phone, hoping that he would message her again, not really knowing why, then berating herself for acting like a lovesick teenager.
Sarah received an update on Lisa's evening indeed confirming that indeed the thing with Ben was done, and she hadn't had any sleep! Sarah in turn replied about her date with Joe. Lisa tried to call her immediately, Sarah replied with a text that she was still at work and would call her later. She knew Lisa would be after every juicy detail.

When she got back to her flat she rang her eager friend.
"I KNEW something happened" Lisa said upon answering her phone
"No greeting? No 'how was your day dear friend?! 'Accusations! Accusations!" Sarah tutted at Lisa jestingly,
"You're right, though" she added almost as an afterthought. Lisa spluttered and tripped over her words
"Wha...? What?! Sarah Byrne you sly dog!"
"It was only a kiss!" Sarah replied, trying to play down the significance of the event. She had butterflies in her stomach just talking about it.
"Anyway, I'm far more interested to hear about your evening! " Sarah laughed "now, about the thing?......"

The distraction worked, Lisa was no longer drilling her for details. Sarah started to get ready whilst she was chatting to Lisa, choosing her clothes with her phone stuck to her ear. After 40 mins she had to insist to Lisa that she needed to get in the shower. She had learned far more about Ben than she had ever envisaged in that time, and wasn't sure she could ever look him in the eye again after what Lisa had just described.

Sarah settled on a floatier dress, black of course, slightly less clingy but a lower cut than the previous evenings offering. The description 'more girlfriend material' went through her head before she dismissed it as being ridiculous.

She showered and set her hair so it would fall into loose waves just before leaving and took more care than usual with her makeup that evening, lining her large eyes perfectly, which was something she hardly ever did as it took so long. Sarah figured that this may be the only opportunity she might get, so she intended to make it count. As she stood in front of her mirror checking her leather jacket suited the outfit,  she took a deep intake of breath to steady her nerves.