Mia tried to endure the blasting music as best as she could. The constant bass dropping across various songs, the loud and obnoxious chatter of bar-goers, and the unsettling vibrating from the speakers in the bar below. Thankfully, the smell of alcohol didn’t travel well through the building’s ventilation system, so that was something she didn’t worry herself about.
Regardless, the usual busy Friday nights prevented her from enjoying a nice night of much needed relaxation and much desired reading to catch up on. Between her daily job and ordering more and more novels to he collection, Mia had enough reading material to keep her well occupied if she read for at least three months straight without sleep.
Curled up underneath a warm fleece blanket, a gentle breeze blew through the spacious loft apartment, turning the page of the current novel in her hands. Mia adjusted her glasses as they began to slide off her face, “I’m halfway through this book and I still don’t feel for the protagonist. How in the world did this make the bestseller’s list for the year?”
Unenthusiastic about the unfolding events in the book, Mia continued to read on about the main character’s struggles. However, she was able to predict every new event and its solution before it even occurred. In her mind, she practically had the entire mystery novel solved in her head; she only continued to read on to see if the author works write what she expected.
As she flipped through a dozen more pages and created another clue in her mind, a loud rattling startled her coming from the door to the apartment.
At first she was on edge, coming to the conclusion that somebody was trying to pick their way into the apartment. However, the struggling voice on the other side of the door completely washed away any fear Mia had. She only glanced at the door before she focused on her book.
The door flew open and behind it came a body crashing to the waxed, wooden floor. It groaned for a moment before coming to its senses. It was a young woman, easily no older than twenty-three. She ran her small hands across her flushed face to see if anything has broken when she fell face first into the ground, “Thank goodness, everything’s where it should be.”
As she tried to get back on her feet she grabbed onto the front door for leverage. When she was able to stand on her own, she slowly rocked side to side as if her body was caught in a gentle rip current. She managed to shut the door behind her and stumbled her way to the couch, where Mia read her novel. Collapsing right at Mia’s feet, the young woman let out a chuckle, her words slurred and slow, “Oh geez, this couch is soooooo warm. Does it have heaters underneath the cushions?”
Mia glanced from around her book in response, “That’s the alcohol taking over Rosa. The more you drink, the warmer your body gets. You didn’t even drink water in-between, did you?”
Rosa proudly shook her head with a smile, “Water doesn’t taste good. It doesn’t taste as good as what I had, and I had a lot.”
Whiffs of sweet scented alcohol reached Mia’s nose, originating just a few feet away; hints of lemon and strawberry mixed with some kind of vodka. Even through it was a drink, the smell could have easily passed for an air freshener scent.
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