In the spotlight

12

Sofia Christensen

"Alright, love, we are all done." The older woman spoke up from behind the huge mahogany desk, sorting out a stack of papers before hitting their bottom on the furniture. Relief rushed through my body once I heard the words I had been looking forward to for the past few hours.

"Thank you. Have a great day." I stood up instantly, but I made sure to be as polite as possible. The fact that such a simple procedure takes hours to finish isn't her fault, and I saw on her face that she was just as happy as I was when she said the words.

I threw on my huge puffy winter jacket and zipped it up, grabbed my hat as well from the back of the chair, and headed out of the building into the expressly cold night of Paris. The winter here tends to be much warmer than what I was used to in the north, but I felt shivers going down my spine regardless.

My apartment was located a few blocks away from the doctor's office, but before walking there, I quickly took a turn towards the supermarket to buy groceries for my dinner. With a loaded bag, I returned back to the dark streets once again, feeling as though small snowflakes were hitting my face in every second I spent outside.

I put the bags from my hands in front of my door, trying to find the keys in my bag before inserting them into the hole, turning them until the familiar clicking sound was audible. I barged straight into the living room, turned the key back behind me, and put the bags on the countertop in the kitchen.

I looked around in the room when my eyes stopped on the clock under the gallery in front of the bedroom, as it revealed that it was barely past 5 in the afternoon. It was too early to start cooking dinner but too late to do anything else today, and Adriana wasn't home either to go out for a walk or something.

With no ideas in my head, I simply changed into a very oversized hoodie and a pair of leggings, put the hood on my head, and laid down on my couch, turning on the TV in front of me. While clicking between stations bored out of my mind, I suddenly stopped on a sports channel when a familiar white jersey appeared on the screen.

I looked up in the top left corner, where I could recognize both teams and the tournament instantly. I never really got into sports in my life, but a Real Madrid-PParis Saint-Germain Champions League was something that got even my attention quickly. Based on the timer, I tuned on right after the half-time, and with nothing better to watch right now, I stayed on the channel.

The snowing outside got heavier and heavier with each passing minute, which was clearly visible from the glass door to my balcony, not so far from the couch. With the curtains pulled away from the way, the huge snowflakes were clearly visible outside, with the Eiffel Tower shining in the distance.

I pulled out my phone from my pocket and took a quick picture of the door and my view from inside the apartment. Part of the TV screen was also visible, but I didn't pay too much attention to it because probably nobody would recognize it anyway. Without a second thought, I posted it to my Instagram story before turning my attention back towards the TV.

After the second half ended with a beautiful corner goal in favor of Madrid, it was already almost past six. I stayed on my crouch for another 30 minutes scrolling on my phone, but when I could not procrastinate any longer, I finally stood up and headed to the kitchen to prepare my dinner. Before doing anything, however, I made sure to open Spotify on the TV because I just can't cook without music.

I put the phone on the counter and started pulling out everything I bought today. First, I prepared the salmon, marinated the filets, and put them in the fridge to rest. Cut some brokkolinis into smaller pieces and put the rice into the cooker.