New year, new mistake

When Isobel opened her eyes, she had no idea where she was. The dark room around here wasn’t very revealing either. Isobel gave her eyes some time to adjust to the looming black around here and tried to sum up the things she did know.

One, today was January the first. Two, when she felt under the covers, she discovered that – thank God - she was still wearing the same, tiny black dress she had worn the night before. Three, she was lying in a bed but had no idea who the owner was. And finally, four, her head was pounding like a little, tiny gorilla was jumping up and down on the inside of her brain.

Isobel looked around and tried not to scream when she felt a movement in the bed beside her, from a second person she hadn’t noticed before. She pushed her hand against her mouth, but a little squeaky noise escaped from her lips. It wasn’t very loud, but apparently enough for the stranger next to her to move again. A low, manly groan sounded through the room. “You’re awake early.”

Desperately, Isobel tried to link the voice of the man to his face, but her mind remained blank – safe for the pounding.

“Yes, I’m a bit of an early bird.” Isobel tried to sound normal, maybe even cheery, but even she heard the little crack at the end of her sentence.

“Really? I would’ve guessed otherwise, with the way you were partying last night.” The stranger chuckled and Isobel felt her cheeks getting hot. Last night? What party?

The stranger stretched and with a firm tug, he opened the curtains, which were only a few feet from the bed. Finally, Isobel saw who was lying next to her.

He wasn’t conventionally handsome. No, his nose was too big and his mouth too wide to be considered good looking. But next to that wide mouth were dimples in his cheeks and his eyes were a warm, welcoming brown.

Isobel took a second to examine the room as well. They were lying in a big bed, that took up most of the space. If she lifted her head a little bit, Isobel could see a small desk and a closet with no clothes. On the walls she discovered a black and white photograph of the skyline of New York – the type she could swear she’d already seen a thousand times before. The neatly pressed blankets, the empty closet, the meaningless art… Was she in a hotel room?

“Hey you,” grinned the stranger and he leaned onto his elbow in a very “draw me like one of your French girls”-manner.

“Hi,” said Isobel. She hesitated but the burning question in her mind had to be asked. “We didn’t… “ Isobel made a vague gesture to the bed. If she was too much of a prude to finish the end of her sentence, then surely she wouldn’t have done the deed. “Did we?”

“We? Oh God, no.”

“Oh,” said Isobel. She debated for a second whether she should be offended about the fierce tone in which he denied it, but then decided to let it go. “Good.”

“Not here anyway.” The stranger grinned again. “But in the bathroom stool at the cafe, behind the bar and almost in an alleyway.”

“Oh,” said Isobel again, at a loss for words.

“I’m joking.” The stranger laughed. “You should see you face. No, you told me time and time again last night that you weren’t planning on losing your v-card in a cheap hotel room. Even though I told you that it wasn’t all that cheap.”

Isobel’s cheeks were burning red by now and she hid her face behind her hands. “I am so, so sorry.”

“Don’t be, it was cute.” The stranger let his gaze rest upon Isobel’s eyes. “And besides, you weren’t in any real danger. I’d never sleep with my best friend’s sister.”

And in that moment, everything clicked in Isobel’s head. The monkey stopped wreaking havoc and instead put all the puzzle pieces together. The British accent. The hotel room, because he wasn’t planning on staying in the big apple.

Next to her was Callum, the man her brother had met on his leap year in London. The man which her brother had claimed was his “platonic soulmate, instant connection from day one”. The man her brother had forbidden her to kiss on new year’s eve, because “Callum just got out of a very toxic relationship and he’s not very stable at the moment, yeah? And I know you, you’ll fall head over heels the moment you meet him, ‘cuz you’re kind of perfect for each other, but don’t Isobel, don’t yeah? ‘Cuz he’ll go back to London and then you’ll be heartbroken and he’ll be heartbroken and I just don’t want any hearts to break and I need Callum cuz he’s the best paddle player I’ve ever met and he won’t play when he’s sad, so just don’t Isobel, yeah?”

Isobel had laughed her brother’s worries away. She was 25 years old and had never even kissed anyone (except for Lewis in the tenth grade after a very weird game of ‘Spin the bottle’, but that had been a forced kiss and it didn’t even last longer than two seconds. Afterwards Lewis had wiped his mouth with the back of his hand like she was some kind of vermin – so no, that kiss didn’t count).

So in Isobel’s mind there was no way she’d be snogging her brothers off limits, platonic soulmate. Even though she was momentarily in his bed and he was still looking at her in a way that made her want to hide under the covers.

“I’m having a bit of trouble remembering what we did last night. Could you help me… put the pieces back together?”

Callum layed back down in bed, with his eyes on the ceiling. “Let’s see… We met at a party in Queens. The one with the funny name… Bobby cow….”

“Billy’s goat tavern,” nodded Isobel and when she said the words, the memory flooded back. She had met up with her friends in Sarah’s apartment, one block from Billy’s. It was supposed to be a quiet dinner, where everyone brought a side dish, so they could have a shared dinner. But instead of salads and pasta’s and different kinds of bread, everyone had took it upon themselves to bring the booze. So they had only eaten the mini sandwiches Sarah had made as appetizers and just… drank a lot.

Then someone – Isobel swore it was Tiffany – suggested they’d go to Billy’s because her boyfriend was a DJ there. An image of a darkened street and the six of them, trying to walk straight, flashed before her eyes.

