The birds sang and the dim yawn of the sun went through her white curtains. Lise's eyes opened slowly and then she blinked a couple times to 'wake her brain up' even if she knew that as soon as her eyelids moved up, she'd wake up in a second.

  Anna sat down on her bed and moved closer to her headboard where she reclined her weight for a moment as she looked around the room. Her eyes landed on her nightstand where she found her laptop and phone. As she yawned she took the second item in hand and checked the time: 6:00 a. m. Lise let out a sigh, she had missed minutes of her favourite time of the day. A second later, she got out of bed and, once that was done, she gave a few steps towards the windowpane, moved the curtains and took advantage of the movement to stretch.

  She then proceeded to open the window, smiling when the cold wind hit her face, shivering immediately. She walked back towards the nightstand, grabbed her laptop and made her way towards the coat rack that rests next to her door and grabbed her sleeping robe, put it on and made her way out of the bedroom and towards the kitchen.

  Once there, the morning ritual started. She felt happy today. Last night had been a dream and she couldn't help but smile like an idiot at the memory of his lips against her ear whispering things in french. She was in such a good mood that she decided to make herself some breakfast: pancakes. The, according to her mom, sign of a good day.

She turned on the record player before she started working on the pancakes mixture and played one of her favourite albums: 'The Definitive Collection' by Stevie Wonder, a vinyl given by her mother on her past birthday. She blasted the music as she made breakfast and sang at the top of her lungs not caring to wake up her neighbours on a Sunday this early.

The first five songs of the album had gone through when her breakfast was done. She decided to warm up her cup of milky coffee and as the mug was making spins like a ballerina in the microwave, she opened her laptop, found her draft and started working on finishing and polishing it. When the microwave's chime indicated that it was done, she grabbed her mug and started preparing the drink as she sang.

"Like a fool, I went and stayed too long. Now I'm wondering if your love's still strong." She picked her breakfast from the kitchen bar, leaving her laptop behind, and danced her way towards the fire-escape, where she sat and ate as the music echoed inside and the city yawned. From one a minute to another, a bird sat at the railing and she smiled at it. "Morning." She chuckled to herself, she felt like Snow White talking to animals, but let's be real, when she's in such a great mood, she's able to talk with rocks. "Bye." She said to the bird as it flew away.

After breakfast was done, she moved back inside and straight towards the kitchen, specifically the sink, where she washed her dishes before she sat down again to continue with the article.

After a while, the 19th track started playing, her favourite, 'I Just Called to Say I Love You'. She's always thought it was a beautiful song, Lise finds it heartwarming. She stood up and made her way to her bedroom where she changed her warm pyjamas into her sport clothes, today is Sunday, which means yoga instead of running. She also grabbed the chargers of the devices and returned to the living room where she started her routine once she was set up.

The song ended and so did the following two, therefore, she removed the disc, kept it into the sleeve and then into a box filled with records that her roommates and herself have been filling up through the years. She grabbed "Cigarettes After Sex", the first album the band with the same name has. The routine video lasts half an hour and the record was forty seven minutes long. Enough time. Lise played the record before the video started; and listened to the relaxing songs as she followed the video's instructions.

When she was done, she went to the bathroom and took a shower, after that, she grabbed some shorts and an oversized hoodie. Anna let her hair air-dry as she returned to the kitchen, took her laptop and moved to the sofa to continue working on the article, it was almost finished. That's when she checked the clock. 8:30. She smiled to herself, last night, about an hour after she had arrived home, her boss texted, she asked her to send the article at noon tops and thank goodness Lise is a fast writer, she was writing the closure.

