chapter 2

Chapter 2: Living Rent Free

Mia woke up the next morning to her phone blowing up. She grabbed it with one eye still closed and saw 47 notifications. This was not normal even for her chronically online friend group.

"What the actual..." she mumbled scrolling through the alerts.

The universe apparently decided that her mortification from last night was not enough. Zach had posted a 15 second clip of her Cosmos confession to his TikTok account. Nothing major just his modest 50K followers bearing witness to her emotional breakdown. The video already had 10K likes and was climbing faster than her anxiety.

**Mia:** ZACHARY ALLEN WILLIAMS

**Mia:** you are so done for

**Mia:** I will end your entire bloodline

**Mia:** also what filter did you use I look good

Zach responded immediately.

**Zach:** good morning to you too sunshine

**Zach:** that is the "about to risk it all for coffee boy" filter

**Zach:** also he commented

Mia sat bolt upright in bed her heart attempting to escape through her throat.

**Mia:** WHAT

**Mia:** WHAT DID HE SAY

**Mia:ZACH I SWEAR TO GOD

Zach: "oat milk heart emoji"

Zach: that is it that is the comment

Zach: you two are so embarrassing I live for it

Luna the cat jumped onto her lap giving her the same judgemental stare from yesterday. Mia flopped back onto her pillows groaning dramatically but also secretly checking if Jamie followed Zach. He did. And his profile picture was exactly what she expected. Him with his coffee plants looking unfairly attractive while clearly mid laugh.

"Luna this is a disaster of epic proportions," she informed her cat who responded by licking her paw with devastating indifference.

Her phone buzzed with a text from an unknown number.

Unknown: Hey it is Jamie from Cosmos. Hope this is not weird but Vinyl Dad gave me your number. Said it would be "criminal negligence" if he did not. His words not mine.

Mia stared at her phone for a full minute processing this development.

Mia: Not weird at all. My friends are just planning our wedding now no big deal.

She hit send before her brain could catch up with her thumbs. Then immediately panicked.

Mia:That was a joke obviously. Like a very bad joke. Please ignore.

Mia: This is Mia btw.

Jamie: I figured. Not many people confessed their attraction to me via open mic night this week. Just the one actually.

Mia: I am going to move to another country now goodbye

Jamie:Before you leave want to get coffee somewhere that is not my workplace? Somewhere I can be a customer too?

Mia bit her lip trying not to smile too hard. This was uncharted territory. She had spent months creating elaborate scenarios in her head about Jamie asking her out. None of them involved public humiliation and viral TikToks.

Mia: As long as you promise not to judge my order yes

Jamie: No judgment zone. Tomorrow? 10 AM? There is this place called Birch on 4th that does not employ me.

Mia: Perfect. Cannot wait to see what you order when left to your own devices.

She tossed her phone onto her bed and proceeded to scream silently into her pillow for approximately 30 seconds.