A Round With Alice

Yesterday was embarrassing. I woke up at five minutes to midday and Alice was due to arrive at midday. If you've ever been woken up by a fire alarm and tried to spring immediately into action then you know the feeling. I sent an S.M.S. to check her E.T.A. and, as if in reply, my door buzzer sounded. I was unwashed, unshaved and my flat was displaying the sum of a week's decadence. It was all I could do to move some dirty plates to the sink as she climbed the stairs.

So there we were: Alice, having driven ninety minutes to see me, and myself, having made no effort at all for her. The door opened. I was nano-seconds away from being shouted at in all the usual ways at for not appreciating my girlfriend. I braced for impact.

Alice gave me a hug, made us both coffee and said she'd use the internet while I took a bath and cleaned up. Huh? Wherefore the blaming, the whining and the guilt-trip? And then I remembered that it's 2006 and these days I'm dating a reasonable person who won't throw her toys out of the proverbial pram just because I've over-slept. (By its very nature, over-sleeping is accidental and not a pre-meditated act of uncaring.) We laughed about my emotional scars and got on with the day.