Bella and I met for the first time that afternoon. This was at Charlene & Mike’s home while attending one of the soirées they threw every other fortnight on Saturdays.
We’d absolutely hit it off from the moment we got introduced.
Call it chemistry… Heck, call it whatever brand of *Julie Spira* or *Jaime Bronstein* kool aid you happen to sip from time to time, but suffice it to say, we had it all in droves.
And just to give some brief context…
I’d known Mike as a work colleague and friend for 3 years, Charlene a little over 2 years thus my invite came by way of that association.
Charlene and Bella’s friendship on the other hand went all the way back to their college days. Bella, it also turned out was in town to reconnect with old friends, case in point, and of course family, with whom she was apparently staying for the holidays.
It probably goes without saying, but hailing cab rides on late Saturday nights is both equal parts headache and frustration. So for that reason, when it got to 9:00 pm, Bella who’d arrived via Uber had begrudgingly decided to leave for home.