Love at First Site

TWO PEAS IN A POD

Eleanor’s POV

Girl… that yellow looks so good on you! This is a whole vibe. You legit look like a whole snack! Yellow was MADE for summer and you're eating it all up!”

“OMG! Stop… you're making me feel so embarrassed right now, but thank you.”

I was creasing hard at our failed attempts to keep up with the whole Gen Z vibe while hyping each other up.

I was trying to get ready for the Art Montecarlo exhibition later in the evening but I couldn't decide what to wear.

Since two heads were better than one, and four eyes, were the best for outfit selection, I decided to Facetime my best friend, Rachel, to ask for her honest opinion.

Of course, I made a mental note to not divulge my location or the event I was planning to attend. As much as I loved and trusted my best friend, I neither loved nor trusted my ex.

For all I know, he could easily threaten Rachel to get my location out of her. I have to be careful.

“What do you think about this floral, sage green dress?” I asked with my eyes alight.

Rachel gasped and I knew I had found the one.

“This is a first… I can see you making an effort in this outfit selection for the first time since I've known you and that's something because I've known you since middle school, Elle.”

I blushed and twirled about like a shy schoolgirl who had just been asked to do her first prom.

“Well…”

“Well, what? Spill the beans! You're going out on a date? OMG, you got yourself a man already?! You sly minx!” Rachel screamed. I immediately adjusted the call volume so my pods wouldn't destroy my ear drums.

“Before you cause my ears to bleed, ma'am, I'll have you know I'm still as single as a stray sock with no one to pair with. I haven't met my match, Rach. However…” I teased with a glint of mischief in my eyes.

“However?” Rachel was on the edge of her seat. She was sitting so close to her screen that the slightest jump scare would have sent her to the floor in shock.

I basked in the thrill of the excitement I was feeling while watching Rachel squirm about in anticipation like an earthworm that got sprinkled with salt.

“... there is a man.”

A soft gasp.

“I met him during one of my morning walks. OMG, Rach! You need to have SEEN this man. I swear, you would have eaten him up on the spot!”

Rachel was eyeing me from the corner of her eyes and a smile slowly started to creep up on her face.

“He looked a bit grimy and sweaty, but I tell you when this man took his seat beside me. I felt an immediate attack on all six senses of mine. It was like a sudden wake-up call. Everywhere started melting and I mean EVERYWHERE.”

“Girl, you were wet? By simply catching a whiff of his colon? Are you that starved? Should we try Bumble? Tinder?”

I held my flushed cheeks and threw my best friend a stern look, daring her to continue teasing me if she loved her life enough.

“You know that's not it. I've never been a s*x-crazed nymph—unlike someone I know so well—but this guy… Rach, this guy was different. There was just something about him. Oh, I got one!”

“What's that?”

“His back. You know how I go crazy for men with broad shoulders and big backs. It's a wonder how I dated that skinny bastard, Hank, all those years. And girl, it wasn't just his big back. This guy had these fat veins bulging out of his forearms. I almost got on my knees and kissed them. Girl, you know how hard I swoon over veiny forearms. You know!”

Rachel rolled her eyes in response and let out a knowing chuckle.

“And to finish me off completely, his Adam's apple? Looked like it frigging had an actual apple in it because why was it so huge?! I couldn't help staring at it while he talked, Rach. I swear I couldn't think straight…”

I fell to my bed like the helpless simp that I was and listened to my best friend jest the hell out of me before clearing her throat to ask the most important question that had also been on my mind for weeks on end.

“So, what's his name?”

I glitched for several seconds, unable to come up with an adequate response to her question.

If I knew his name I wouldn't be fantasizing about our first meeting every night before going to bed. Now, would I?!

“I don't know.”

“Shut up.”

I covered my face in embarrassment because I also knew how hard I would have teased her if she had gone on for over an hour about a stranger she had met, only to find out that she didn't even know his name, much less getting his contact details.

“Shut. The. f**k. Up. You don't even know his name and he's got you swooning this hard? No digits? No i********: handle? No Snapchat?”

“Nada.”

“Not even his t****k handle?”

“b***h, if I had his t****k handle, I would have stalked the s**t outta that account already. Don't provoke me. I got nothing, okay?”

I watched the look of utter disbelief spread across her face like mayo on freshly made bread and stifled a grin that threatened to appear on my face. This was serious business.