About thirty minutes later, when she had made sure there were no orthographic mistakes, and she read it multiple times, she opened her mail and sent the PDF document to her friend Charly, he's the editor of the magazine. After ten minutes he replied and asked her to change a few things and they started sending the text back and forward until he said it was enough. When those news had arrived, it was already 10:45 and she didn't waste a second to send it to her boss, who replied quickly claiming to be pleased with the result,

  It was noon and she had nothing to do, so, she turned the candles on, grabbed a blanket that's perfectly folded into an organiser box on the bottom of the bookshelf, took advantage of being standing to charge her laptop and take her phone that had full battery, returned to sit back on the couch, covered her legs and turned the T. V. on to watch Netflix. And she quickly found a show to watch: 'You'. Naomi has been talking non stop about it and not only the plot but about how she's madly in love with Penn and his voice, so, she'll give it a try.

  So far, so good. The story had her hooked, she's really liking the way the show had been made and she agrees with Naomi, he's incredibly handsome for being a narcissist and a killer. Lise had been watching it for 136 minutes, two hours and a bit. She got up as the third chapter started to grab a small bowl of frozen berries as Penn Badgley's voice made her shiver. That's gotta be his most attractive trait. Yeah, she definitely agrees with Nom.

  As the frozen fruit made a 'pop' noise when they fell into the plastic bowl, her phone chimed indicating she had received a message. Lise walked up to the couch and took it. Timmy <3 could be read on the screen and she smiled. He said he had looked for the film's tickets at the agreed time but they were sold out. The tickets were only available at 4:30 or 8:00, so, he asked if they could go earlier. Lise said it was fine and Tim agreed on picking her up in an hour and a half.

  Once the snack was served, she ate a strawberry and left the round glass on the marble island before she walked to the living room to get the remote and pause the chapter in order to get ready.

She walked towards her bedroom and once there, she took off the hoodie and the shorts to get a sage green satin sun dress she had bought weeks ago and carefully place it over her body. Afterwards, she put on some makeup and splashed perfume over her skin. She styled her hair on a half up-down ponytail and grabbed her bag with the necessary stuff she'd need. She prepared it yesterday.

  When she liked her reflection in the mirror, she grabbed a white cardigan with loose sleeves and made her way back to the living room, grabbed her small bowl of fruit and sat down again to continue watching the show.

  She stood up when she realised time was about to run out and rushed to wash her teeth and apply her signature red lipstick over her rosy lips. About ten minutes later, that she used to wash her dishes, place the blanket where it's supposed to be, turn the T. V. off and blow the candles off, she heard a knock on the door. She walked to the handle of the entrance and opened the door, revealing a tall and skinny guy with a lovely smile on his lips wearing black clothes and sunglasses.

"Hi." She greeted.

"Hey." He said back. Tim's eyes scanned her. She looked breathtaking. "You look beautiful." She smiled brightly.

"Thanks, you look very handsome yourself." He smiled back. "I'll get my bag, give me a minute." He nodded as Lise rushed inside to get her small purse, her phone and keys. Thankfully it was all on the counter by the entrance. She returned in lo time and closed the door behind her, locking it.

"Ready?"

"Ready." He grabbed her hand to walk downstairs and towards his car. Tim, as usual, opened the door for Anna.

  The ride from Lise's place to Cinépolis was about twenty minutes long, there was a bit of traffic. They talked as if they've had known each other for ages, like strangers that knew each other on a past life.

  On a red light, they decided to play music. Tim gave Lise the auxiliary with the adapter so that she played her music. He has always thought that getting to know people based off of what they listen to is nice, something Pauline told him when they were younger.

  She smiled at the gesture and played the playlist titled 'messy', which is a very accurate description for the range of artists and the decades they're from, that she has on her phone. Taylor Swift was the first one to sing, followed by Sinatra and Adele to fall on Kid Cudi, his newest album. And holy shit. Tim loved the way she knew the lyrics back and forward. The fucking dream. He played the music louder and both of them sang along, at the top of their lungs.

  After a while, they arrived at the mall. He parked the car and made sure to keep his head somewhat low as they entered the place, made their way towards the theatre and reached the counter to buy their popcorn, he had already bought the tickets online. Lise complained saying that she wanted to cooperate and pay her part but he shrugged, not letting her pay for the snacks either.

