January 1, 2017
Alex was looking up how to remove sharpie from skin. 2017 was off to a great start. Being completely over 2016, she had planned an uneventful New Years eve for herself. Netflix and wine were going to be her dates for the evening and she was completely fine with that. 2016 had other plans.
December 31, 2016
Somewhere around the third season of her favorite hospital drama Alex was famished. You would think all the emergency room injuries would have had the opposite effect on her but studying bio-med gave her an iron stomach when it came to bodily harm. Alex watched as one of the hot doctor characters cooked decadent meals for her roommates to deal with her work and love life stress. She felt for this character. Unfortunately school and lack of love life stress meant she had forgotten to eat all day. Her empty stomach meant all of the wine was going straight to her head. She was in no condition to drive to the store which meant her only options were left overs or ordering a pizza. Her leftovers were all healthy and the meals being cooked on TV were clearly not. The choice was obvious to the slightly tipsy Alex.
She got online and found a great deal for a delicious looking pizza and cheesy bread sticks that was just under twenty dollars. Normally she wasn't a cheese bread kind of girl but what the heck. It was a holiday. Now all she had to do was wait. Alex went back to the TV and vicariously lived her love life through incredibly stressed but flawlessly sexy TV doctors. It was her ultimate guilty pleasure. Although she loved a good thriller or crime drama, when it came to holidays like New Years that focused so heavily on romance she always turned to this soapy medical drama. She just couldn't get enough of the life or death and crazy relationship roller coasters. As soon as she heard the buzzer she made her way down the stairs as gracefully as she could considering her bottle of wine had now turned into bottles. With an s. She had ended up waiting through almost two more episodes before the pizza showed up. It was to be expected when you order on one of the busiest pizza delivery nights of the year. The stairs proved challenging but she made it to the front door and pulled it open with a little too much enthusiasm. To reiterate: two long episodes of a hospital drama that were nonstop life or death chaos. She opened the door with the force of a doctor fighting the clock on a critical patient. The lack of food and crazy TV romances were at play as well. You would have thought she was opening the door to the pizza of her dreams.
Alex triumphantly handed her twenty to a very startled and very cute delivery girl. "Whoa wine calm down" she thought out loud. If the wine could talk it would have said a very long and drawn out "nooope". The delivery girl pursed her lips trying to hide a smirk. Alex took the pizza box as if being handed an organ. She placed it on the table next to the door with drunken over precision and sighed as if she'd just completed open heart surgery. Adrenaline was almost visibly pumping through Alex over the show, the wine, the stairs, and most of all this glorious pizza. "I love you" she said to both the pizza and the driver. "Maggie" she said as an after thought as she read the driver's name tag. It felt like Maggie had just saved her life with this pizza. She was overcome with tipsy gratitude for this girl. In an over dramatic display of affection she proceeded to attempt a kiss on the driver's cheek. Unfortunately Maggie was mid head turn as Alex went in which meant she landed right on Maggie's lips. Horror washed over Alex as she slammed the door right in Maggie's face. Who needs TV drama?
She had to be dreaming. This wasn't happening. There was a small knock and a muffled "hello" at the door. This took Alex out of her pinch faced, heavy breathing shock. "I forgot her tip" Alex gasped. Could this situation get any more awkward? Alex opened the door once more ready to profusely apologize when Maggie handed her a forgotten bag of cheesy bread. As Alex took it Maggie leaned it and kissed her back. "I guess everyone has their New Years Eve traditions" she said with a smile and a wink. Alex stood stunned as Maggie walked off towards her car.
In a daze Alex and the food made their way back up the stairs and carefully onto the couch. She stared at her pizza for longer than she'd care to admit. Putting her hand up to her lips she realized she was still holding the tip. How was she going to get this to the driver? How would she find and more importantly talk to this girl? She found a marker in between the couch cushions. At this point she wasn't sure she could have successfully moved off the couch to get paper so she wrote a note on her hand. "Call the pizza place tomorrow" she mumbled as she wrote. She'd sort everything out when she was sober. Alex jumped as her stomach gurgled. Reaching for the food she saw it. Right on the cheesy bread bag was a note. "If you need more sauce text me" and a phone number. The driver must have wrote it after Alex slammed the door. She couldn't call her "the driver". They'd just shared a New Years eve kiss... technically two. A huge smile fixed itself on her face at the thought. She saved the number in her phone under Maggie. Seizing her liquid courage she texted "smooth operator" to her delivery dream girl. The reply was quick. "Lousy tipper" with a winkey face. "It's tradition " was her retort to which Maggie responded "You're cheesy… see what I did there?" Alex sent back about twelve emojis because at this point, let's be honest, the wine was texting for her. She looked longingly at the pizza and shoved a piece of cheese bread in her mouth. Alex looked up at her paused hospital drama. It was stopped at a scene where the doctors were performing open heart surgery. Alex laughed out loud. She turned the TV off and laid back on the couch waiting for Maggie to text her back.
Alex's first text message of 2017 was from Maggie asking what she was up to on New Year's Day. It was officially the new year. She made it out of the god awful year that was 2016 alive and possibly with a date. She headed to the bathroom and jumped as she saw her reflection in the mirror. Backwards writing was all over her face from sleeping on the hand where she had written the note. This was 2016 trolling her right up until the its very last minutes. She couldn't complain though. 2017 was already off to a great start.