A Little Excerpt

Brody Ingram woke up slowly. He was still not in the mood to do much of anything. His throat was still a little sore from the cold that he was battling, and it was pretty hard for him to breathe. David, Brody's brother, felt pretty sorry for him, since this was all very bad timing, but he still needed to get ready for his move to San Francisco.

In general, Brody was pretty excited about the move, but the cold was not doing him any favors whatsoever. While waiting for Brody to take his sweet little time getting ready for the day, David invited Julia Jaconetti, Brody's girlfriend, inside their apartment for a cup of tea. They both knew Brody would take a while, so why not wait for a bit?


“How’s Brody doing?” Julia asked David.
“Well, he could be doing better,” David half-joked.
“Of course. I’m assuming it’s just a cold?”
“That’s all it is, the man cold.”
“He needs to man up, then!” Julia joked.
“Of course!” David replied.
“What time do we need to leave?”
“I think noon. Andrew, Adam, and Toby are coming over around 10 am.”
“Oh, okay.”
“What kind of tea would you like?”
“Oolong.”


David set out his pot of water on the stove, and waited for it to boil. Julia couldn’t wait for her oolong tea fix. And, once Brody would finally wake up, he would likely make English breakfast tea for himself. Since that is always his go-to flavor.

Julia noticed David’s shirt, since she has never seen him wear it before. It said, “Deutschland” on it, with the German flag showing underneath the letters. She has seen both him and Brody wear t-shirts that they got from London a while ago, but she somehow didn’t know that David studied German in high school and college.
​

Brody also studied German in high school and some college.
“When did you go to Germany?” Julia asked David.
“In 2013. Brody and I both went there for a month during the summer,” David replied.
“Oh awesome! Did you like it?”
“Absolutely I did. Running in Germany is so much different than it is here.”
“I’ll bet. I didn’t know you run,” Julia said.
“Sometimes, but Brody is much better than I am,” David remarked.
“What did you guys do there?”
“My parents gave me and Brody a package to Germany. One of their friends had planned to go to Germany, but their plans fell through, so we took that opportunity.”
“That sounds like it was a great opportunity. Where were you?”
“Mostly in Munich, but we explored as much of Germany as we possibly could.”