the blind side of love | chaennie

thirty-one

The phone rang early on January 1st, which no one had expected mainly because such things shouldn't happen, and though Roseanne was the furthest from the phone, she was the only one that dragged herself out of bed to answer it.

Alice and Hyeri had come prepared to spend the night and their inflatable mattress now took up most of the living room. But Roseanne smiled at the sight of them snuggled up under the covers, oblivious to the sound of the ringing phone, or perhaps just too hung over.

"Hello?" she said, hiding her annoyance, or at least trying to.

The voice at the other end of the phone sounded entirely too awake. "Hi! Is this Lisa Manoban? My name is Jaebeom Lim and I'm the director of Little Purple Butterflies, which you might've heard of. Anyhoo, Sooyoung Park gave me your number. She's the casting director for Summer's Dance and a good friend of mine, and she told me you would be absolutely perfect for my lead. Which is fabulous because I really need a lead. I know it's a holiday and all but I was hoping you'd be available for coffee or maybe brunch so we could talk about the film and everything. What do you say?"

Roseanne rubbed her eyes with her free hand. "I'm sorry, this isn't Lisa. Hang on." She knocked on Lisa's door, too tired to wrap her mind around everything the guy had said to her. When Lisa didn't answer, Roseanne knocked harder, and heard a groan from somewhere in the living room. Exasperated, she turned the handle and walked in.

Lisa's room was a mess of clothes and papers, and the bed was a rainbow of laundry that might've been clean or dirty or a combination of both. Roseanne crawled on the bed and dug Lisa's arm from beneath the covers. Her best friend moaned in protest as Roseanne put the phone in her hand. "Phone call," Roseanne said.

"I'll call back," Lisa mumbled.

"It's a film director."

Lisa was up in a flash, as though the words had been infused with caffeine or perhaps electricity. "Hello? Hi? This is Lisa."

Roseanne smiled to herself and left Lisa to her phone call.

In the living room, Alice was stretching. "How much did we drink last night?"

Roseanne smiled at her sister. "Entirely too much." She looked down at the mattress to see that Hyeri was still sleeping. To Alice, she said, "Coffee?"

"I knew I loved you for a reason," Alice said, yawning. She followed Roseanne into the kitchen. "Did I hear the phone?"

"Some film director," Roseanne said, realizing after saying it that she should've sounded more excited. "I'll, um, give that the proper intonation it deserves after I get some caffeine in my system."

Alice looked surprised. "A film director, really? I better get Lisa's autograph now before she starts to forget the little people."

Roseanne smiled and turned to the business of making coffee. She'd drank less alcohol than the rest of them during their big New Year's extravaganza, but her head was still killing her.

Alice sat at the table and Roseanne saw her looking at the book she'd left there. "The Poisonwood Bible," she read off the cover. "I think I read this in college. Is it still on the syllabus?"

She hadn't told her sister about Jane. Didn't really know what to tell him, except, "This girl I met online recommended it."

"You've been hanging out in chat rooms lately?"

"Not exactly. She bought a painting from me a while back and emailed to say she liked it. We hit it off."

Alice smiled and flipped through the book. "That was nice of her."