  They entered the film and really enjoyed it. When they walked out Tim realised how Anna washed a couple tears off her cheeks, the movie made her emotional. He chuckled and threw his arm around her shoulders, making her chuckle too as hers was wrapped around his waist.

When they walked out of the cinema, they directed themselves towards the restaurant where they sat and talked more. He questioned her about the article, she said he'd have to buy the magazine, then, they talked about upcoming films he'll be participating in, their favourites and the ones they're excited to see next.

  "Okay." She said as she placed her glass of white wine down and he raised his eyebrows taking his. "The answer to this question may define our entire friendship." He chuckled and took a sip. "Do you think Pattinson will be a good Batman?" He nodded and placed his glass down as she chuckled and dessert arrived. "Good."

"He's a great actor." Timothée added.

"I know." The glasses clinked in agreement and they took a short sip before they grabbed the spoons of their shared ice-cream.

"That's a problem you know? If you do something for too long and face a not so great screenwriter, people will encapsulate you for that one role. That's why actors move from one to another."

"Makes sense." He nodded and a short silence fell upon them. "Hold on, so you're saying you don't like Twilight?" She asked as she ate a bit of ice-cream and he swallowed what he had taken.

"I do like them..." She arched an eyebrow at his unconvinced tone of voice. "I watch them when I'm bored if I'm honest, but they're...fun." She chuckled. "Do you like them?"

"When I'm bored." He smiled and scoffed. "Or when it's raining, but I watch them after I'm done with Harry Potter."

"You really are a Potter girl, huh?"

"Quite literally." He frowned, his smile glued to his lips though. "I have a very intense crush on Harry, since the age of...six." He nodded.

"I see...I really liked Luna. I thought she was so cute in the books." She smiled.

"I thought you'd be a Hermione guy." He shook his head. "Surprising."

"Yeah...I'm not a huge fan of hers. Just because of the books, I didn't like her there but in the movies she's great."

"Understandable."

"Emma Watson on the other hand." She chuckled.

"She's so beautiful. Like a ray of sunshine, a comfort person." He nodded. "Is she really like that?"

"She is. I should introduce you two." She almost spit the ice-cream.

"That would make my entire life perfect."

"Thought Robert had done that already."

"Then she would complete it." Lise took another bite and he mirrored her movement with his oceanic eyes glued to her.

  Slowly, the ice-cream was finished and a bit of it melted, the wine from the glasses had been drank and the evening was close to an end. A very lovely evening, by the way.

When they called the waiter and asked for the bill, Lise pulled her wallet discretely out of her bag to have her card ready to give it to the young man who had been attending them throughout their little and improvised date. Tim argued with her in a friendly way because he wanted to be the one to pay but she didn't care, she wanted to go dutch and after a hot minute of a discussion filled with a lot of phrases like: 'take it', 'please, let me do it' and 'no, come on' Chalamet gave in. His dramatic self wanted to play angry at her but those deep and romantic brown eyes and that pearl smile adorned with red lipstick made it hard for him.

  They walked out of the restaurant and the mall to find the car, when they did, Lise played more music and Timmy started driving back towards Lenox Hill. The trip was shorter and they did the usual, sing along to whatever song that was playing. They agreed on saying that's 'their thing'.

  They also agreed that the night was still pretty young, so, they drove to the hotel. Tim gave his car keys to the Valet Parking guy and they walked to Central Park, spending half an hour, then, they walked back to the luxurious entrance, where the golden light the light bulbs provided embraced them.

"Here we are." Said she.

"Yes." He added and smiled at her.

"Well, I'll just-"

"Do you wanna come up?" Tim cut off Lise mid-sentence as she explained and informed she'd walk home carefully. She blinked a few times as her earthy eyes met the glass doors.