“And… did you like Billy’s goat tavern?” she asked.

“No. You didn’t either by the way, there was this awful DJ who kept playing the same drum and bass-song over and over again.”

“So… we left?”

“We did. You, me, your brother and your friend Sarah. Who’s quite lovely, I may add. Kept asking me if I wanted some left-over mini sandwiches.”

Isobel grimaced as another memory flashed into her mind. Sarah, piggyback riding on her brother’s back on their way to… to where exactly?

“So you don’t remember anything, huh?” said Callum, with little lights dancing in his brown eyes.

“Afraid not,” said Isobel. “I’m so sorry, I’m not normally like this.”

“I know,” grinned Callum. It’s one of the three things you kept repeating to me.” He counted them on his fingers. “One: I’m not going to lose my v-card to you Callum. Two: I’m never as drunk as this, like ever. And three: your eyes are really, very, very lovely.”

Isobel felt the blood racing to her cheeks again because Callum repeated her words in a high-pitched voice and grinned his teeth bare after each sentence.

“I’m sorry,” said Isobel again.

“Please don’t be. As I said, it was cute.”

“So what happened after we left the bar?”

This time, it was Callum's turn to look a bit flustered. “Nothing,” he said. “We just wandered around the city a bit, until Sarah got cold. Then we each went or own way.”

Isobel frowned. She instinctively knew there was more to the story. Like how did she end up in Callum’s bed and not in Sarah’s, like she planned to?

In her mind, Isobel tried to remember what really happened. She saw the dinner which turned into drinking with her friends. She heard the repeating drum and bass-song at the bar. She smelled a whiff of Sarah’s perfume when she hung around Isobel’s neck, in the middle of the street in Queens. And then… and then there was a new memory.

“I’m never as drunk as this, like ever. I promise.”

“So you keep mentioning.” Callum grinned and Isobel could feel her stomach turn. She was still debating whether it was the alcohol or Callum’s presence, that made her feel bubbly and a bit dizzy. Probably both.

“But I mean it. I’ve just graduated, my partying days are behind me. I’m a teacher now, you know? A full-grown, kicking ass at it, English and drama teacher.”

“I’m sure you’re wonderful at it.” Callum smiled and Isobel believed him.

In front of them were Sarah and Isobel's brother, playing a game of cat and mouse. Sarah kept leaping on park benches and exclaiming: “High is house! Can’t catch me here!”

The two had been in and out of love since they were teenagers. Isobel had a secret bet with her mother, claiming that Sarah would ultimately be the one her brother would marry. The counter bet of her mother was that they’d first have children before the big question would be asked by Sarah.

Suddenly, big, colorful bursts of lights exploded in the night sky and left a few sparkles behind.

Callum looked at his watch. “It’s twelve o’clock. Officially 2024.”

Isobel looked at Callum. She didn’t know where she got the nerve, but she asked him anyway. “Isn’t there anything we’re supposed to do right now?”

Callum chuckled. “I’m not kissing you. You’re very, very drunk.”

“Yes, that’s true. But there’s also a counterargument.”

“Which is?”

“Your eyes are really, very, very lovely.”

Callum laughed again. “I’m not taking advantage of you.”

“You’re not! In any case, you’re doing me a huge favor. I haven’t been kissed. Like ever.”

“Really?” Callum frowned. “That can’t be true. How can a gorgeous creature like you walk around this earth unkissed?”

“It’s a crime against humanity,” said Isobel and shrugged. “One that you could solve, I might add.”

Callum sighed. “I can’t. I really, really want to. But I can’t.”

Isobel took a step and stood right in front of him. He was so tall, she had to look up to see his eyes. “You can.”

“You’re a sly minx, you know that?”

“I’ve been told before,” she whispered. Then she looked at her watch, which had been broken for some time. “See? It isn’t midnight according to my timeline yet. But it will be in three…”

“I’ve never met anyone as provocative as you.”

“Two…”

“You’re stubborn and headstrong and I’m not even sure I like you that way.”

“One…”

“I’m not kissing you.”

“Zero. Happy new year Callum.”

“Happy new year Isobel,” he said and pressed his lips against hers.

It was a long kiss. More than ten Mississippi’s. His warm breath collided with hers and just one time, their teeth did too. Afterwards, he didn’t wipe his lips like Lewis from kindergarten had done. Instead, Callum smiled and kissed her again, on the cheeks this time. One kiss for each cheek. “Thank you for that.”

“So,” Isobel said, a little bit breathless from the memory coming back, “it was quite the uneventful evening, huh? We wandered around the city…”

“Yes,” nodded Callum.

“We walked to the center of Queens…” “

“Uh-uh.”

“And we went back inside because of the cold.”

“Exactly.”

“Then where in that timeline did our kiss occur?”

Callum shot upright. “You do remember!’

“Only the important part, it seems.” Now it was Isobel’s turn to grin at him. 

“You really are a sly minx, you know that?”

Isobel laughed and stepped out of the bed. “Come on, let’s go.”

“Where to?”

“First, home to change in some more decent clothes.”

“I quite like this little dress you’re wearing.”

Isobel shot him a playful look. “Then breakfast with my brother, where you’ll tell him where I’ve spend the night.”

“What? No way?”

“Yes way. Because then you and I can go exploring the city. Together.” Isobel reached her hand out to him. “Are you coming or what?”