If someone had asked Isabella when she first met Rhiannon, she probably would have gotten the date wrong. Not because it wasn't important, but because nothing about it felt important at the time.
There wasn't a grand entrance. No moment where the room suddenly felt brighter. No instinctive thought that this person would change her life.
It began the way most things do.
With a conversation.
One message turned into another. Another became three. Before long, they had spent an entire evening talking without either of them realizing how late it had become.
When Isabella finally glanced at the clock, she laughed.
"It's after midnight."
Rhiannon replied almost immediately.
"Is it really?"
Neither of them had noticed.
That was the first thing Isabella would remember later. How easy it was.
There was no pressure. No awkwardness. No trying too hard to keep the conversation alive.
It simply existed.
Over the next few weeks, they settled into a rhythm neither of them planned. It just happened.
Some mornings started with a message from Rhiannon. Some didn't. Some nights they talked for ten minutes. Others stretched long enough that Isabella would suddenly realize she had forgotten to eat dinner.
There was never any pressure to answer immediately. Never any expectation that every conversation had to be meaningful.
Sometimes Rhiannon would send a song. Sometimes Isabella would send back a music video she found. Sometimes they would spend twenty minutes debating whether the music video actually made the song better.
Neither of them ever won those arguments.
They just laughed until the conversation wandered somewhere else.
That was what made it different.
Nothing felt forced.
They weren't trying to become close.
They just were.
A few days later, Rhiannon interrupted a completely unrelated conversation.
"Would you rather always have wet socks or always step on a Lego every morning?"
Isabella stared at the message.
"Where did that come from?"
"Answer the question."
"Neither."
"Coward."
"That's not how 'Would You Rather' works."
"Exactly."
And somehow, that became their thing.
No matter how normal a conversation started, one of them could completely derail it with a ridiculous hypothetical.
Would you rather questions became their way of staying connected. Sometimes the questions were thoughtful. Usually they were absurd. Neither of them minded.
It became another excuse to keep talking.