"There...seem to be lots of reasons why I shouldn't." She said with honesty. She's no fool. She knew people had spotted him and she knew those people surely took pictures, not to mention, she realised how Tim would look around and then change directions as they walked whenever he spotted someone that probably had a camera. He scoffed.

"There are lots of reasons." He assured, his voice matched her honesty. A short pause. "Do you want to come up?" He asked again, offering a small smirk. A smile cracked through her lips.

"Yeah." She answered in a very low whisper and his smirk turned into a tender smile.

"Give me five minutes. Set a timer and come up. Is just, I need to arrange-"

"Yeah, yeah. Go." She smiled and he walked into the hotel as she stood outside. She looked at her watch and counted those five minutes before walking in. She got to the reception and asked the kind lady where was Mister Flintstone's room, when she got the answer, Anna made her way to the elevator and up to the fifth floor.

  When the doors dinged open, she walked out and her heartbeat raised. She hasn't been with anyone...in any imaginable way since her ex. What if she wasn't good? What if something weird happened? What if she's not what he's imagining? What if, what if, what if. Her anxiety kicked in as she reached the wooden door. Before she knocked, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Silenzio Bruno. She thought and chuckled to herself, remembering the movie. She breathed out. Here we go. Three knocks. Two seconds of waiting. The door opened, revealing Tim.

"Hi." He said, letting out a breath in the process. Not smiling anymore.

"Hi." She said with a smile. "Um, okay, I gotta be honest with you. This...is gonna be wonderful but I must tell you, it's been a long time since-"

"I'm sorry." He whispered, cutting her off again.

"For what?" She asked on a whisper too, her smile not fading.

"You've got to go." The smile dropped slowly.

"What? Why?"

"Because my..." He sighed. "Girlfriend, who was in London, is in fact, now in the next room."

"Girlfriend?" Her heart broke a bit. Fuck. Just when things seemed to be great, when things were like a dream...they vanished. The goddamned dream was too good to be true. She should have imagined something like this happening. Why didn't she see it coming?

"Yes."

"Hey, honey, who is it?" Said a feminine voice from behind him. He stuttered a bit as he turned around and revealed a young and beautiful lady, that happens to be Lily-Rose motherfucking Depp. The daughter of one of Lise's favourite actors and the one who Lise's friends annoy her with, saying they're the same person with a different and yet very similar fronts. She screamed internally. Her love story was repeating itself, the guy happens to love a girl who's too much like Lewis. Only that this one's way more famous, talented, richer and prettier and just...everything.

"She's uh..." Tim's mind was blank. This wasn't what he had planned. His little adventure and little happiness was being crushed before him and he felt like shit because he could only imagine the endless thoughts Annalise must be having running through her mind. He felt like an asshole and, let's face it, he was. He should've spoken truthfully since the very first minute. He mentally slapped himself. He shouldn't have given in to the thought of kissing her. "Um..she-"

"Room service." Lise answered quickly. Lily frowned but smiled quickly. Ugh, she's so perfect.

"Oh. How you doing?" She paused for a moment to scan Lise from head to toe meticulously. Her smile turned a bit hypocrite. "I thought you guys were always wearing black suits instead of...satin dresses."

"Usually we do but I was heading out. Girls' night out."

"Ugh, I love those nights. Only that I don't do them on Sundays."

"I don't have a shift tomorrow, so, it's whatever really."

"Right." A very tense pause.

"Yeah..." Lise cleared her throat. "Anyways, I decided to take this last, um, call." She pointed with her thumb at Tim.

"Well, great. If you don't mind, I would like something too." Lise breathed in slowly to suppress the urge to: a) smack her head against the wall, b) walk the hell away and get drunk at her house and c) rant and cry. She was just waiting through, she'd probably do it anyway in a moment. "Could you bring me up some really, really cold water?"

"I'll see what I can do."

"Still, no sparkly." Lily-Rose took her leather jacket off and threw it over the elegant white armchair.

"Absolutely. Ice-cold, still water." She repeated to sound a bit convincing even if she knew that Depp wasn't exactly buying her lie.

