Hell to pay

There's that hell I was worried about paying…

I stood waiting outside for the last five minutes of Nia’s class in a thick torpor. Our late night was really starting to take its toll on me. At the onset I had sat on the nearby bench while killing time, but soon found that any position other than upright was going to end with me ****. The many sets of crying emojis Nia had inundated my inbox with told me she wasn’t faring much better. We had no one to blame but ourselves, ultimately.

On the bright side, Rina had responded and was available to meet with us today. Her classes ended only thirty minutes later than Nia’s, which gave us the perfect window to grab a few coffees and inhale them.

I sent Rina a text asking if she wanted anything for when she got off, then promptly pocketed my phone as people began pouring out of the classroom doors. Inside the flood of people I found Nia adrift, ping ponging from one person to the next as she struggled to keep herself awake. I fished her out of the crowd and headed for the nearest exit.

The coffee shop was thankfully quite close, and within minutes we were waiting in line to take our order. The influx of overworked college students left the cafe workers busy, but since we hadn’t heard from Rina yet it posed no issue.

Or so I thought. The line had moved with haste, in spite of the many overly specific and high volume orders, while by contrast my phone had remained inert. Though we scoured our collective memories for what Rina’s preferences might be, we eventually had to settle on getting her a simple generic latte.

Nia and I waited outside while the last minutes ticked away.

Emery: I hope she doesn’t mind what we got her.

Nia: Nah she’ll be fine with it. Rina is pretty lax about these things, right? She’ll probably just be happy you got her something even though she didn’t respond.

Emery: Could be. We’ll see when she gets here.

Nia: Ah relax hun, everything is gonna be okay.

Fingers dug into my neck and worked the tissue. She was right, I let myself get jittery thinking about how things were going to go today. The lack of sleep and middling hangover surely weren’t helping. I should just enjoy the time we have together and let things happen as they happen.

Rina: That looks nice, can I get a turn next?

As if on cue, Rina appeared next to us. She was panting and wearing her team gear, with a workout bag slung over her shoulder; it seemed like she had come here to meet us as soon as she possibly could.

I jumped a bit upon her arrival, but Nia remained unfazed and quickly countered — I hated how easily startled I was…

Nia: Happy to oblige ma’am, but you’re going to have to do me first.

Rina: Gladly!

The two of them continued to banter, while I struggled to keep a straight face. I was almost positive that Nia had used that phrasing intentionally to tease me while taking advantage of Rina’s ignorance. My cheeky girlfriend patted me on the back and stood up, and I hastily followed suit.