Notting Hill in Manhattan [t. c]

part five

The birds sang and the dim yawn of the sun went through her white curtains. Lise's eyes opened slowly and then she blinked a couple times to 'wake her brain up' even if she knew that as soon as her eyelids moved up, she'd wake up in a second.

  Anna sat down on her bed and moved closer to her headboard where she reclined her weight for a moment as she looked around the room. Her eyes landed on her nightstand where she found her laptop and phone. As she yawned she took the second item in hand and checked the time: 6:00 a. m. Lise let out a sigh, she had missed minutes of her favourite time of the day. A second later, she got out of bed and, once that was done, she gave a few steps towards the windowpane, moved the curtains and took advantage of the movement to stretch.

  She then proceeded to open the window, smiling when the cold wind hit her face, shivering immediately. She walked back towards the nightstand, grabbed her laptop and made her way towards the coat rack that rests next to her door and grabbed her sleeping robe, put it on and made her way out of the bedroom and towards the kitchen.

  Once there, the morning ritual started. She felt happy today. Last night had been a dream and she couldn't help but smile like an idiot at the memory of his lips against her ear whispering things in french. She was in such a good mood that she decided to make herself some breakfast: pancakes. The, according to her mom, sign of a good day.

She turned on the record player before she started working on the pancakes mixture and played one of her favourite albums: 'The Definitive Collection' by Stevie Wonder, a vinyl given by her mother on her past birthday. She blasted the music as she made breakfast and sang at the top of her lungs not caring to wake up her neighbours on a Sunday this early.

The first five songs of the album had gone through when her breakfast was done. She decided to warm up her cup of milky coffee and as the mug was making spins like a ballerina in the microwave, she opened her laptop, found her draft and started working on finishing and polishing it. When the microwave's chime indicated that it was done, she grabbed her mug and started preparing the drink as she sang.

"Like a fool, I went and stayed too long. Now I'm wondering if your love's still strong." She picked her breakfast from the kitchen bar, leaving her laptop behind, and danced her way towards the fire-escape, where she sat and ate as the music echoed inside and the city yawned. From one a minute to another, a bird sat at the railing and she smiled at it. "Morning." She chuckled to herself, she felt like Snow White talking to animals, but let's be real, when she's in such a great mood, she's able to talk with rocks. "Bye." She said to the bird as it flew away.

After breakfast was done, she moved back inside and straight towards the kitchen, specifically the sink, where she washed her dishes before she sat down again to continue with the article.

After a while, the 19th track started playing, her favourite, 'I Just Called to Say I Love You'. She's always thought it was a beautiful song, Lise finds it heartwarming. She stood up and made her way to her bedroom where she changed her warm pyjamas into her sport clothes, today is Sunday, which means yoga instead of running. She also grabbed the chargers of the devices and returned to the living room where she started her routine once she was set up.

The song ended and so did the following two, therefore, she removed the disc, kept it into the sleeve and then into a box filled with records that her roommates and herself have been filling up through the years. She grabbed "Cigarettes After Sex", the first album the band with the same name has. The routine video lasts half an hour and the record was forty seven minutes long. Enough time. Lise played the record before the video started; and listened to the relaxing songs as she followed the video's instructions.

When she was done, she went to the bathroom and took a shower, after that, she grabbed some shorts and an oversized hoodie. Anna let her hair air-dry as she returned to the kitchen, took her laptop and moved to the sofa to continue working on the article, it was almost finished. That's when she checked the clock. 8:30. She smiled to herself, last night, about an hour after she had arrived home, her boss texted, she asked her to send the article at noon tops and thank goodness Lise is a fast writer, she was writing the closure.