We were set to reunite in the evening after work at seven-thirty. The plan we created in the last stretch of time I spent in my office was that we would meet at a formal restaurant an equal distance between each of our houses that specialized in noodles and the like. The finances would be covered by Lottie, as she had quickly offered before I had even earned the chance to get the words out, and the event was put into place.

At first, I had it in my mind that I would be leaving work around three-thirty as usual and returning home to spend my time preparing for the occasion. I ended up staying later than I had previously intended to by means of tidying up—A participant in Happy Homeroom had brought in a to-go cup of coffee with them to the activity, which I wasn't entirely certain was allowed, and knocked it out of their own paw and spilled the drink across the floor. I accompanied Lyle in wiping away the stain that stretched across the floor and disappeared only little by little, and golden lights flooded the space as the afternoon crept on. I cleared out from the building a few minutes after four to break the news to my parents.

Mom and Dad were thrilled at the idea that I was going on my first date, likely even more so since I had gotten one with Lottie, someone that they knew, trusted, and loved. I wouldn't have been surprised if they had waited from the moment I was born for this to happen with the way they instantly launched into an enthusiastic and slightly emotional explanation of everything that was expected of me while I was out. I was to be respectful and courteous, something that had weaved its way into my plan already. After we would share our dinner, I was permitted to stay out as late as I wanted as long as I was responsible about it, though Lottie was asked to be home before eleven. It wasn't exactly something I was too keen on getting in trouble with Lyle over.

The couple hours that I was cooped up in my house to get ready provided me with plenty of time to spin the idea of the event back and forth through my mind. The newness of the occasion felt to seep into every shadowed corner as time slipped away from me. Trills of flutters danced within me simply because of how unfamiliar the entire procedure was for me. I wasn't nervous to see Lottie, that much I knew for sure, as she had been my best friend considerably longer than she had been my date and never provoked such a sensation. Still, I couldn't tear the thought from my head of seeing her tonight in this close-knit situation.

Dad found me in my room shortly after five forty-five searching my closet and dressers for something to wear, but he had the answer to this as well. He suggested that I wear one of his old suits, one with a navy blue theme and a neat tie, recalling that I must have been old enough to fit into it now, and directed me to his own closet in his and Mom's bedroom at the end of the hall to point it out to me. I tried on the suit in the privacy of my room and found that his assumption had proved correct, but it was a bit too long in the sleeves, hem, and pants yet, though it wasn't all too noticeable when I glanced in the mirror. I exited the room again to the greeting of both of my parents prattling on about how I looked so great in a suit as if they didn't see me in a suit every single day.

The last of the time spent waiting was at the dining table. Mom and Dad asked to sit me down and continue our conversation about the plan for tonight. They wanted to know if I knew how to reach the restaurant from the house, admitting that they understood if I wouldn't want them around to bring me, and when I did not, they carried out the instructions to and from the place. They helped me memorize the directions so that I wouldn't find myself lost and pressed the fact of asking for help rather than trying to figure it out myself if I needed it.

The discussion ran dry around six thirty-five, just twenty-five minutes before my scheduled time to head out. It made the most sense to keep myself near the clock to watch the time, so I still sat at the table with my parents as the clock hands twitched closer to the seventh hour. I gripped my paws together restlessly on the table in the stretching silence of the room and rehearsed sentences in my mind that I could use, whether it be in greeting, in casual conversation, and more. For a while, my thoughts were full, and then the time came around at last after hours of waiting and preparation. I stepped through the doorway to take off on my way into the dimness that settled in the outside world, into the light sweep of snow at my feet and chilled air that plucked at my cheeks under a burst of bright colors that painted the sunset, and Mom intercepted me at the first step out for a few more words.

"Don't be nervous, honey. It's going to be great. You're both going to have so much fun and make so many memories," Mom soothed, hurriedly as she knew I needed to leave. A soft frown crept over her face as she reached her paw up to my hair, fussing with it as she tried to tame it. A useless effort, with how my tousled hair seemed to have a mind of its own. "I really do wish we could do something about your hair. It just won't stay still, will it?"

