Christmas At the West House.

Hot cocoa & umbrellas

Previously:

The meta says, "Iris said something about -"

Barry stops him before he can finish. "My days of meddling with time are over."

Barry pauses before turning to leave.

"Next time you say her name again..." Barry says sternly.

______

He then presses the lock button and walks away as he hears the meta curse, kick and scream for him to come back and release him.

When Iris clocks out at 10pm, she steps outside to realize that the rainstorm had gotten worse. Luckily, she had packed her trusty polka dot umbrella from high school.

Iris finally arrives home and rushes upstairs to dry herself with a towel. The thought of the long week she's had makes her exhale loudly.

She checks on Joe and finds him already tucked into bed, snoring like a piglet. With a smile, she quietly places a kiss on his forehead and shuts the door behind her.

Iris enters her room and falls facedown flat into her bed. The sound of rain pouring and thunder rumbling sends a relaxing feeling through her body.

She reaches over and hugs her favorite ocean blue stuffed pillow.

Her moment is interrupted by the sound of her phone buzzing. She rolls to her side to take it out of her front pocket.

It's a flood alert warning.

She places her the phone on her side table and notices a foil wrapped plate.

She peels the foil off to see the plate of spaghetti and meatballs Joe had left out for her. Almost immediately, she feels a stream of drool almost escape her mouth.

She quickly picks up the cup of water right next to the plate and takes a long sip. She was going to devour her dinner after a hot shower. She thought to herself.

She picks up her phone and shuffles her slow jazz playlist.

She enters the bathroom and begins to brush her teeth. Humming to the serene instrumentals and swaying to the melodies.

BEEPPP! Followed by a vibration. Abruptly, her music stops.

She goes to see if she had an incoming phone call but instead, she sees a text from the last person she was expecting to hear from.

It reads: "Can you meet?" From, Eddie.

Eddie hadn't spoken to her for almost two weeks. And now, all of a sudden, he wanted to... see her? Iris carefully places her toothbrush on her side table and sits on her bed.

She carefully types: "Yes!" then cancels it. "Too eager." She thinks.

Iris finally stops overthinking and replies: "yeah, I'm free tomorrow." She hits send. Immediately following that, she adds: "is everything ok?" She didn't want to seem too pushy.

The last time they talked, he basically called her self-centered and she was not about to have that happen again. Eddie's words had left a bitter sting.

Iris waits for his reply in anticipation. She pets her soft pillow slowly, watching her phone screen.

Finally, it lights up, indicating that Eddie is typing. Followed by two pings.

Eddie replies: "is now a good time?"... "i'm sort of outside your house."

Iris hears the rain and thunder intensify from her window.