Cocoa Remix

Chapter Three: Wish Fulfillment

Avery awoke late the next morning to the blaring raid siren of her third snooze alarm. She’d rarely awoken late enough to hear this alarm, and it shook her to consciousness in the way that only the most visceral of warning bells could. She scrambled to grab her phone, which had gotten tucked under the pillow her head was resting on, feeling as if the vibrations that the sound produced were somehow making her eyes even more bloodshot. She thought she could feel the little veins bursting, and hoped that the whites of her eyes wouldn’t be too cluttered with red.

She groaned with relief once she’d finally managed to get her phone to cooperate, the sound of the raid siren cutting off abruptly. The hungover saleswoman stared up at the ceiling, which the pale morning light had already crept halfway across, and took a deep breath before forcing herself up to a sitting position. That was a mistake, as the quick movement made her so nauseous that she immediately flopped back down. She grit her teeth, and waited impatiently for the nausea to pass.

For a few long minutes, she lay on the sofa pondering whether or not to call out of work. In the end,  she decided that it wouldn’t be worth it. It was bad enough that James had turned her down; he didn’t need to know how drunk she’d gotten in the wake of his rejection. 

She couldn’t just avoid James - not only was that an embarrassingly pathetic move, but it was in no way sustainable. They were partners; she needed to push past this so they could keep working together. That, and just because she was hurting didn’t mean he deserved to feel guilt about it; he hadn’t done anything wrong. Not really, anyway. Well, she didn’t think she’d mind if he felt a little bad, but they needed to maintain a reasonable level of professionalism, despite the changes that would obviously be happening in their relationship.

Avery got to her feet with just enough time for a quick shower before she had to hop on the train and make her way to work. She wasn’t as put together as she normally preferred to be, with her damp hair thrown back into a ponytail and only minimal make up to relieve the sallow cast to her visage, but getting on with it in a half-undone state was better than giving up and laying on her couch all day. Besides, she’d already done that most of the previous night, and it hadn’t really done her any good.

A sparkle from the floor by her sofa caught Avery’s eye as she was pulling on her jacket. It was the lovely floral clip that the shop keeper had gifted her the evening before; it must have slipped out of her hair during the night. She paused for a moment, then made her way to the sofa, kneeling down to pick up the glittering accessory. She straightened up, and smiled as she slid the pin into the little hole on her jacket’s lapel. The blingy flower was just a little too big for a lapel pin, but Avery thought that it might help distract from her less than pristine appearance.

Even though she knew eating was a tenuous prospect at best, with her stomach on the delicate side having been so full of alcohol the night before, Avery had a difficult time ignoring her stomach’s grumbling complaints. She’d stuffed herself full of chocolates the night before, but that wasn’t the same as eating an actual meal. So, she stopped by a bodega for a banana and a bottle of water before walking into the lobby of her office building. Bananas were pretty mild; they would probably be safe.

She unpeeled the banana, and stepped onto the blessedly empty elevator. Just as she shoved the banana into her mouth, a familiar hand stopped the elevator doors from closing. It was James, of course. What better way to start off an already miserable morning than by giving her unrequited love a clear view of her shoving a phallic object into her face? She bit off the chunk of banana in her mouth, coughing a little as James stepped onto the elevator with her. He didn’t seem the slightest bit bothered by her predicament, and she wasn’t sure if that made it better or worse.

After a moment, James cleared his throat and said, “Good Morning, partner.”

“Mmmf,” Avery hummed in response. She swallowed down the now macerated banana before continuing, “Morning, James.”

They rode the elevator for a few floors in an awkward silence before he finally spoke again.

“Oh, uhm...Happy Valentine’s Day.”

Avery’s eyebrows knit together, and she mouthed ‘Valentine’s Day?’ to herself before fumbling around in her purse for her phone. Had she gotten her days mixed up? No. She was sure - yesterday was Valentine’s Day. She’d planned things out meticulously.