I ducked away from her reach, gently pushing her paw away. She meant well, but I wasn't exactly seeking to have things pointed out to me that could have been better when I was already so displeased with how I looked. "Mom," I reminded her.

"Okay. I'll stop," Mom promised, withdrawing her paw again as her bright smile resurfaced. "It looks fine. You look great. I'll let you be on your way now. But you have to tell me how it went once you get home. Your father and I will be waiting for you."

In a silly manner, likely an attempt in easing my nervousness, Mom made me promise that I would tell her everything about my date with Lottie as soon as I could, even earning a small laugh to escape me. We shared one final tight hug and then I was on my way, shuffling through the wintry swirls of the breeze and joining my footsteps with the ones made before.

The harshness of the air eased up soon into the walk as the sun sank below the horizon. I ventured through the thin layer of snow into the warming air, devoting myself to the directions that my parents had done well to teach me. With a few turns and shuffled steps carrying me closer to my destination, anxiety prickling my stomach the entire way, strings of lights dotting the shadowy atmosphere caught my attention. The tiny glows outlined the top rim of a sleek black door nearly a foot taller than me leading to an elegantly illustrated building standing in the thin light of the late evening. I had arrived.

But was Lottie here yet? I thrust my way through the door, emerging into the restaurant, and was greeted by a sweep of warm air as my gaze flicked around the place. The seating was already decently full, animals scattered across the room at tables and booths as sounds of both dishes clattering and classical violin bounced off the spacious walls that bordered the space in sand-colored arches. The sense of nightfall creeping in clouded the space, though I wasn't outside in the dark to see it firsthand. I searched the chatting faces throughout the room, looking out for someone sitting by themself, but could grasp nothing in sight.

There was a sign propped up towards the side a few yards from the entrance. Dropping my search for Lottie, I inched across the maroon carpeted floor to examine the text that waited for me to see if there was something that would benefit me to know.

Please Seat Yourself

Outside Seating Available

Maybe she was waiting for me in the outside seating segment. I couldn't see her preferring to sit out where it was colder rather than inside, but it was possible. Whether or not that was where she was, it was a large space—I would have to do more searching in case I missed her inside.

I skirted the edges of the room, eyes sharp for someone I would recognize or a gesture directing me to a table. I was almost invisible, passing by the line of sight of the visitors as their focus was unbroken by their own meals. There were three separate sections of the inside seating that I was left to explore, and so I scoured each of them, but I felt no flicker of recognition from any of the faces I found. I slipped through the different rooms a couple of times each, checking and re-checking that Lottie hadn't somehow escaped my sight. She wasn't there.

The thought of her neglecting to show up plagued my mind for just a few minutes before I caught sight of a clock high on the wall. It was just a touch after seven-thirty, the time we had arranged to meet, and wasn't as late as my mind had been insisting it was. If she wasn't here now, then she would surely be arriving soon. It might have been a good idea to catch her at the entrance, maybe recite some greeting lines that I had rehearsed.

Shivers of unease shot through me as I moved to relocate myself at the point where I had come from, though a different concern than running into Lottie for the first time swelled in my mind. Part of the uncertainty that still clung to me even now must have been from the new environment that I didn't often associate myself with. Everywhere I looked was the pure image of elegance and it was something new to me, so I couldn't bring myself to genuinely fit into it. Having the opportunity to sport a suit other than the work uniform I was so used to put a formal step in my stride, but past that, I was completely isolated from everything else. I felt like a fake, someone in someplace I wasn't meant to be, and the irrational worry of being caught wouldn't budge from the back of my mind.

A group of four was emerging through the doorway I had entered from when I found myself at the front of the building again. One by one, they each spared me a glance with questioning eyes keen to speak—Maybe they thought I was one of the servers—Before they took notice of the sign on the side and paused to examine it. I settled myself at the wall, standing with my paws in my pockets in the appearance of calmness to mask the thoughts whirling through my mind, and began my wait. The group travelled as a cluster into the dining space and vanished among the crowd, leaving me alone with the tranquil music.

