Reels

GO

Gabby thought the boy was hitchhiking and told Sara.  He stood on the side of the road, thumbs moving wildly, almost pointing up and out for the ride.  He stared down, not alert enough to catch the driver's attention. They kept driving down the road, a Road Atlas spread open between them.  Gabby didn’t know how to read a map.  Step-by-Step instructions were comforting, workable. Seeing groups of lines spreading around one another to form a transportation system felt daunting, dangerous.  Sara was pretending she understood.  Gabby thought about the boy, standing by the side of the highway, needing help. Maybe he didn’t know where he was going, either.  Without a smartphone, maybe he was scrolling the air for answers.

SEE

This was Zach’s fourth date with Julie. They were meeting at the same restaurant as their first date.  Julie liked the tuna tartare.  He arrived first and waited. Zach had started drinking when he arrived, getting more and more nervous. He went up to ask the concierge if he knew the score of the football game.  Zach forgot this restaurant didn’t have any television sets. Julie was twenty minutes late, stuck behind a train.  She sat down.  He looked at her face.  One eye seemed to stare straight at him while the other drifted toward her nostril.  
“You have a lazy eye,” he shouted.  
“What?” Julie was taken aback.
“Your eye.  I never noticed it before.”
“This is our fourth date. What do you mean you never noticed my eye before?”
“Did it look like that in your photos?”
“My photos? We have been on three dates since we were able to exchange photos.  Why are you pointing this out now, you asshole?”
Julie stood up and walked out of the restaurant.
Zach ordered another drink and pretended to read the menu, looking down comfortably at his lap.

WORK

Elizabeth needed a job.  She got a letter from her favorite brand saying their deal was no longer negotiable, since her returns had dwindled without views from smartphone users.  She had ripped a hole in one of their leggings in retaliation; the material was flimsy.  She sat down to draft a resume.  
Skills:  Cute. Perky. Outgoing. Funny.
Career Experience: Luv2Leggings Brand Ambassador.  Starbucks COACHELLA Influencer.
Special Achievements: 800K followers at the time of blackout.  Voted burgundy in the time of mauve by Luv2Leggings.  
Career Aspirations: GRWM

COMMUNICATE

Daria needed to make a doctor’s appointment.  She had to take a break at work to make the phone call, and she waited on hold for nine minutes. Her break was ten minutes.  She was so flustered that she accepted the first available appointment, forgetting she had told Margot she would switch shifts with her, and now she would have to wait for another break to call either Margot or the doctor back and see which was easier to move around. The pain in her foot radiated as she worked. When she finally got off work, the doctor's office had closed.

CHOOSE

Lois was hungry.  Her children were hungry.  Her husband wanted that one recipe with the beans, but she didn’t remember how to make it.  She knew there was a guy who used to tell her what to put in her little salads with the beans. There was that guy with the cucumber recipes; a girl who rated the cookies; and that really cute couple with the mozzarella sticks. Damn, she wanted mozzarella sticks.  She needed to cook.  To save money.  She needed to go to the grocery store and find the right kind of beans.  She needed to get her food delivery service back up and running. Still, first she had to update her credit card information, and to do that she needed to remember her password, which she had, for some godforsaken reason, linked to her face, which her computer did not know. Now she stood in Aldi, crying in front of the beans because they didn’t look like the beans she needed, and no one could tell her which beans to get to make her husband happy.

LOVE

Molly didn’t drink.  Going to the bar sounded like a terrible idea.  She had seen a flyer in the grocery store for a speed dating event.  At the local coffee shop, singles sat across from each other for ten minutes at a time, then moved on to the next person, deciding at the end whether they wanted to keep getting to know them.  This seemed like a palatable way to meet some men. Molly wore a nice dress, did her hair, and put on a lip gloss in a pleasing scent and color. She didn’t feel confident when she walked in and saw that most of the women were prettier than she was, maybe even a little younger.  She wanted to walk out, but a man had caught her eye and smiled, and so she stayed.  She sat down and followed instructions.  A man walked up to her table. He was fit, loomed rather large, and carried an overpowering scent.  The host announced their first conversation could begin.  Molly opened her mouth to say hello when the man leaned forward, slapped her across the face, and stood up.  She cradled the side of her face that his palm had hit.
“I swipe left,” he called out, moving on to the next table.