Electric Love

Chapter Four

           I awoke to sunlight playing peek-a-boo through the narrow slits in my blinds. I groaned, not ready to get the day started. I had so much I needed to do before the my date the following night—laundry, cleaning the floors of the apartment, straightening up my own room. I stretched my muscles, and sat up, my pillows supporting my back as I sat against my cherry wood headboard. I yawned, rubbing sleep from my eyes and then grabbed my phone from its spot on my nightstand. The time read 1:00 pm and I was surprised to see how late I’d slept in. Checking my notifications, I noticed I had four texts—two from sydnei informing me that she had left for work and she’d be home around 5:30. Once she got home, we’d be getting ready for our girls night out. I decided not to respond and proceeded to check my other texts. The name of the sender, made my heart leap and a huge grin broke out on my face. I had to admit, a part of last night didn’t feel real. A guy—no scratch that.. a MAN, (because lets be honest, a man is what he is) like him wanted to take me out, wanted to get to know me.. ME! The grin remained on my face as I read both messages.

          K: Goodmorning, bellissima. I hope you slept well!  (beautiful)
          K: I can't wait to take you out tomorrow. I'm in a meeting but its all i can think about! 😩
I blushed at the compliment. He called me beautiful! Ugh, be still my heart! I didn’t think he’d expect a girl like me to know any italian, so I figured I’d surprise him with my response. And as I hit send, I took my bottom lip between my teeth, nervously.
          R: Morning, prestante.. or good afternoon. Lol, sorry I'm just now waking up. I slept great actually! wbu? & I can't wait either but, tornare al lovoro! Just text me when you're done for the day. 😊
(‘prestante’- handsome and ‘tornare al lovoro’- get back to work!)
           I waited for a minute to see if he’d read my message right away. When he didn’t, I locked my phone before throwing the covers off of me  and standing up, padding my way over to my closet for a pair of sweatpants. When I found a pair, I put them on and used the hair tie around my wrist to gather all of my hair in a messy bun. I grabbed the clothes hamper filled the brim with dirty clothes that had the distinct smell of old food and liquor. I scrunched my nose up, only hoping that I would be able to rid my clothing of the smell of my job at Vinny’s.
          Vinny’s originally belonged to Frankie’s father, Vinny, but upon his passing at the ripe old age of eighty-three years old, Frankie took over. When he first took his father’s place, he was full of all of these fun, fresh, creative ideas to revamp the décor of the retro Italian restaurant. After a couple months, he realized how much hard work his father had put in each and everyday and the ideas stopped pouring out of him.. He stayed late hours, going over stacks and stacks of paperwork, finances, and even bought a couch for the office so he could crash there sometimes.
          I walked down the hall across from the bathroom, where two sliding doors revealed a washer and dryer that were provided with the apartment. I opened the lid to the washer and loaded my clothes into the drum, adding detergent and fabric softener before hitting the start button and shutting the lid. It was entirely too quiet in there, the only sounds coming from the water filling up the washer, so I went back into my room and grabbed my phone. I pulled up Pandora and settled on a 90’s station. Turning on my bluetooth speakers, my phone immediately connected and a song started playing. I sang along to the song softly, and a couple others as I tidied up my room.
          With the music playing and me in the zone, before I knew it I had cleaned the living room, switched my clothes over to the dryer, and straightened up the bathroom and dining room. Feeling pleased with how much I had accomplished, I retrieved my phone from my bed checking the time. It was a quarter till three and I still had plenty of time before Syd got off, so I decided to take a shower and treat myself to a little shopping and pampering myself. Once I had gotten out of the shower, I got dressed in a pair of dark skinny jeans that sported a hole on both knees and I paired it with a cropped oversized tan sweater with a cute pair of tan booties to match. I applied a light amount of makeup and curled my hair a little bit. Finished, I smiled at my reflection, feeling a little more like myself than I’d felt in a while, and I was happy with my appearance. I turned off my speakers, shoved my phone in my pocket, and grabbed my bag and keys before I headed out the door making sure to lock it behind me.
I hopped into my jeep and unlocked my phone as I shut the driver’s side door. I saw I had two more texts from Kaine, and I could feel myself getting excited. I scrolled past his texts to my messages with Sydnei.