I surveyed the area, eyes drifting from corner to corner while occasionally flicking back towards the motionless door. I could feel the minutes ticking away from me as I waited at the entrance for longer and longer for some kind of sign that my date would begin. She's just a bit late, I reminded myself once and again in my wait, but these reminders were closely followed by the recollection that it was a rare occurrence for Lottie to be late to anything. It was about seven thirty-five now and I was made aware once again of the outside seating option as my focus realigned with the sign, and so I set off again to search the patio.

Only about three or four tables were occupied on the patio when I ducked through the doorway. The space was illuminated by strings of lights similar to the ones I had seen out in the front, reaching out over the space across thin strips of wooden planks. My gaze jumped between each of them as I wandered out into the area, dropping the door to slowly fall shut behind me, but I couldn't find Lottie among them. The door fell shut as my feet came to a stop, but it was right then that a familiar melodic voice in conversation off to the left of the area snatched my attention.

A decent stretch away from the seating area and gathered on the snow to talk stood both Lottie and Lyle. Lottie had her back to me as she stood in the shadows past the light to speak with her uncle and it was almost difficult to distinguish her presence at all since she seemed to be wearing a fully black outfit, but I noticed that her hair had been pulled up into a tight ponytail and fell in delicate waves partway down her back. I couldn't quite catch what she was saying as Lyle quietly nodded along and it wasn't polite to try and eavesdrop, so I lingered where I stood on the patio to wait patiently for her to finish her discussion.

The conversation went on for several seconds. Lottie was fidgeting with her paws in a restless way as she spoke, but Lyle, as usual, showed no distinct emotion in response. Neither of them appeared to take notice of the fact that I was waiting near them at all, seeming absorbed in their own little world, at least at first. After a while, Lyle's eyes darted from Lottie to me behind her and offered a gentle nudge to get her attention, nodding in my direction to point me out to her.

Lottie's reaction was immediate and abrupt. She jumped to shift to sneak a glance back at me, causing her ponytail to swing around with a direct hit to her face. A laugh broke from my throat as she reeled slightly, startled, and rushed to pry her hair from her face. Her gaze fell upon me on the patio and she gave me a sheepish smile, but didn't greet me as she turned to face Lyle again.

Lottie slipped a couple more words into the conversation, but it seemed to be in goodbye as Lyle reached out, wrapping her in his arms and hugging her close. He held her for only a few seconds, cradling her in his arms before he withdrew, leaving a kiss on her forehead and starting off to depart.

Lottie glanced briefly at me before she proceeded to cross the layer of snow, making her way to the short stairs at the opposite end of the long patio from the door. She climbed the first step, pausing to knock the snow off of her shoes one at a time with the edge, and ascended into the lit area.

Now that she had advanced into the light, I could observe her appearance more clearly. A black suit jacket sat over a white blouse, tucked into a set of black pants that were pinned up by a belt with a thick silver buckle. Her high-heeled shoes that peeked out under the hems of her pant legs gave soft rhythmic thumps as she approached over the carpet. Under the slim glow that sank down over the area, she almost seemed to give a brighter glimmer. She was like the sparkle in the sunset where the sun met water in such a subtle, yet so eye-catching way. She was beautiful.

"Hey," I greeted her as she came to a stop in front of me. With the lifted heels of her shoes, she was just a few inches shorter than me tonight. I noticed the shine from the lights above flick through the darkness of her eyes.

"Hi, Digby," Lottie replied, a smile etching into her face, but she was still fidgety. She shifted her weight awkwardly between her feet and almost seemed to struggle to keep her focus in my eyes. She was pretty anxious, like me. It would certainly explain the lengthened conversation with Lyle.

A good laugh was the best trick to ease tension. "Why didn't I get a goodbye hug?" I joked, poking fun at the conversation as it flashed through my memory to stir up some humor.

Lottie didn't manage a laugh, but also didn't lose her smile as she reached up to hastily brush her hair from her shoulders. "Uncle Lyle isn't really a huggy-type animal, I don't think," she admitted. "For me, hugging is one of the best ways to make me feel loved, so he makes sure that he can provide that. I really love and appreciate him for that. He would only hug those he's close with, like those he considers his family."

