Page 5 of When Glitter Meets Gold

We cast our eyes to the clock above the door, red digits flashing seven. It explains the sudden darkness—timers for when there’s no movement detected.

“Looks like we’re the only ones left.” Drew smiles with just the corner of his mouth.

My stomach flips, and I swear my cheeks have surpassed pink and now blaze pure scarlet. He moves to retrieve his coffee mug, taking a sip as he peers at me over the rim with a single dark brow raised.

He’s mere feet from where I stand. I could literally reach out and touch him. I could do a lot of things…

2

SARA

“Iknew this day would come!” Amber croaks with glee into my headphones, her sleepy face suddenly very awake on my phone screen the moment I casually mention that Drew is now single, and that we spent the evening alone in SB. “This is more than I can deal with this early in the morning. Oh, I can just imagine how he said, ‘Looks like we’re the only ones left.’ And you were wearing that tight red skirt with the white slingbacks yesterday! I told you red was your color. Okay, what happened after he sipped the coffee and did the sexy eyebrow thing?”

I weave in and out of Saturday morning pedestrian traffic on my way to Gypsy’s, my favorite spot for breakfast bagels, grateful that it’s only a block from my apartment due to the ominous purple clouds overhead. The damp air swells around me as I rush to the deli before the inevitable downpour. I simultaneously hold the phone in front of me, while using my other hand to attempt to restrain tendrils of hair that engulf my face in the late fall breeze.

“I…guess we got back to work,” I say as I stand in line to order my usual avocado and cream cheese, sesame-seed bagel.

Amber’s face gets so close to the screen I can practically see the remnants of yesterday’s eye makeup under her bottom lash line. “Sorry, come again?”

“He sipped his coffee, I sipped mine. We got back to work, then he left ten minutes later,” I repeat.

“Well, of course he left.” Amber palms her forehead. “Sara, come on, the guy was flirting with you.”

“You really think so?” I lower my voice and speak from the corner of my mouth, “And what was I supposed to do, climb on my desk and drag him on top of me?”

A shriek of exasperation. “Yes! For the love of God, yes! He just broke up with his girlfriend, which means for the first time in probably years, he’s available. Guys like Drew have a very short window before they’re scooped up again.”

“I suppose,” I say miserably as I stalk from the deli, brown paper bag in hand. “And anyway, I’m not exciting enough for a guy like Drew so it doesn’t even matter.”

Amber pops up in her bed like she’s been resurrected from the grave. “Excuse me, you are exciting, and it absolutely matters! Now, listen carefully.” She shakes messy hair out of her face and over her shoulders like a bird preening its feathers. “We can fix this. Get on his Instagram, scroll back, not too far, something from maybe a couple weeks ago, you know just enough so it looks like you just casually drifted onto his page, but not far back enough to look too invested. Hit like ontwoof his photos. Gotta be more than one so it looks like you meant to do it. Three is too desperate. He’ll know you’re interested just from doing that. Then just talk to him on Monday. Ask him about the gym, take an interest in the things he likes, but this time, be flirtier. You’rehot and smart, and you dress cute. Got it?” She finally comes up for air.

I blink. “Jeese, you done this before?”

“A hundred times with a hundred percent success ratio,” she says proudly.

“I don’t know.” I laugh nervously because I’m not sure if I know how to flirt anymore, or if I can…

And then I feel my lungs tighten because there it is. That constricting feeling that snakes around my chest when a memory of the past pops out of nowhere.

It’s six months before the breakup, opposite ends of the sofa, eyes trained on a movie neither of us are paying attention to. Mark is checking his phone and sighing every so often.

“You okay sweetie? You don’t seem yourself.” I angle my body toward him.

“Fine.” He twists away.

I shuffle closer to him, kiss his cheek, stroke his face. Nothing, until he frowns at me, narrows his eyes, asks me what I’m doing.

“Making you feel better.” I smile. “Flirting with you. Trying to seduce you.”

He shrugs away from me. “It’s not working. Can I just get a bit of space?” He pushes my hands down, moves to the bedroom, spends the rest of the night glued to his phone. Says nothing is wrong when I ask him the next morning. He tells me he loves me. I believe him.

“Helllooo?” Amber drawls out the word. “Are you still there?”

“I’m here,” I say too enthusiastically, blinking away the memory and peeling back wrapping to get at my bagel. “Actually, you’re right. I can do this.” Then to myself,Fuck off Mark.

I end the call and immediately get on Drew’s Instagram page.

I’d never looked forward to a Monday so much in my life.

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