Chapter One: A Writer's Romance

Chapter Three- Hazelnut Coffee and a New Name

Ellis Anne

I awoke with a jolt to my phone buzzing on my nightstand, and grabbed it blindly.

"Hello?" I mumbled into the speaker, and heard laughter from the other end.

"I knew you'd still be sleeping," Tara's voice mocked. "Cris owes me twenty bucks for thinking you'd actually be awake before noon."

I groaned in irritation and sat up in bed, blinking quickly to adjust my eyes to the sunlight streaming in through my blinds.

"Yeah, yeah," I snapped. "It's a Saturday. Aren't you supposed to be working? Cris said you worked at ten today."

Tara made a sound of exasperation and Cris laughed. "I wrote my schedule down completely wrong," she explained. "I was supposed to work at ten yesterday, but I had it down for today, so when I got to work my boss chewed me out."

I laughed at this and rolled out of bed, sliding my feet into the bear paw slippers my mom had gotten me for Christmas.

"So, what's up?" I asked, stretching and walking over to the window.

"Well, I was going to try and pack some stuff up today and then go to dinner downtown, and Cris and I wanted to see if you'd like to join us. We won't be ready to go until about two, so you have some time to decide."

I pondered this for a moment and trudged to the bathroom to face my bedhead.

"I'll help you move," I told her after a moment of ripping through my hair with a comb, "but I'm about to have to get a new place to live, so I don't think I'm gonna spend any money on food right now besides groceries."

Cris laughed and I realized I was on speaker phone.

"It's okay, Ellis," he called from the other end. "It's on me."

I sighed, not feeling like it was fair to accept any more from Cris after the past few weeks of him and Tara spoiling me.

"Cris, I don't want to make you--" I began, but Tara cut me off.

"It's not a question, Ellis Anne; you're coming," she ordered, and I couldn't help but grin.

"Fine, Bossypants," I conceded. "I'll see you guys at two. Have fun banging until then." I hung up before they could protest much, laughing at the shouts of denial I overheard before I cut the line.

Upon returning to my bedroom, I glanced at my nightstand and noticed the bowtie. I sighed deeply and scooped it up to examine it more closely as I went over the previous night's events in my mind.

And then I remembered my dream.

I set the bowtie back down and shook all thoughts of Cliff Edgar from my mind. I was over it now, but I couldn't allow myself to just forget Xander for a guy I'd met twice. It'd only been two years since he'd...

I swallowed hard, remembering the night when I'd woken up in the hospital, freshly injured and newly alone. It wasn't something I let myself dwell on often, and it caught me off guard a bit with the dream I'd just had.

Shaking myself off, I headed to the bathroom to take a shower and get ready for the day. I had a few hours before I'd be joining up with Tara and Cris, so I thought I'd indulge in a rare pleasure of mine and go get waffles instead of eating ramen noodles for breakfast. The family-owned diner down the street served free waffles to anyone who worked in the news and magazine building due to them being the first two buildings in the town and having lots of old connections. Even though I was only a part-timer, I still counted.