I recalled that Lottie was the only member of his family that Lyle actually got along with, but mentioning so aloud wouldn't provoke a pleasant reaction in Lottie, so I held my tongue and instead nodded in acknowledgment. An icy breeze swept across the area, thrusting me back into the reminder that we were standing outside during a late midwinter evening, and Lottie shivered visibly.

"It's getting cold, isn't it?" Lottie pointed out, dropping her gaze to her paws in front of her as she rubbed them together to keep warm. The breeze fiddled with her hair, tossing strands back onto her shoulder where they had rested before. "Let's find a seat inside. I don't mind the cold temperatures, but I don't think I'd be able to sit in it for so long. I'm worried about the food cooling down."

I led the way back into the inside seating area, as I had just passed through there several times before and could navigate my way to the empty seats. There seemed to be a few more unoccupied tables from when I had been in there last, giving us more options to choose from. We weaved through the array of tables, offering brief comments on the placement of each empty table to narrow down our choice, and came to the decision of a two-seated table next to the wall.

I lowered myself into the cushion of my seat, inching closer to the table as Lottie seated herself as well. A hanging light above the table in a spherical case sent a warm glow down onto us and a cluster of orange flowers burst from a long vase on a shelf to my right. A gentle warmth settled in the room and by the time I had the chance to sit down, I had finally managed to thaw out from standing in the cold.

Neither of us spoke for a while. There wasn't anything to say. Lottie raised her head to examine the flowers next to us while my focus began to stray throughout the room. Now that Lottie had entered the environment alongside me, my mind had been so well trained to register her presence only in the place of work rather than a casual friendship and I found that I struggled to switch off my interior designer eye. Both round and square tables were many and because of that were packed closer together than most restaurants—As I had noticed, it was quite popular—But it didn't make good designing sense. The hanging lights and the flowers on shelves were a pleasant touch, but weren't present frequently enough to be noted. In the most polite way possible, someone hadn't given deep enough thought to the layout of the space.

My paws found the hems of my sleeves, adjusting them on my wrists. My stomach was still erupting into subtle flutters but I washed an unbothered expression over my face, something I had mastered thanks to working with dissatisfied customers. So, maybe she herself did make me a little nervous somehow. It didn't quite directly align with my past connection with Goldie, the last time I had stumbled over myself for someone else, since any notable tugging urge to leap for anything past friendship with Lottie just wasn't there. Wasn't a date meant to be a somewhat romantic gesture? The vibe was more of a friends' hangout in an unusual atmosphere for a friends' hangout.

"It's amazing that there wasn't any snow that fell onto the tables or the carpet outside," I said.

Lottie gave an abrupt nod, but didn't return my gaze as her eyes flicked to study her paws. "I've been coming here for a few years. I've seen the owners close off the outside seating when snow is on the way," she explained. "They hang a sort of tarp over the planks so that snow can't get inside."

We received our menus minutes later. The silence between Lottie and me dragged on while I scanned the items on the menu in my paws, eyes jumping across the Japanese characters and their English translation beneath them. After a few minutes of consideration, I decided on the spicy noodles meal while Lottie went for a noodles meal with sliced eggs and various vegetables. We had our orders recorded and our menus taken, and just like that, it was only us and our silence once again.

The classical violin music had managed to resurface over the sound of talking and clattering dishes. It must have been a smaller crowd now. The clock on the wall was inching towards eight o'clock at night as we continued to sit without a word. A creeping suspicion had begun to swell in my mind that we were about to let the night go without any sort of connection. Not only that, but a curiosity had begun to slink in as well—Why had she asked me out in the first place? It was such a jolting change in the way our friendship was laid out. She had known that I had never been on a date before, given what happened with Goldie, and the longer I considered it the more clear it became; that was exactly why we were here today. It sounded just like her to thoughtfully offer a surprise that had never been presented to me before, especially for this special day. It would have been like when she offered me a job at Happy Home after hearing I was unemployed.