"Thank you." She walked far into the bedroom and Tim's eyes met Lise's at the same time hers looked for his. "Oh." She popped in the room again. "One more thing, if you don't mind, please take out the dirty dishes and the trash." The smile, even if it was hypocrite, was long gone and the tone of voice was very mandatory. Lise possessed a very intense resting bitch face, according to literally anyone but Depp's...was beyond intimidating.

Timothée's eyes landed on Lily and he wanted to scream. He perfectly knew what Lily was doing and he was hating it, not to mention, he could bet Lise was just holding herself in order not to yell right there. Lise looked at Tim quickly and then back at Lily, who pointed at said stuff before she breathed in and out loudly.

"Right." Anna walked into the room to get the stuff.

"No." Tim intervened. "No. Please, don't- don't do that." He walked behind Lewis, who was biting the inner part of her cheek tightly at the point of tasting blood. "I don't- I don't think that's her job...to clean."

"Oh." Lily exclaimed as Anna picked up the dishes. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. What's your name?"

"Amy Adams." Anna answered with an annoyed sarcasm and offered her a very serious face, picking on her intentions of showing who's the one here. Lily-Rose chuckled dryly.

"Creative. I love it." She walked up to her petite pink Chanel bag, pulled out her wallet and a bill to roll it and place it right underneath the string of Lise's dress. Tim looked away, annoyed. She knows how jealous Depp can get, and don't get any of us wrong, she's not the toxic girlfriend, she's just the kind of person who gets jealous easily, even if she can be one of the sweetest people to walk the planet. She sighed. "Listen, Amy, thank you." She smiled. "I really appreciate it." She turned to face Tim, who was looking at the ground. "And you..." She wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him in to kiss his lips. He barely kissed her back. He liked more the way Lise's lips felt against his, their taste...he didn't feel like when he was with her. The kiss broke. "Tell me, tell me, tell me. Good surprise or nasty surprise?" Tim hated himself deeply as his hands found her shoulders to crawl up to her neckline. Annalise mentally slapped herself, she wanted that to happen to her. She needed out but she couldn't move.

"Good surprise." He answered lowly and offered a smile, that she returned before she chuckled.

"You liar." She turned to her right to face Annalise, who was still standing there. "He's not the biggest fan of surprises."

"Huh, that makes two." Lise spoke and her eyes met Tim's for a brief second. It shocked and broke him to realise the glimmer they had minutes ago was long gone. The tenderness had vanished to be replaced by a coldness he's never seen before. The result of anger and hurt, something he didn't want to see there. Those words left her mouth like blades that got stuck to his chest.

"Well...what are you going to order?" Lily asked Tim, who had a numb and confused expression written on his features. "From her, what are you gonna order?" He shook his head.

"Oh, um...I haven't decided."

"Well, whatever it is, make it double. I'm hungry as well." She kissed his cheek and walked into the room next door, closing the entrance that unites both rooms. Timothée's eyes met Annalise's slowly. He saw pure sadness and disappointment in them, as well as a thin line of tears.

"I should leave." She said with a broken voice. She grabbed the dollar Lily had placed under her strap and dropped it on the wooden table before she took the small bag of trash.

"Don't." He frowned sadly. "Anna-" He tried to speak in a whisper but it was Lise's turn to cut him off.

"You know? This is a very strange reality to be faced with. An unfair one." He frowned sadly.

"I'm so sorry."

"Well, 'sorry' isn't good enough right now." He licked his lips and looked down.

"You- you're right. I...I don't know what to say."

"Me neither..." A couple of seconds in silence, then, she sighed. "I think 'goodbye' it's traditional." She blinked a few times to push the tears back and walked outside.

From the entrance, he watched her walk through the hallway and drop everything on top of the cleaning car a maid had left there as she cleaned another room, scratch her head and unclip the hair. He sighed and walked in with the most bitter taste he's ever tasted on his lips to end a night he had enjoyed deeply, until now. The taste of a beautiful moment being blown into pieces  because of the lack of truth of his actions.

