I Want to Know Who You Are

Chapter Four

Sunlight peered through slits in the blinds of the bedroom window, eventually finding and illuminating Avery's face in the otherwise dark room. She groaned as her eyes fluttered open and made contact with the unwelcome brightness. The recent stress brought on by her job had made it impossible for her to sleep late on weekends. She stretched, yawning out any remaining exhaustion in her body. Grabbing her phone off of the nightstand beside her bed, she tapped the screen to check the time. 8:15. The days of sleeping until noon and lying on the couch all day were long behind her. She checked for any unread work emails before climbing out of bed and heading toward the small kitchen of her two-bedroom apartment to make coffee.

As dark liquid began to slowly drip from the top of her electric coffee machine, she slowly remembered fragments of the dream she had the night before.

A field of sunflowers.

Long brunette hair adorning a person walking in front of her.

A day so beautiful, it could only occur in her imagination.

Avery never remembered her dreams, so it struck her as odd that this one had been so vivid. She attempted to visualize the face of the other person, but it eluded her.

The clicking sound that indicated a full pot of coffee jolted Avery back to the present. She grabbed her favorite mug, one whose design changed based on the heat of the contents within it, from the cabinet and filled it with the scalding liquid. She made her way to her home office, being extremely careful not to spill the drink.

Most of Avery's time at home was spent in the room that she used for both business and leisure. A large, L-shaped, oak desk occupied the space in front of a window in the back right corner, a red sofa chair placed in the adjacent corner.
A large bookshelf, filled with everything from DIY manuals to autobiographies to the latest Sci-Fi novel rested against the wall, beside the chair. The door to the room shared a wall with a modern style record player that sat atop a box shelving unit, filled with vinyl records from every decade. The room was bright and welcoming; it was Avery's safe place.

She took a seat in the leather chair behind her desk as she placed her mug down after deeming it still too hot to drink. She turned on her monitors, wiggled the mouse to wake her computer, and reopened the internet browser that she had been using to research possible vacation destinations as the screens lit up. It may only be January, but Avery made a promise to herself to go on more adventures this year, if her work schedule allowed. As she began browsing pictures of beautiful beaches in foreign locations, her phone vibrated on the desk, informing her of an incoming call. The name flashing on the screen read Jordan. She picked up the device and clicked the green answer button.

"Hey, what's up?" she greeted.

"Hey there, nothing much. Just wanted to see what you were up to today," Jordan replied.

"I didn't really have any plans. I was thinking about maybe going down to that little book store on 7th street to see if I can find anything interesting."

"You already have like 15 books that you haven't read," he chuckled.

He was right. Avery smirked as she looked over to the full bookshelf. "I know! But I swear I'm eventually going to read them. Plus, you're one to talk, you bought a new video game last week while you have a rack full of ones you refuse to get rid of because you keep saying you're 'going to play them again'," she mocked. She had only been to Jordan's place a few times, but his 3-foot stack of games was impossible to miss.

"Hey now, that's different, there are so many different ways to play them. There's only one way to read a book. But I'm just messing with you. I think your nerd side is adorable. I actually called for a reason though. Would you maybe want to go to dinner tonight? You can even choose where." His tone was hopeful but Avery sensed a hint of insecurity behind it.