Chapter 5

Sarah woke up with a start. Sleep had not come easy last night, but when she had finally fallen asleep, she had stayed that way the whole night. Rubbing her salt-encrusted eyelids with her fingers, she blinked and looked up at the ceiling. The bright morning light was seeping through her window blinds.

Sarah immediately reached for her phone. Hitting the home button, she was momentarily stunned as to why her phone wasn’t responding. Then, she remembered that she had turned her phone off the night before. Maybe that was why she managed to stay asleep the whole night! As she was mulling over it, her fingers subconsciously wandered over to the power button, and switched the phone back on. She was excited to see if Liz had sent any messages, although she wasn’t sure she could deal with yet another day of radio silence. More likely, she was going to get more messages from work. Sarah sighed. Even if it was Sunday, she couldn’t catch a break from her work.

Bzzt! The phone vibrated. Then it vibrated some more. Seems like the person who had been looking for her to solve their work problems had been somewhat desperate.

Sarah unlocked her phone, and gasped. The notifications weren’t from Slack, her work messaging app. The messages were from Liz! Sarah felt her excitement rise again. Liz reached out! Then, she began to feel worried. Oh no, I didn’t reply!

Sarah fiddled some more around, both wanting and not wanting to open the messages Liz had sent. Finally, she took a deep breath, and opened up the messaging app. Liz had sent three messages last night. The first two were Liz saying hello, asking how she was, and asking if she could send the photos of both of them. The third message was sent two hours later. Sarah didn’t know what to make of the message exactly. It read: “I guess you’re upset. Or sleeping. Or something. Anyway, stay in touch!”

Was Liz upset at her? Sarah wasn’t sure. Short sentences usually meant someone was upset, didn’t it? But Liz did say to stay in touch. Did that mean that she wasn’t upset? Or was it just a polite thing to say? Sarah screamed silently in her mind. Why did she turn off her phone?!

Sarah hit the reply button, and quickly typed up a message. Then, just as quickly, she erased the draft. She had to craft the perfect message. But was she upset at Liz? Sure, at least a little. After all, Liz hadn’t sent her any messages before last night. But then again, neither had Sarah sent any. What if Liz was upset because Sarah hadn’t reached out, and last night made it worse? This was getting complicated.

Sarah’s mind spun as she thought through different permutations. She went from blaming Liz, to blaming herself, to blaming both of them, then none of them. Finally, she decided to just avoid the whole thing altogether. She wrote: “It’s good to hear from you! Sorry, I was asleep last night. I’ll send you our photos! xoxo”

Wait, no. Do I really want to send xoxo? Feeling frustrated at her indecisiveness, Sarah hit the send button before she could erase the message. Right afterwards, she began to feel some panic building within her. Shaking her head, she decided to send the photos from San Francisco. Thumbing through her photo gallery, she picked the best photo of the two of them. Well, not quite the best. The best was the one where she kissed Liz, but she didn’t want to send that one. So Sarah sent the best photo of the two of them at the bow and arrow, before she kissed Liz.

After Sarah sent the photo, her mind began to wander again. I wonder what time zone she’s in. What if it’s really early in the morning, and I wake her up? Sarah glanced at the clock at the top of the screen. It was nine thirty-seven in the morning. If Liz was on the West coast, that’d be six thirty-seven, which was early, but not middle-of-the-night early. Sarah let out the breath she had been unconsciously holding.

Bzzt! Her phone vibrated again. As Sarah fiddled with her fingers to open the messaging app, the phone’s screen changed. Liz was calling her! Was this good or bad? Nervously, Sarah picked up the call.

“Hello?” Sarah said tentatively.

“Good morning!” Liz said cheerfully. “I hope you’re not on Pacific time, or this would be really early for you!”

Sarah smiled a little at Liz’s voice. “No, no, I’m on the East coast.”

Liz chuckled. “You sound like you just got up.”

“Not really, I’m still in bed, you see...” Sarah replied. She could almost hear Liz smile in response.

“Anyway, thanks for sending the photo! How are you doing?” Liz asked.

“Sleepy?” Sarah replied. “Oops, I mean, it’s not like you woke me up or anything,” she quickly added.

“Of course I didn’t! I only called since I knew you were awake and sent me the photo,” Liz answered. “I’m on Mountain time, but I’ve been up for a while now.”

“Wow, are you a morning person?”

“Huh, I guess I am!” Liz answered cheerfully again. “Let me guess, you’re not?”

“Well, I only just woke up...” Sarah replied. She could sense Liz smiling again, and her own face began to smile.

“What are your plans for today?” Liz asked.

“Huh? Oh, it’s Sunday, so nothing much. Probably just laze around in bed some more, maybe sleep some more. Then, bum around the house, maybe watch something on Netflix,” Sarah said.