Bells Ringing in the Summer Haze

The shrill sound of the phone made Nora open her eyes and immediately shut them. The sunlight was streaming through her curtains, and her head was pounding. Her hair felt heavy, and her eyelids were sore.

“What the hell?” she rubbed her head as she reached for her cell and slid the lock. Blinking a few times to adjust to the light. She put the cold device to her ear and sighed.

“Hello?” she looked over at the clock and saw it was 1 p.m. groaning she rolled over. She pushed herself back into the blankets, and made herself comfortable.

“What the hell happened after I left?” Val asked. Nora could hear two guys talking in the background. She could hear Val pouring something into a cup and desperately hoped it was coffee, and for her.

“Isaac came over, apparently upset, and now I have to deal with two hung over men.” Val said, a whine peeping through her words.

“You can come take care of me,” Nora suggested. She cleared her throat and blinked at the ceiling. “And I don’t remember anything after taking those shots with Claire and Alex. Everything after that is pretty fuzzy. I don’t even know how I got here last night.”

“Oh god, I’ll be over in twenty.”

“Bring the coffee please.”

------

Nora was still sitting in bed when Val rounded the corner holding a Starbucks. Nora was sliding through photo after photo on her phone. She grimaced at a couple and smiled at one of her and Val.

“That better be for me.” Val smiled and handed Nora the cup. “Thank you.”

“So I found some stuff out for you.” Nora took a sip and smiled. “But I’m not sure if you want to hear it.”

“Please Val, just tell me. How bad can it be?” Val nodded. “Judging from these photos, the worst I did was dance on a table with Brianna. Which, she is a terrible influence when drunk.”

“Well, you danced with Alex all night, and yeah apparently danced on the table. Which, bravo by the way,” Val said laughing. “But at the end of the night you were wasted.”

“Which I knew,” Nora interrupted. “Clearly I didn’t get into this state of being by myself.”

“Yeah, but I made Isaac promise me to take you home hours before that. In which I forgot. And he took you home.”

“Okay? So what’s so bad about that? Oh god, did I scream at him?” Nora rubbed her face and shook her head.

Val played with a loose string I the comforter. “Well, he told you he liked you.”

“He what?” She put down her coffee on the table next to her bed. Pushing her hair through her hair. “And then what happened?”

“You apparently kissed him.”

Nora’s mouth opened and closed. “Why the hell would I do that?”

“It’s obvious, you like him.”

Nora covered her mouth and groaned. “This complicates things, doesn’t it?”

------

“She kissed you?” Isaac nodded at Brian. He put the coffee cup down on their glass table.

“Yeah, and then passed out five minutes away from her house. I had to find her keys and carry her inside. Besides I know she would never have kissed me if she were sober.” He leaned back against the leather couch and sighed.

“But you know she likes you. That proved it.” Brian said, smiling.

Nora could be complicated, he knew she knew Isaac never really dated and she wanted to avoid that. He knew she could be good for him, but with Nora you couldn’t push her. You had to let her figure things out for herself.

“Not really, she was really drunk. She has no idea what she was thinking.” Isaac said shrugging. His black tee-shirt smelled like the bar, and he desperately wanted to go to the gym and hit out his aggression.

“Man, call her. Talk to her about it.” They heard noise and watched as Val picked up her bag. She smiled and pushed her hair behind her ear.

“I’m going over to Nora’s to check on her, she seems pretty hung-over.”

She walked to the edge of the room and turned. “But you should talk to her, because she’s going to ask me for details and I won’t be able to not say what happened.” Val said to Isaac.

Isaac stood and grabbed his empty cup, “I know I need to talk to her, but she told me we would never be friends. So why would I want to try and go out there and put myself on the line.”

“That’s what life is about Isaac. How are you ever going to find someone if you don’t do just that?” He stood and looked at his friend. Val nodded from the doorway before waving.

“I know it’s not what you’re used to Isaac, but Nora isn’t a normal girl,” Brian said. “Telling her how you feel will help her realize you have emotion and can actually date someone.”

“But can I?”

------

“Let’s hang that collection over here Lily,” The small blonde, who got the job before filling out the application, looked and smiled at Nora. She nodded and slid a few boxes to the racks and shelves near the left window.

She was short, like Nora, and had the same sense of style. When she walked into the store a couple of weeks ago, she told Nora and Val she could liven the place up.

“And I’ll never let you down.” She said as she told her about the three older siblings she had. She wanted to get out of the house and make money to move away to school.

When she said that, Nora and Val looked at her and told her she was hired, but she still had to fill out an application for paperwork sake.

The bell above the door chimed, Nora looked up from behind the register and inhaled quickly.

“Can we help you? The store isn’t officially open,” Lily said as she walked to Isaac. She smiled at him; he half smiled and looked over her at Nora.

“Nah, I’m not here for clothes. I’m Isaac, you must be Lily?”

Lily blushed and looked down at the ground.

“Lil, it’s fine.” Nora said as she walked from around the counter. “What are you doing here?”

She felt shy around him and she didn’t remember kissing him. She felt bad about not remembering, did she enjoy it? Was it embarrassing?

His light blue button up sleeves was rolled up to his elbows, showing tan skin. His khaki colored shorts allowed his toned legs to be visible, and his brown leather flip-flops didn’t hide his tan feet.

Nora ran a hand through her brown hair and pushed her hands into her pockets on her light green maxi dress.

“Can we talk in private?” She nodded then opened the back door. “I’ll be right back out Lily.”

Closing the door, she brought him to her private office. Unlocking the door from the lanyard around her neck, she slid out a black chair for him. She sat in her rolling chair and turned to face him.

“What’s up?”

“I wanted to talk to you about the other night,” he rubbed the back of his neck. She nodded and played with a white hair tie around her wrist.

“Well I wanted to start off with I’m sorry,” she looked up and raised an eyebrow.

“Why are you sorry?”

“I don’t know,” he shrugged and laughed a shaky laugh. “I wanted to kiss you but I don’t want you to think I was taking advantage of you.”

He leaned forward with his arms resting on his knees. He was closer to her when he did that. She leaned back in her chair and looked around her.

The walls were bare in the office; the light blue walls were begging to have things put on them. Her desk covered one wall, next to the door. She had her laptop, a folder of invoices she needed to pay, and the look book for the fall she had to start ordering from, and a pile of paychecks she needed to distribute.

“Obviously not Isaac, I knew what I was doing at the time.” Nora said quietly.

“Did you?” She didn’t respond and he let out a long breath. “Okay, well I just wanted to say it won’t be happening again, so don’t worry.”

He stood up and waved before leaving, she turned to her computer and sighed. Sending a quick text, she left her office, locked the door, and went back out to the floor.