“So, what the hell are you dressing up for and why have I been on this dumb call for over an hour? I thought we were picking cute fits for a date.”

“Because we might,” I interjected with a cheeky smile.

“Uhn? How so?”

“I don't know how to explain it but he struck me as the artsy type. There's a popular art exhibition coming up over here and I just have this gut feeling in my chest that he's going to attend.”

“Gut feeling. That's what we're banking on right now. Whatever happened to your gut feeling when you said ‘yes’ to Hank? Was it asleep then?”

“Don't.”

Rachel realized her mistake and apologized immediately. I may have made many mistakes in my life but I had never expected that my first love would turn out to be a narcissistic, borderline disordered personality who would end up abusing me both physically, verbally, and emotionally.

The only type of love I had ever known before was warm, kind, forgiving, and nurturing. It was the only type I had ever received so I had zero experience with dealing with a toxic type of love.

“I shouldn't have gotten carried away like that, Elle. I'm so sorry. We all got played by his “good guy” act. I should have known and seen the wolf beneath his fake-ass sheep's clothing.”

“It's fine, Rach. None of us could have seen it coming if we're being honest.”

Rachel sent me a sticker in my dm and waited patiently to see my reaction. I looked back at my monitor and smiled at her. She genuinely looked relieved and that made me appreciate our friendship even more.

I loved how we could always call each other out on our bullshit without having to worry about how the other person would turn it around against us.

Rach and I always called each other out on our s**t and neither of us ever tried to gaslight the other. We simply accepted our shortcomings, apologized, and promised to do better. Literally how you change the world. But some people never want to be accountable for their actions.

I was indeed grateful for the rare gift of a best friend life had given me. It remained the one silver lining in the chaotic hand life had been dealing me.

First, my grandparents died, then my parents died from an epidemic that ravaged our county, and then, I found my first love—a sociopathic bastard who made me question if I'd ever open my heart out to any man ever again.

Shit almost made me veer to the far left. That bastard.

“Alright, so we are going with this floral, sage green dress, white sandals, and cute orange bag, right?”

“Yesss.”

“You don't think the orange is too much? I feel it might be too much. I don't wanna stand out like a wine stain on a perfect, white evening dress.”

“Girl, trust me. I may not know a lot about A LOT of things, but you can trust me on this one. That cute, orange handbag is the star of that show. It took your outfit from a meh forty-ish to a solid ninety. I'm telling you, girl. Stick with that bag.”

I begrudgingly accepted her commentary and gave myself one more twirl in front of the mirror. Rachel was right about not being a bookworm but the girl never stuttered on a fashion statement in the past fifteen years we'd been together.

“Add on those cute layered earrings you got the last time you were thrift shopping.”

“These? What about my neckpiece? What am I wearing?”

“Try that gold necklace I got you on your last birthday. It should pair well with the layered earrings.”

“Like this? Ohmygoshwow. Rach!!! I look so beautiful! Oh my gosh, thank you!!”

Rachel let out a soft giggle and in that moment, I wanted to forget all my fears and return to the warmth of my best friend's arms. I missed her. Terribly.

I need you, Rach. Wish you were here.

“Okay, I gotta go now! I'm running late already. Still need to shower, do my makeup, and beat that early rush hour traffic to get to the exhibition in time. I'm so excited, Rach and so hopeful. I'm hoping I run into my mystery hunk at the gallery today. Oh well, fingers crossed.”

“Double crossed, baby. Go flirt that ass, bitch.” Rachel was smiling like a proud mother and I couldn't help but blush in response.

“Alright. I'll keep you posted. Gotta go! Love you!!! Kisses!”

I ended the call and took a huge scoop around the mess in my room after several hours of peeling off outfits upon outfits to find the perfect fit.

“Yeah… I can't do this now. I'll get back to you guys when I return.”

Just as I was about to step into the shower, I felt my phone vibrate on my dresser and wearily took shaky steps towards it.

Ever since Hank got released from jail, he'd been sending me messages every day, morning, noon, and night.

“Hi, baby. I swear it's been hell trying to readjust to you not being around. I miss you. Don't you miss me? When should I come to get you? I could come over right now. Just send me your location, my love.

xoxo”

“f**k my life. f**k my f*****g life. I can't keep up with this s**t anymore I swear.”

After taking about half an hour to recover from my mental breakdown, I picked myself up from the floor and wearily made my way to the bathroom.

“I'm not going to succumb. I've got this. You've got this, Eleanor.”