AROUND THE HEART IN 80 DAYS

Forty Three

Just like that, like a finger snap, January was gone. The weather, funny enough, had a sudden rise in temperature. The snow that had deceived them into retreating made quite a comeback. What would be utterly terrible was if rain were to fall; water already threatened to freeze in the early hours of the morning. People reached down into their closets for more layers of jackets, fireplaces were being lit and there was the power outage not being news anymore.

Those who were unlucky had to keep on going to work. Students had it terribly rough. Or was it the teachers? The luckier ones were those who had privilege of working from home. Edrei and his roommate, however were very unlucky. She, more than him because of her nature of work at the community centre. But her hot, pillowy loaves at the bakery were selling like - well, hot cakes- so that was an up side.

He entered his house and shut the door quickly behind him. Power out on this side too. He had a rechargeable heater running which wasn't as effective at that point but oh bloody well!
Straight as a line, he marched towards her room, needing to vent. It's what they did anyway. He knocked once then barged in, immediately peeling off his beige wintercoat and putting down his briefcase at the foot of the bed. With his arms outstretched, he flopped face down on the bed.

His roommate spun around in her seat to him. He inhaled and turned his head only to look to her. A candle was burning in a holder at the corner of the table and a large book and some other smaller ones seemed to have been shifted to a corner. Her earplugs were on and she held her phone in her hand.
"I didn't hear you come in. You scared me."

"Who else has the key? Why are you being scared?"

"Whatever," she started to turn her body to him so her legs hung on the wooden arm of the chair. "Guess what."

Did he have the strength to guess? "Oh do I have to?"

"You'll never guess it anyway, I'll just tell you. So all of a sudden, YouTube starts to recommend French-speaking cartoons and shorts to me. From nowhere. It's like they can tell you're around."

Edrei's gaze was dull. "You don't say."

"You're enthusiasm is really over the top."

This time, he did chuckle. "Don't get ahead of yourself. They do that sometimes. I'm sure people can get even Polish recommendations and there are only Canadians around."

"It wouldn't kill you to play along."

"Jacqueline I have a headache from work and all I want to do is breathe and let it all out. Yoga dear, come over here and help me out huh?"

"Yoga dear?"

"You know you are. And I need the warmth of the companionship I'm sure you'll give me. It's kind of nice now that I think about it."

He almost heard her lips pinch but the legs of the chair still scraped against the floor, the candle went out and her feet shuffled. He smiled like an eager child when the weight on the space above his head dipped and her hands lifted his head to place it on her crossed legs.

"You just love being pampered. Anyway I made chicken noodle soup and when you're up for it, I can heat it up for you."

His head snuggled into the fold of her leg and he took hold of one angle as if finding warmth in there. "Yay."

She let him breathe regularly and slowly started to massage the sides of his temple. "I really wanted to tell you about one of the movies I started watching though."

"Oh God, is this massage a bribe?"

"I'll ask you about your day but I want to tell you about this one. Jack and the Cuckoo Clock Heart. I started it already. In fact just as you walked in-"