"It's not usually this busy here at this time," Lottie pointed out. My heart gave a soft drop at the concern twisting into her face, being abruptly hurled back into the reminder of her sensitivity to loud noises that had sprouted from her childhood, and anxiously awaited a request to get out of here. "It should clear out soon. I'm not too worried about it."

We never really made full conversation—Knowing nearly everything about each other created such a struggle to find new things to talk about—But spent our time with little spurts of chats that we came up with in the moment for the next several minutes while we waited for our meals to arrive. The dishes arrived promptly hardly ten minutes after we had first ordered, both brought in fragile white bowls with chopsticks poking out from the side of the noodles and a warning that the food was hot. The next thing I knew, the scent of warm pasta drifted between us, with my steaming bowl of noodles decorated with red specks to mark the spice and with Lottie's bowl covered with the array of extra sides. The spice took firey leaps on my tongue even from the first bite and my stomach was sure to feel it later, but Lottie was paying, so I would be eating more than half of it at least.

"I don't think I noticed any options for beverages on the menu. All I saw was the food," I pointed out.

Lottie had started working through her meal from top to bottom, leaving nothing but a single egg slice now as her chopsticks still rested in her paw. "I don't think they provide any specific drinks here," she explained to me. "That's something that I've always found interesting about this restaurant. Maybe we can make a direct request. Are your noodles too spicy?"

I twirled my chopsticks absentmindedly through my noodles as soon as they came to mention. "They're quite a bit spicy, but not too much so," I admitted.

A server stopped to visit the table after a while to check on the progression of the meal. I couldn't find the words to ask about beverages so as to not create a problem, but Lottie very kindly asked on my behalf if some water glasses could have been brought out to the table. There were no glasses able to be provided to carry out the water, though, and while Lottie was disappointed for me, I easily let it go.

Lottie had been right. As eight o'clock turned into eight-thirty and beyond, the tables around us gradually became empty. As the night went on, we were ever so slowly left with a half-occupied room rather than the full arrangement I had seen earlier in the evening. With every table that cleared out at last, I was closer and closer to being able to breathe properly.

"It's getting pretty late here, isn't it?" Lottie said. She had abandoned her chopsticks in the remaining noodles in her bowl as she peered up at the clock on the wall. I followed her gaze to find that it had reached eight forty-five. "I'm fine with being out until I'm asked to be home again, but I didn't even consider how you would feel about it. Is this a bit too late?"

"No, I don't think so. I'm the same way, but there isn't any specific time that I'm meant to be home. It doesn't really bother me," I replied truthfully.

Lottie finished her meal first before me, but with a small cluster of noodles left in my bowl and my throat screaming from the spice, I was well on my way to deciding that I was done as well. I soon joined her in the announcement of my meal completion, but our night was not yet over. Through lighthearted chats and losing ourselves in the minutes just to continue to spend time with each other, the hours only kept on slipping away from us. Eight o'clock inched its way into nine and then the tenth hour was approaching before we knew it.

Once nine forty had come and gone, Lottie and I collectively agreed that we'd spent enough time at the restaurant, given that we'd passed the two-hour mark. The burning spice had finally begun to drain from my taste buds as I collected myself to get going, but I was careful; one wrong swallow and I was hurled right back into the sensation for a few agonizing seconds. Lottie paid generously for the meals and we took off from the restaurant at last, venturing out into the crisp temperatures of the early night.

"We've still got a little bit of time left, I think," Lottie told me. We were shuffling over the snow side by side, crunching over the fresh layer and forging a new path. I wasn't entirely certain where we were headed, as I was just following Lottie's lead, and we slowly wandered off into the unknown of an unfamiliar neighborhood together. "Uncle Lyle told me that he wants me to be home by eleven, but we left the restaurant at about nine forty-five. We don't have to end the day just yet if there's something you want to do first."

A soft, faintly stinging breeze swept across the layer of snow, sending a flutter of snowflakes across the path from along the top. Every glow from streetlights, hanging lights from buildings around us, and more glimmered through the thin light that remained in the atmosphere and the night seemed to glisten. I figured it wouldn't be the easiest task to guide myself back home when the time came, but with Lottie by my side, I was at ease by the knowledge that I wasn't alone.

