The story of you and I

CHAPTER 1

Waking up before your body does it naturally has always seemed like a sin to me, my fogged brain thinks as I hit the alarm clock with one hand to stop it from ringing, the clock signals that it is 7:00 am. 3 more days until the weekend ...

Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but I'd like it better if it started at 11 am instead of 8:30. They say that you can get used to everything, but I have woken up early for elementary school, middle school, high school and even all of my university years, and I am still not used to it, I have always considered myself a night owl.

After doing my morning routine, I turned on the coffee maker, the unmistakable aroma fills my lungs and my body with energy as I read the news on my cell phone, first things first, respond to the good morning message from Jordan, my boyfriend of 3 years, I do it in a mechanical way, wishing him a good day and reminding him that today we must go gift shopping  for his little niece's birthday, sometimes I feel more like his PA than his girlfriend, but that's normal, isn't it? It is normal after a while to fall into a routine and that things no longer surprise or excite you, you just go with the flow like a dozing fish, day by day. It is normal?

While driving to the Sutton Plaza hotel, I can see people running on the boardwalk, apparently enjoying the morning exercise in front of the sea breeze, and I can't help but feel a mixture of envy and pity for them, in one hand I wanted to have that level of energy in the mornings and on the other, who the hell waste their precious sleep-time running? If they have nothing better to do, they should be sleeping.

"Good morning, Miss Montgomery, how are you today?" Jorge very kindly greets me as he opens the door of my car and reaches out to take the keys and take my car to park it in the designated parking lot for hotel employees.

"Excellent, as always, Jorge, and you?" I respond with a false good sense of humor and optimism. Jorge gives me a warm smile like every day and simply nods while accepting the car keys.

The morning goes by without incident, I am busy with my activities as the hotel operations' manager, feeling in my element, this is where I really feel happy and fully functional, suddenly my work is interrupted by a text message.

"Hello, earth calling to Emma, ​​earth calling to Emma" read Ana's message. Uughhhh, I completely forgot that I had to meet Ana for lunch, and I was already 15 minutes late.

"Sorry, I was in a meeting with the shareholders, and it just finished" I lie to save myself, shit, why didn't my calendar on my phone reminded me! "I'm leaving right now"

I take a taxi because that way I don't have to worry about finding parking when I get to Ana's favorite restaurant. As soon as I get to the restaurant, I find her at the bar with a cocktail in hand, "isn't it too early for that?" I say, pointing to the Martini glass.

"This? Noo, what happens is that you never know how to have fun and live a little for a change" she says with a mocking smile on her face, which changes in a moment to worried eyes. And that's the way Ana is, first she lets go of her tongue and then thinks about what she said and many times she ends up feeling guilty for being so frank, but without a doubt, it is one of the things I appreciate most about her.

I look at her with a long face until I can't take it anymore, I roll my eyes and pull her into a hug. Ana returns the hug and giggles, knowing that I can never really get mad at her.

"Do you have a table for us, or do you think I'm going to have lunch at the bar?" I say with a raised eyebrow, teasing her. Our table is located next to one of the restaurant windows looking at the ocean. I get lost looking at the vastness of the sea and feeling, just for a second, blessed to be able to live in this beautiful city, sometimes life goes by so fast that I don't have a minute to enjoy the little things like this view and the company of my best friend.

"How's Mr. Jordan?" Ana asks, pulling me out of my trance. Ana has a particular way of pronouncing Jordan's name as if pronouncing his name causes a bad taste in her mouth.

"Well, you know the usual stuff, busy at the firm" I reply cautiously, wishing Ana and Jordan got along better, but there is simply no chemistry there. "This weekend is Domenica's birthday, and today we are going out to buy a gift for her"

Ana looks at me, looking bored, and takes my hand across the table. "When are you going to realize that you're not happy with him?" she tells me with concern in her eyes.

"The fact that your relationship with Andrew is so different from ours doesn't mean that we are not happy," I reply abruptly, raising my tone without really wanting to. Ana releases my hand and raises both hands as if surrendering to any other comment on my part.

"Sorry, but really, we are fine, it's just ... you know, the routine, work, we have a lot on our plate right now, but everything is fine" I say without looking her in the eye.

"Ok, I just want you to know that I know you like nobody else, you are my best friend, almost my sister and I just want you to be happy, I want to see you enjoy your life ... not like the robot you have become" she said the last part of the sentence camouflaged between a false cough. Again, I rolled my eyes ... deep down I knew my best friend was right ...

Lunch was spent talking a bit about everything, especially Andrew and all his innumerable qualities (insert blank eyes here), but it was true, Andrew was a tall pale-skinned boy, black hair, deep black eyes that contrasted perfectly with Ana's tan skin and chocolate long hair, they made a beautiful couple and always seemed to be on the same page on everything, they complemented each other so well... if I believed in soul mates they would be the image of that. At first, I didn't like him very much because he came to take my best friend away from me, but after overcoming my childhood possessive instinct, we started to get along very well, and I couldn't be happier for both of them.

After Ana left me at the hotel, and while I should have been working, there was something in the back of my head that kept tormenting me, Ana's voice like an echo that repeated not like the robot you have become, a robot, was my life so monotonous and emotionless? I was trying to think about the last time I was really happy and was scared when I couldn't point it out.

I took the cell phone out of my blazer pocket to send a message to Jordan.

16:05 Me: "Hey, I hope you had a good lunch, what time will you pick me up?

...

...

17:17 Jordan S: "Hello baby, I have a meeting with some clients in a few minutes, how about 7 PM? We can have dinner and then go shopping" I hate when he calls me baby, I have never been comfortable with cute pet names.

17:18 Me: "Ok"

While I was getting ready for my outing with Jordan in front of the mirror I thought about what to wear, usually, my style is very different from the clothes I wear for work which are always pencil skirts, fitted dress pants or suits, but in my spare time, I like to wear jeans, T-shirts or hoodies and my beloved black converse, even though Jordan hates them. So I chose skinny jeans, a white T-shirt with the logo of a rock band and a jacket, I decided to leave my dark hair loose, it looked a bit messy, and I wanted so badly to pick it up in a bun like always, but not today, I wanted to get out of the rut, so I let it be its own mess.