As Timothée closed the door, Lise entered the elevator and made her way down towards the entrance of the building angry at him and angry at herself for not knowing and for not investigating. It's stupid to think that an entertainment journalist was not updated with this kind of shit.

As she walked hone, she thought she didn't feel like having wine, she felt like being Chandler Bing and eat ice-cream out of its pot. She reached the red door and heard Lennon's Jazz playlist, Ella and Louis playing. Game Night. She walked in and kicked off her heels as the door closed behind her and heard laughter as well as arguing about a move in Monopoly.

"No. I'm not standing there." Said Noah.

"Yes, you are, look." Lennon complained as Lise walked into the kitchen, spotting everyone wearing pyjamas. Another tradition of these so called low-achievers: sleep overs throughout December and wearing seasonal pyjamas the entire month. "You're standing on...oh." The chuckles cracked through the apartment loudly.

"Oh." Noah said again.

"Fuck you, it could've been my property." The brit boy kissed the side of the american girl's head.

"It can still be, no one has purchased it." Said Tommy as he left the glass of wine on the ground beside him. Anna had already taken the mint ice-cream out and a single spoon. When she closed the freezer's door, Tom's attention snapped towards her. "Hey, Lissie is here."

"Yay." Lenn said as she bought the property on the board.

"Finally." Naomi exclaimed. "We couldn't play Clue without our best player."

"You'd win if I wasn't here." Said Lise as she took a bite of the dessert.

"In fact, I did." Noah jumped into the conversation. "Right now, Naomi is kicking ass here, wanna join?"

"Not really."

"Odd. You always do." Lise sighed.

"Yeah, is everything alright?" Asked Tommy. Lise shook her head and her best mate frowned. "What happened?"

"I don't feel like talking either. I'll simply be in my bedroom, making no noise and pretending that I don't exist." Lennon dropped a soft chuckle at the quotation to Harry Potter and Lise smiled sadly at her before doing said thing.

When she entered her room, she turned the Christmas lights —that stay there throughout the year— on, turned off the main lights, closed the window but left the curtains somewhat opened, took off her clothes and wore her seasonal pj's before she walked towards the bathroom to take her makeup off and wash her face. When she was done, she walked back to her bedroom and grabbed the ice-cream, sat down and continued to eat peacefully in silence until three knocks echoed behind the door.

"No." She said.

"Yes." Tom's muffed voice echoed from the opposite side.

"Tommy, no."

"Tommy, yes." He opened the door and she smiled a bit as he reclined himself on the doorframe. "What happened?"

"I already told you, I don't feel like talking." He sighed.

"Fine." He walked up to her side and sat down on the bed, reclining his back onto the headboard. "Your phone please."

"Why?"

"Just because." She rolled her eyes and handed it over. "For goodness sake." He smiled at her and she chuckled as she took another ice-cream bite. When he had it in hand, he pulled out a pair of earphones. "Here you go." He gave her the left one as he wore the right one, a second later, Taylor Swift, aka. the therapist of the group, started playing...yet again. 'All Too Well' the ten minute version, to be precise. She smiled. "I also brought one of these." He showed her another spoon and Lise chuckled as she offered the ice-cream pot for him to take a bite.

They eventually sang and continued to eat until they felt it was too sweet. The music continued to play as they used all the coordination they had to stand up and walk up to the kitchen to leave the ice-cream without ripping the earpiece from either's ear. Then, they sat down and everyone played a final round of Clue, that Anna won, as usual.

Afterwards they went to bed. Tommy stayed with Lise though. Like an older brother taking care of his little sister. They sang in whispers and eventually fell into long silences that they spent looking at the small Christmas bolts. And that view, those small twinkling lights sang a soft lullaby that made Annalise calm, drowning her into the tiredness of a nice day that ended up with a sad night.