"I didn't have anything in mind," I confessed. Neither of us had really planned past dinner, and I hadn't exactly considered this far either. Theoretically, the possibilities were endless.

"We could just take a walk together until it's time to get going. I've been through this area before and remember some directions," Lottie suggested. She drifted quietly across the snow beside me, allowing the invisible path we were crossing to steal her focus, and then she reached up to restlessly brush her bangs away from her face again to continue speaking. "I like the simplicity of just taking long walks with you. We don't get to do something like this very often. It makes me feel like we really connect this way."

"I know what you mean," I agreed.

A deep darkness conquered the sky above us so thick that not a flicker of movement disturbed it, sinking over us like a blanket as far as it could reach. Every swipe of chilly air across the land seemed to fill every corner of my lungs as the quietness overtook the moment. I was wide awake, eyes pried open to the night despite the late hour, and realized that there was no place I was happier being.

And so, our night went on. We kept each other company as we walked together in battle of the wintertime chills and the vulnerability of the late hour. Nothing else could possibly have mattered as we talked, as we smiled, as the urge tugged tirelessly at me to simply make her laugh, feeling like I'd achieved something when something I said snuck a giggle out of her. We had never been closer than tonight was leading us to be. And I was happy.

I quickly lost my vague grasp on time further and further on our little adventure. At one point, it was nine fifty, then it was something around ten o'clock, and after that there was no time to think of. It was just the two of us in the moment that was our own and nothing held us to the overbearing and fleeting agenda of life. I found a smile on my face as we spoke and eventually every time I looked at her, even if she wasn't looking at me in return. I was completely and blindly absorbed in the sensation of the moment, that warm and mesmerizing and carefree feeling, and I wished it could last forever. But no moment could last forever.

"Oh, Digby, I've got to go home," Lottie announced, coming to a short halt in her step. She had drawn up her dark sleeve to squint down at a watch wrapped around her wrist through the dim shadows. "It's almost ten forty. I'm going to be late. I really hope my uncle won't be upset with me."

"Maybe I should have been keeping track of time," I replied sheepishly as Lottie pushed down her sleeve again, turning to glance up at me.

"No, that's all right. I like how it turned out this way, anyway," Lottie told me. She gave a short pause, peering up into my face, and drew in a deep breath that told me she was about to call a reluctant end. "Well... I suppose this is goodbye for now. I had a lot of fun today. I might not have done much talking, but I promise I had a great time. I'd love it if we could do this again someday."

It wasn't quite sitting right to call it quits right now. I struggled to shrug off the sense that there were still questions left unanswered between us. I couldn't say there was anything between us beyond the idea of friendship, but the term still wasn't quite as strong. We'd entered a sort of gray area in terms of where our friendship stood. Not just that, but I'd poured so much of myself into her that when she left, it would feel like she was taking a part of me with her.

I settled for best friend and most devoted ally. "I think that sounds great," I agreed. "We can plan for that."

Lottie nodded slightly, a tiny smile creeping onto her face as she ducked her head to brush her bangs from her face. "I'll see you tomorrow, then," she said, lifting her head. "I hope you had a wonderful birthday. Please have a good night."

In the blink of an eye, Lottie was already disappearing into the shadows again, engulfed by the night for it to bring her home. I stood by, watching her slowly become one with the darkness as she shuffled over the snow, and only when the night took her from me did I turn to leave.

My face was lowered to the ground, eyes flicking to retrace my path back to the restaurant. I followed my old footprints in the snow, taking step by step to lead me back, but after several steps, Lottie's voice broke through the darkness again.

"Digby, wait," Lottie burst out from behind me before I began to register the sound of rushing footsteps through snow as she hurried to see me again. I turned around to find her hustling across the tousled snow to approach me.

"What is it?" I inquired as she slowed to a stop a few feet in front of me.

Lottie only stood there for a moment as if the dropping temperatures had frozen her into place. She almost seemed to be making silent words to herself as she tried to work around how to answer, but then she shook her head.

