Buzzed Hearts

92: wake-up calls

"GOOD MORNING."

Camila blinks the haze out of her eyes as she replays the voice note Laurent left her at 6:00AM. There's a teddy bear emoji right under the text and a picture of his breakfast: two fried eggs, orange slices, and toast. She sends him a good morning text as well.

Before Camila can even finish squeezing toothpaste onto her toothbrush, her phone starts ringing. The zoomed in photo of Laurent's face Camila had set as his contact pic shows up on her screen.

"Hello?" She picks up.

"Morning Mila," he says.

His deep voice and slow words fill her head and Camila feels as if she's already had her morning—she imagines this is what smokers feel when they take their break after a long day. Or the feeling of stepping into a hot bath after having just been outside in January. To Camila, Laurent is both soothing and exhilarating in ways that she has yet to experience.

"You've already said that." Camila laughs. "Good morning to you too."

"I've been up for hours already. It's so boring now that I'm home. I miss you guys."

"What'd you do this morning?"

"You know..."

"Hm?" Camila presses.

"Justwaitingforyoutowakeup."

"Sorry?"

"I've just been packing, okay. I know you heard me the first time."

"What time?"

"The...first? Come on, Mila." Laurent's voice grows quiet. "I'll be back soon, yea? I'll fix everything then."

"Like I said," Camila says, "there's no need. We can just move forward in whatever way feels most natural. I don't want to force it this time."

"Well, you don't have to but I certainly plan on doing so. I'm not 17 anymore."

"Oh, look at you! So grown up," Camila teases. "I have to brush my teeth Mr. King. Another day another rehearsal."

"When do you end tonight?"

"Hm, I'm not sure yet. I'll have to see if I still need to make any improvements."

"I'll call you tonight if you're free. Practice hard."

"I'll text you if I can, okay?"

"Okay."

"Okay."

"Maybe okay will—"

"Don't even," Camila cuts him off. "Bye for real this time. Finish packing soon so you can get here while the snow's still pretty."

"It'll probably turn ugly by tomorrow."

"Then fly here tonight."

Laurent chuckles. "Go now. My flight's next week."

"Bye."

"Bye."

"Seriously, bye. By the way, Jeremy asked if you wanted to be roommates with him."

"Yeah, he called me last night."

"And?"

"And what?"

"Are you going to move in with him?"

"Woah there. I'm not that serious with him."

"I'm serious."

"About me?"

Camila rubs her temple. It seems as if Laurent had somehow heard her do so and cleared his throat.

"Yeah I'm moving in with him."

"Okay, that's nice to hear. Goodbye now."

"Bye."

"..."

"Mila, hang up. Stop stalling."

"Okay, bye."

With that she ends their brief phone call and wonders how Elle and Roma are doing. Lately Camila has been having dreams of the quartet arriving disastrously late to ChamberFest and performing their own ragtag recital, where Jeremy acts as conductor and the other three, all miserably lost. Camila almost chokes on her toothpaste remembering the nightmare.

She peers into the mirror after washing her face and smiles to herself. New year, new feelings.