“Yeah, you too.” Avery muttered awkwardly as she fished around in her purse.

Her fingers eventually found what they were searching for, and she withdrew her phone - which was tucked neatly into a white and grey marble textured case. Avery pressed the button that brought the screen to life and was surprised when she looked down and saw that today was indeed Thursday, February 14th.

But wait...that couldn’t be right. Valentine’s Day was a Friday this year. That meant today was a Saturday, and she’d come in to work for no reason - though her alarm had gone off as if it was a week day. Was her phone broken? She checked the date again, and saw that the year was wrong. It was showing the previous year. Maybe the date had gotten reset somehow? But, if that was the case, why was James here? Surely he wouldn’t be at work on Valentine’s Day weekend when he had a girlfriend.

The elevator came to a stop, but Avery didn’t notice until James coughed politely. She looked up at the sound, and blushed a little when she realized he’d been holding the door open for her.

“Coming, Ava?” he asked, smiling wryly at her.

“Yeah, sorry.” Avery said, hurrying off the elevator after him, her face draining of color as she looked around.

The office was full; bustling with the activity you’d expect of a busy office on a Friday morning. She was starting to feel sick again, though whether it was from confusion, or from having eaten half a banana, she wasn’t entirely sure.

“Are you all right? You look a little under the weather…” James asked, looking a little concerned at the unsteady way she was moving. Avery had never been the kind of woman to trip over her own feet, even with her long limbs and high heels - and at the moment she looked rather shaken.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Well, no I’m not...I’m not sure I am.” Avery said, feeling a cold sweat break out on the back of her neck. She unscrewed the top of her water bottle and took a swig, muttering,  “Maybe I’m just dehydrated or something.”

Avery made her way toward their shared office, James following close behind. He hadn’t said anything more, but she could tell that he was worried. She rarely got sick, and when she did she normally reported into work hopped up on dayquil and espresso, desperately pretending there was nothing wrong. James had caught her passed out on her desk before, and since then he’d been adamant about her staying home when she was sick.

Fortunately, Avery was saved from James’ worried stare by one of their colleagues from the marketing team, who popped up from their cubicle like a prairie dog.

“Poppy!” the sweet cheeked bespectacled blonde woman called to James - whose last name, Popplewell, had garnered him a number of interesting nicknames over the years. “I need you to take a look at this before I send it over for approvals.”

James hesitated, but in the end couldn’t ignore work just to fret over Avery. She continued on into their office, which was just big enough for their two workstations, shutting the door behind her so that she could get a little quiet to think in. She sank into her chair, which rolled back a bit, and took a deep breath as she covered her eyes with the palms of her hands.

“What...is happening…?” Avery whispered to herself.

Then, she looked at her phone again, and shook her head; the date hadn’t changed in the time between getting off the elevator and sitting down in her office. She turned on her computer, and it too insisted that today was Thursday, February 14th.

“There’s no way I dreamt a whole year’s worth of life… maybe this is the dream?” she muttered under her breath as she scooted herself forward. “Is this, what is it called again? Lucid dreaming, or something?”

She looked up at the ceiling tiles, puffed out a sigh, then sat up and started going through her eMails. Just skimming over them gave her an overwhelming sense of deja vu; they were all regarding sales for products or the development of projects that she’d been working on the previous year. Avery pushed herself back from her desk, her head spinning. She took a few deep breaths, trying to calm the swirling feeling in her head, in the hopes that this would ease the swirling feeling in her stomach.

In an effort to focus on something, Avery began retracing her steps. What had she done yesterday? She went to work, got turned down by James, then stopped at that new chocolate shop. What was it called again, Cocoa Remix? 

Avery sat up a little straighter as a strange thought popped up in her mind, almost unbidden. The shop keeper had given her that last chocolate and told her that he hoped her wish came true, hadn’t he?

“And I did say...if I could do it all over again that I would…”

What the hell was in that chocolate?