Addiction and Recovery
Phone beeps
"Hello, hold up, wait a minute, don't tell me it's what I'm thinking," Emma said on the other side of the phone.
"What are you thinking?" Grace says as ahe tries to pretend.
"You're still on your bed sleeping, rolling under the duvet, what is wrong with you?" Emma sighed as she tried to complete the statement.
"I'm not sleeping. I just wanted to lay down for some minutes and engage myself in a slight meditation, so I wasn't sleeping; there is a difference," Grace tries to defend herself pretentiously.
"Okay, so why aren't you here yet?" Emma asked, waiting patiently for the excuse Grace would give this time.
"Well, I know I'm supposed to be somewhere by 6pm today," Grace said, trying to look at the clock as it ticked.
"Timing isn't your thing, right? I'm just knowing that, because you never keep to time, I pray you don't go late for your wedding. Just so you know, it isn't 6pm; the right and more correct time is 4pm. Two hours difference," Emma said, raising the tone of her voice.
"Ooh my goodness, I thought it was..." Grace jumped out of bed as she tried to make a complete statement.
"You better get your lazy self right here this minute," Emma shouted as she ended the call.
"I am not lazy; I'm one of the most hardworking humans I know; I can be lazy, but for a good course... hello! Emma!!" There she hangs up the call on me.
"I'm an early bird. Hmmm.. maybe I'm not a very early bird, or I'm something very close to early but not really that early; what am I even saying?" Grace talks to herself as tries to prepare herself for the party.
A few minutes later:
"Emma! Emma!! I know you can hear me, so look around and take a good look at me, girl!!!!" Grace shouted as she tried to get Emma's attention.
"What happened grace? huh huh don't do that face, I'm not gonna fall for it, you do this every single time and I wanna know why?" Emma replied.
"Okay, let me explain.." she tried to make a statement and was interrupted by Emma.
"What!!? There is nothing grace; I just wanted to have fun tonight and rewind; here you are when the party is about to end," Emma said with a face filled with disappointment.
"We can redo it during the weekend, I assure you I'm not gonna be late, I don't know why I'm always late, often I try to be early but then I still find myself going late, this is just a habit I can't get rid of," Grace said with her eyes teary.
"I know some old habits are hard to kill, but then I still believe nothing is impossible. You can get rid of it if you want to, and if something is of importance to you, you will prioritize it," Emma replied as she walked closer to hug Grace.
The two shared a hug when Grace told Emma the news about her interview that had been scheduled for the following day, so they left the party early for Grace to go home and prepare for her interview; Emma pleaded with Grace to go for the interview early. She promised Grace that she would get her a gift if she got to the location of the interview on time.
Grace went home that night and told herself she was gonna make it to the venue of the interview early. So she set an alarm on her phone and went to bed with the mindset of waking up early.
When the alarm beeped, different thoughts started roaming in her head, but Grace didn't listen to any of them; she woke up, went to take a shower, and prepared breakfast for herself; after everything was done, Grace checked the clock and was way early. One thought developed in her head, to stay home and wait till the time gets up a little, but Grace fought that thought and left the house.
She got to the venue and realized she was the only participant who had shown up; she was attended to by the receptionist and was asked to sit down for a while to wait for the other participants to arrive.
The interview went well, and luckily, Grace was employed not just for the skills she had acquired but also for showing up very early. "Indeed, being an early bird pays sometimes," were the only words roaming her head as she smiled, showing her beautiful white teeth like the snow.
Grace got home and couldn't wait to share the good news with her friend. Grace texted Emma to meet up at a restaurant by 4pm.
"Sorry I'm a few minutes late," Emma said, wearing a friendly smile.
"Why are you late Emma? You know I don't like it when people keep me waiting?" Grace said pretentiously.
"Okay, calm down early bird," Emma replied as her smile increased, thereby showing all her teeth.
"Enough of the drama, I got the job!!" Grace shouted at the restaurant, making every customer turn in her direction.
"Yayyyy!!!" Emma continued the shout hitting the table.
"They are gonna send us out if we continue in this action," Grace said as she tapped Emma's shoulder.
"When I got the text, let's meet up, I knew something good had happened, and here is your gift I promised," Emma said, stretching her hand to Grace with a box wrapped in gift packs.
"What did you get?" Grace replied unwrapping her present with curiosity.
"What!!!!?" Grace shouted as she stood up from her seat after sighting the waiter walking in their direction.
The two friends ran out of the restaurant in excitement holding hands.
Thanks for reading 🧡
Grace's habit of getting up late was a case in point, so much so that she saw her friend Emma as a very early riser. But good thing that in the midst of that, Grace saw the advantages of getting up early and getting to engagements on time 😊 In the end I was left wondering what the gift would be 😏🤭
The gift wasn't meant to be disclosed I guess😆
🤯😄😄 that's good 😁
This is an interesting 'bad habit', being late. It's hard to break, for sure. You describe Grace's challenge well. One element lacking in the story is the gift. What was it? Authors often leave off an ending like that, thinking mystery is intriguing. It's not. The gift, readers would expect, might have been related to time in some way. That would have been an appropriate ending. But, of course, any gift that satisfied your idea of an ending would have been fine.
It's never a good idea to leave readers frustrated :) Takes away from the quality of the story, which in this case is good.
Noted. Would do that next time.
Nice story 😌
Thank you
Getting used to the habit of arriving on time is hard, but it's even harder when we are late to everywhere. Good for Grace who made it to overcome that bad habit.
Yeah.it is very hard; it's takes time and effort to be put in place. And commitment.