Where You Are

Windsor

Birgitta

Petra: How's your patient?

It was almost seven in the evening and Jesse had been virtually unresponsive for over an hour. I had a feeling he was done for the night.

Birgitta: Out for the count, I'd say.
Petra: Want some company? Rob's on nights this week and I'm a bit lonely
Birgitta: Yeah, definitely!
Petra: Brilliant, I'll be fifteen minutes. Do you like sushi?
Birgitta: Love it!
Petra: I'll bring some!
Petra: And wine!!
Petra: See you soon!

I was grateful she'd messaged me. I was getting a bit bored. I could only lay around in bed with Jesse and read for so long before I would go crazy. When she sent the message, I was sitting on his couch with my feet up on the solid oak coffee table, staring around his apartment aimlessly.

I'd turned on the TV earlier, but only found news and soap operas on. Definitely not my thing. I had started going through his collection of DVDs, but I felt weird doing it, like I was snooping. Same for his streaming services. I didn't want to mess with his account and for him to start getting strange suggestions on movies to watch based off of my search history.

It was a stupid thing to worry about. He'd handed me the remote himself the last time I visited and told me to pick something. He'd even told me he didn't care if we watched a girly princess movie.

Petra was closer to thirty minutes before I heard a knock on the door.

'Sorry, the food took longer than I thought it would,' she said, holding up a white plastic bag.

She wasn't in her work clothes anymore, she looked much more comfortable in leggings and an over-sized knit sweater.

'No worries,' I waved a hand dismissively. 'I'm just grateful to have someone conscious to talk to.'

'Don't blame you. So this is Jesse's place, eh?' She said, stepping inside and looking around. 'Definitely a bachelor pad. But not as bad as I thought it would be.'

'You've never been here before?' I asked, suddenly a bit nervous that Jesse would mind that I'd had her over.

'Nope,' she said, kicking off her shoes. 'You're practically the lady of the house though, I'm sure it's fine.'

I had nothing to say to that comment.

She put the food on his kitchen table and two bottles of wine in the fridge.

'Wow, there's even some veg in here, I'm impressed, unless you bought it,' she said, poking around the fridge. I had bought the vegetables. Jesse hadn't had much of anything in his fridge when I got here. Then she shut the door again and turned to me with a wide grin. 'So, what do you want to do?'

'I don't know,' I shrugged, averting my gaze. I really didn't want this to be awkward. I assumed she knew I wasn't wanting to leave the flat. Jesse was a bit crazy about actually being together when we were together, which I thought was very reasonable. The last thing I wanted was for him to wake up and me be gone. Petra had brought food and wine, there was no reason for us to go anywhere. 'I was just looking through his movies.'

'Whoa, look at these!' She walked over to Jesse's medal display. 'Wow, I mean, I knew he was a bit of a runner, but I had no idea he actually competed.'

'I think they're more for participation than anything,' I explained. He'd told me himself anyone who finished the race got a medal.

'Still, that's a lot,' she said, examining all the medals. 'Look, this one says Paris Marathon, and this one says Berlin!'