Table for one

With the afternoon light through flooding through the windows, Madison reluctantly opened her eyes to acknowledge the day. With a groan and a somewhat more hungover than usual feeling, she was more disappointed than surprised to see where she had ended up. If she wasn’t awake before, she was now, as she adjusted her eyes to the unfamiliar surroundings, with the only thing familiar to her being an empty bottle of her favourite red wine, Merlot, on the bedside table.

Still in her clothes from last night and smudged mascara, she collected her things and checked the time – 3pm. “You’ve got to be kidding me” Maddison muttered to herself. She was supposed to be meeting her best friend Georgia for an afternoon drink at an overpriced bar with an annoyingly good Instagram potential. Madison decided she wouldn’t say anything about where she is, partly because she can’t remember half the story and because she doesn’t want another look of disapproval today.

She had been running around the city every weekend since she could remember, fuelled by one too many glasses of wine. She decided just like usual she would sneak out of whoever’s place it could’ve been and just pretend nothing happened.

In a rush to get out, she grabbed her things and peered out of the room into the kitchen to make sure there was chance of an awkward conversation she really could do without. All clear - she turned the corner abruptly and was met with the hard wood floor and a loud bark. “Well that’s a bad place to lie buddy” Madison said to the old Golden Retriever on the floor after she looked back to see what she had not-so gracefully tripped over. “Lucky you’re cute”. She heard a laugh come from the living room. A good-looking older guy with a full head of black hair and a beard that was too well kept came out, clearly amused.

“That’s his usual spot, isn’t it Charlie?” he said while giving the dog a head scratch. “You okay?” he said to Maddison while reaching out to his tattooed arm to help her up from the floor.

“I’m fine, but my plans to get out of here unnoticed, not so much” Madison replied with an awkward half smile, avoiding making eye contact with his dark brown eyes.

“Trying to do a runner eh? I’m Jake, I take it you don’t remember” Jake laughed “Don’t worry, we met out last night and you were pretty sick, so I brought you back here to safety”

“My hero” Madison jokingly clapped, rolling her eyes. “Well thanks for that, I better get going now, nice to meet you” clearly trying very hard to avoid any further interaction with this not so strange stranger.

“Not so fast, we were in a hotspot last night, we’re going to have to quarantine together” Jake laughed seemingly way too amused by Madison’s face

“You’re joking right?” she laughed

“No, it’s true, plus, you promised me a date last night, so why not make the most of it? Jake smiled, seeming serious

“I don’t do dates, I do bars” Madison said abruptly. Madison knew she was beautiful, it did nothing but land her in these situations, useless.

“Oh, I know, you told me all about your reservations towards dating, but I challenged you to one date and you agreed”

“Is being delirious a symptom of Covid? I think I must have caught it last night” Maddison said jokingly but was panicking to herself thinking that she wouldn’t be able to get out of this one.

“Come on Madison, l got your favourite, a bottle of Merlot”

“I’m not a dog, you can’t just bribe with me treats, no offense Charlie” Madison had a weird feeling about this guy now. “Where’s the bathroom?” She asked and Jake showed her to the bathroom and she quickly shut the door on him.

She checked her phone the second she got her chance, checking the validity of Jake’s quarantine claims. She couldn’t see anything about an outbreak where she was last night. This guy is good, she thought to herself, but not quite good enough.

Madison came out of the bathroom and grabbed the bottle of merlot without hesitation and walked out the door and opened up the Uber app for a ride home. “From the sounds of it, we had our first date last night, thanks for the Merlot though”.

Jake was speechless, Maddison couldn’t help he looked kind of cute confused yet clearly in awe of her unusual and less than polite presence.

“You’re leaving? What about quarantine? Jake yelled out from the doorway down to the front yard where Madison was waiting.

As her Uber arrived she replied, “Nice to meet to Jake, but I have somewhere to be”. She jumped in the Uber coming to a pleasant realisation that she should’ve come to a while ago.

The Uber dropped her off to her apartment building, and took the elevator up to her floor, catching a glimpse of her reflection for the first time today and laughed. As she was walking through her door, she got a text from Georgia - “We still on for later?”. Madison jumped in the shower; it was her favourite time of the day since she got to use all of her favourite skin care products. She needed to take more time for herself like this.

She put on her pink waffled Peter Alexander robe and poured herself a glass of Merlot and sunk herself on her couch. She got out her phone and replied to Georgia’s text “I found myself a date tonight, rain-check?”. Taking a sip of the Merlot she had received in the weirdest way possible, she felt at peace with the medium bodied red fruit wine, feeling the warmth in her throat after each swallow. Madison wasn’t lying, she did find herself a first date tonight, it just happened to be with herself. "Alexa, mood lights on".