Hot cup of love

Five

Lou's POV

"SAM! You home?!" I shouted, walking into our appartment.

Not hearing any reply, I walked through the hall to our living room, to find Sam glued to the couch with her headphones and a book. I walked over to her smiling and lightly tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around, seeming half dazed, and sent a smile back.

"Hi Lou, sorry, I didn't hear you come in," she said taking off her headphones.

"No problem, what are you reading tonight?"

Plopping myself down next to her, I stretched and got comfy in our plushy sofa.

"Sense and Sensibility," she answered with a wide grin. "I practically know it by heart right now, but I can't help myself."

Seeing her gush over Jane Austen made me shake my head and smile.

"One day, a real life gentleman will come along and sweep you off your feet, mark my words!"

Rolling her eyes at me, she placed her book on the coffee table before heading towards the kitchen. We had an open living space including a semi-open kitchen with a small counter were we usually ate our breakfast. The space itself wasn't exactly big, but we'd managed to make it modern and cosy at the same time. The kitchen was white with light grey countertops and a brick pattern tile wall. We'd found two faux leather bar stools online and a matching set of four black wooden dining room chairs for our white vintage table. It wasn't really vintage, but we loved calling it that, because after we spotted it at a garden sale, we roughly painted it in white, so it would look older than it probably was. Behind the table, between the two windows facing the street, was a low cabinet where we stashed our board games, in the same off white color as the TV cabinet. Last but not least was my favorite piece of furniture, our light minty green couch with chaise longue from IKEA. It might've been secondhand, but since we knew the previous owner had barely used it, it was as good as new. Mr. Owens was a very neat old man who used to live on the first floor but due to his back problems, decided to move to a retirement home and couldn't take his recently bought sofa along with him. Filled with fluffy white cushions, it was my absolute favorite spot to lounge and watch TV.

"Meh, we'll see. So, how was your day?" she yelled with her head inside the fridge.

Suddenly I remembered why I was so excited to return home after my dancing class this afternoon.

"Surprisingly good! You'll never guess who I saw today!"

I folded my arms on the back of the couch and followed her movements while she prepared a couple of turkey sandwiches.

"Who? By the way, do you want me to make you a sandwich?"

"No thanks, I'm good." I shook my head, ignoring her disapproving glance. "Well, do you remember tall, dark and handsome from the coffeehouse?"

She abruptly lifted her head.

"No way!"

"Yes way! Turns out he has a little sister who's in my class. Her name's Julia and she's really cute and-"

"What about him?" She interrupted me. "I can imagine she's cute, what did you expect in a room full of little dancing girls. But did you talk to him? Did you ask his number? When will you see him again?"

"Whoa, calm down roadrunner! We didn't talk, but I learned his name is Luca, although for some reason, she calls him Orry. It would've been way too awkward to ask his number, since we only exchanged a couple of words. Maybe, if he picks her up again, I'll see him, or if we went to the coffeehouse again."

For some reason, I was hoping she felt like going there again, just to have an excuse to tag along.

Chewing on her sandwich, I could see the gears turning in her head.

"My shift starts in an hour, which means I won't be done until morning. Hey, how about we get breakfast there?"

"Can't, I already booked the studio for myself tomorrow morning until noon."

"And after lunch?" Sam asked as she stood up and went to her room to get her scrubs on.

"Sorry, I promised Jonathan I'd go to the gym with him."

I got up and decided to fix myself a salad to eat in front of the TV. Scanning the fridge, I took out some avocado, rucola and sundried tomatoes and started chopping away.

"Omg I feel like I haven't seen that goofball in ages! How is our little slutttt?" she laughed from her room.

"Sam!" I scolded.

Jonathan was my other best friend. We met in high school, when he was being bullied by some jocks. Just because he was this nerdy, lanky, shy guy, they felt the need to shove him into a locker almost every day. But after we met and his bullies got a mouthful from Sam, things got better. Only after a couple of months did he feel comfortable enough to come out to us and he's been our gay bestie ever since.

"You know I hate it when you call him that!" I told her for the thousandth time when she returned to the living room. With her light blue scrubs and her long dark hair up in a high ponytail, she looked like a picture perfect nurse.

"Pfuh, he knows I love him and don't mean anything nasty when I call him that! He'd probably describe himself way worse!"

"True," I said grinning. "He's good, bored out of his lazy ass, so he asked me to be his motivating coach and hit the gym together. The restaurant will be closed so he doesn't have to work the evening shift."

"That reminds me: we should totally go there again sometime soon! I've been craving his pastizio!"

A year after we moved to the city, Jonathan graduated culinary school and started working in this amazing Greek restaurant only two blocks away. His family was originally from Greece and the owner was an old friend of his dad.

"I'll tell him to fix us a table next weekend, how does that sound?"

Grabbing her purse and keys, Sam turned and said: "Deal! See you tomorrow hun!" Before walking out the door.

Plating my salad, I grabbed a fork and plopped down on the couch with a soft, marigold yellow blanket for some very overdue Netflix binge time.