"Nothing," Lottie told me at last, suddenly distracted as she stole one last glance at me and started off into the darkness again.

I soon fell into a sure knowledge of direction on my way to return to the restaurant with my past footprints with Lottie to take me there. My feet cut through the blanket of snow in a rhythm determined in the assurance of knowing just where to go, and the streetlights above me sent streaks of light along the white path. The air seemed to have turned frigid in a matter of minutes, piercing my cheeks and sending jolting shivers down my spine. I tucked my numb paws into my long sleeves and kept on walking.

I hadn't anticipated just how far back the restaurant had been from where Lottie and I had said goodbye. I could sense the day continuing to wind down as I journeyed back over the path we had taken, plunging into the depths of the night. After a while, it had begun to feel like I'd been making the trip for an eternity with a lifetime still remaining, walking and walking but never going anywhere. Wow, I thought to myself at one point during the travel. We really had lost track of time when we were here together.

My eyes ran across Lottie's footprints next to mine as I walked along alone. All of those memories that had occurred along the way were still laid out fresh in my mind, revolving through the front of my thoughts like a rolling film. Her voice still rang out in my mind, the feeling of her presence still clinging to me long after she had left me, and I could almost pretend that she was still there with me.

The string of lights stretched across the top of the door and slicing through the dimness of the late night declared my arrival to the restaurant. I knew my way back home from here thanks to the directions Mom and Dad had helped me to memorize before I had first left. My stride had become stiff as I ventured through the snow like a frozen solid ice cube, but I patiently reminded myself that I didn't have much farther to go from there. I hardly paused at the restaurant door and was on my way back home.

Thoughts of the date I'd just been taken on had begun to resurface, carrying me back into the familiarity of my own neighborhood. I struggled to tear the idea from my mind, toying with it as everything came back to me. I was running it all once over another time, blurring the world around me as my thoughts clouded up my head, and then I was at my door again.

I thrust open the door and emerged into the dining room, anticipating an empty room, but this was not what I saw. Both of my parents were seated at the table, engaged in quiet conversation, and raised their heads to look at me as the door swung open. Smiles had flooded over their faces, but a shared touch of tiredness hung over their expressions.

"Hi, sweetheart," Mom greeted me as I snuck a glance up at the clock above the door. It was almost ten minutes to midnight. "Did you enjoy your date?"

"It was great, actually," I replied. The warmth sitting in the house was already helping me to thaw out from the bitter temperatures outside, but I rubbed my paws together to help disperse more of the chill. "I had tons of fun."

"How did it go? Tell me everything," Mom urged, eagerly yet drowsily waving me over to the table. As animals that consistently went to bed no later than ten o'clock, this was a late night for both of them. I drifted closer to the table at her request. "You did promise, after all."

"That's right. I did," I agreed, stopping at the back of my chair to rest my paws casually along the top rim. Now that I was home again, a sense of fatigue weighed me down and left me droopy—I'd go to bed as soon as I finished this conversation. "We didn't do much. We had some dinner and took a walk before she needed to go home."

After mentioning the event out loud, the past memories had begun to surge through my mind once more. I sank my weight onto my paws on the chair, allowing myself to reimmerse into the thought.

"Nothing too extravagant?" Mom replied. I offered a tired mumble of agreement, to which she spoke again just seconds later with her usual light smile. "So, your first date. That's exciting! What's your plan going forward, then? Is Lottie your girlfriend?"

I reeled slightly at the question. Well, that came out of nowhere. "No, Mom," I insisted. "Lottie's just a friend."

Mom nodded slightly, considering this, and regained her smile. "Sure," she replied happily. "That's fine. Well, you must have had a pretty long day, haven't you? Why don't you get some rest before you go to work tomorrow?"

My thoughts had already shifted to the idea of sleep as I prepared myself for bed. I slipped into my pajamas, returned the suit to my dad, and called it a night. I was sinking into the mattress from the moment I crawled into bed, ever so slowly drifting off in the thick darkness of my bedroom and was carried off into sleep with thoughts of spending the evening with my most dearest friend.

. . .

"Do you think you could check the settings of the phone for me, please?" Lottie inquired. "Sometimes with how busy and crowded it gets in here, it makes it difficult to hear the phone when it rings. I was hoping there would be a way to raise the volume so that it could be heard better."

It was just a touch after nine in the morning, so Open Advisory had only gained a few visitors so far, inching around the room in their own observation. I had walked into the room upon flicking the switch in my mind and turning myself into my confident persona, ready to begin interaction with the customers of the morning. Lottie had found her way to the room shortly after with a request before she would continue on to Studies.

"Absolutely, not a problem," I replied brightly. "I'll have that done right now. Thank you for pointing that out to me!"

"Sure! Thank you, Digby," Lottie said. She cast me one final smile before she started off towards the doors again, pushing her way through and disappearing out into the hallway.

I didn't, in fact, have that done right then. Of course, I had the intention of doing so, but the moment that Lottie was out the door again, I was caught in conversation with a curious customer. A perky deer barely older than me wished to hear about the history of the designs, a request I didn't hear often. Naturally, I launched directly into a string of explanation from the information I had tucked away in my mind and the instructions I received for the phone were promptly tossed out of my thoughts.

But eventually, it did occur once again. Ten thirty had just come and gone a few minutes ago and the room was notably congested. Everything was going smoothly; my day before this point had been relatively uneventful. Drifting casually through the room, passing lighthearted remarks back and forth in conversation, quite the usual. It was only as my eyes fell over the phone in the crevice of the wall did the request touch my mind again.

Oh, I still need to do that, I realized to myself. I carefully eased my way through the building crowd, excusing myself whenever I got a bit too close to someone, and found myself at the phone.

My focus danced over the buttons on the phone in front of me in search of what I needed. The numbers were laid out in their orderly fashion, though a button labelled "set" was positioned in the high right corner. I pressed down the button to activate the settings page, watching the small screen beneath it flash to life to provide a list of alphabetical terms to scroll through by arrow buttons along the side.

I filed through the list of terms, inching past each different letter for the letter V towards the end or anything that could possibly give me a sign to adjust the volume. Nothing even close. My optimism to fulfill the request was draining away as I neared the end of the alphabet, reaching the first V's to discover it started with "Voicemail" and nothing more. It was no use.

A soft sigh escaped me as I reached for the button again, dropping the task to return to work, but then the word echoed in my mind. My paw hovered over the phone. Isabelle had found her way back to my thoughts as a tingling sense of recognition flickered in the back of my mind. With the numerous calls she had sent me, her new phone number had burned into my memory deep enough for me to glance through missed calls to find she still left me voicemails from time to time, despite how she had treated me. With any luck, I could navigate through the voicemail settings and figure out some way to block her number from contact.

I selected the voicemail setting option, shifting my weight on my feet to lean in and decipher the miniature text that flicked onto the screen. There was only one available option so as to adjust voicemail reception as laid out in black and white on the screen.

Voicemail

Previously recorded voicemails will remain on this phone but future voicemails will be permanently deleted.

Are you sure you wish to proceed?

Yes              No

1                  0

My eyes crept over the words, once and once again, struggling to sink in what they were telling me. Deleting her voicemails? My gaze snuck hesitantly around the room, the populous clutter of animals and the layered sounds of chatting voices, as if I would find the answer waiting there. It was a bit of a reach, but if I accepted the change, would that have been enough to solve my problem?

No, no, absolutely not. I couldn't do that. I was already pushing it with Lottie, given how I had narrowly escaped punishment when I unplugged the other phone. I turned back to the tiny screen again, paws itching to press the 0 key, and then a different thought slunk in.

Just like that, I was right where I had once been, right where I had fought so relentlessly to tear myself out of. I was sunken down on the bathroom floor, choking and crying from every inch of my soul at the mere idea of being controlled, manipulated, betrayed. I was dreading every call my own sister would send out, even learning to prefer her absence over hearing her voice so that I could avoid her mistreatment in any way I could. I had longed to rip the phone right out of the wall just to free myself of the nightmare she had conducted for me.

New voicemails will automatically be deleted.

Have a nice day!