Rin

The second they saw me, Val and Katherine hopped off their barstools, clapping and cheering. Amelia clapped from her seat so gently, I wasn’t even sure she made noise, but Katherine made enough for the both of them, splitting her fingers in her lips to rip a whistle that made me cringe.

“Oh my God,” I mumbled as I looked down at my feet, hurrying over so they’d stop it. The entire bar had turned to look, and despite being completely mortified, I was smiling. “Shh!” I hissed as I approached. “Stop!”

Val giggled as we took our seats. “Look at you! You survived! You didn’t break a heel or cave and put on flats. I am so proud of you!”

“Thanks,” I said, still smiling as I hung my bag on the back of my chair.

Our waitress—the same waitress we always had, the gorgeous one with the gorgeous red lips and the gorgeous smile who had convinced us to try the lipstick in the first place—appeared next to me with a whoosh, her eyes big and round as they scanned me, her red lips gaping.

“No. Fucking. Way. You did it. You actually did it.”

My lips were together, the apples of my cheeks tight and happy.

“I cannot even believe this!” she crowed. “I’m sorry, but you’ve got to stand up for me.”

I slid off the stool and stepped into the aisle, and she shook her head, her eyes dragging up and down my body.

“God, I remember when I got my first red lipstick, how I felt. I immediately decided I needed a leather jacket, and the rest was history. A pair of combat boots, six piercings, and a handful of tattoos later, and here I am.” She held up one hand, palm up, in display.

I looked her over, imagining what she could have looked like before. Her hair was up in a perfectly messy bun, her black eyeliner winged, piercings glittering in her nostril and septum and even her lip. I wondered, as I always did, how the hell she’d gotten that lipstick on without the ring in the middle of her bottom lip interfering.

“But you went and got yourself some heels, and damn, girl—you look like a million fucking dollars. But that’s nothing compared to how you look like you feel. You’re shining. Like, you’re actually shining.”

“Thank you,” I said, glancing down, embarrassed.

“No, none of that. Hold your head high like the lady you are. What can I get you to drink? It’s on the house. All you have to do is tell me I was right.”

I laughed. “Rum and Coke, and you were so, so right.”

“Thank you.” She curtsied. “And as for you three,” she continued, waving her index finger across them, “you’re next.”

She disappeared behind the bar, leaving us in our little island.

“So, what happened?” Amelia asked, her blue eyes bright and wide. “What did Bianca say?”

“She almost fell out of her chair when I walked into her office,” I said on a laugh, recalling the look on her face. “She didn’t really say much though, just sent me to the library to work on my proposal. But I decided to leave the library, and I ate lunch in the café today like a grown-up.”

Val shook her head in wonder. “Who even are you?”

“I honestly have no idea,” I answered, laughing, “but I like it.”

“You look like you do.” She watched me for a second before asking, “Did anything embarrassing happen?”

My cheeks flamed. “When I was walking in, Dr. Lyons was in the hallway, and I was so…I don’t know…overwhelmed that my ankle buckled, and I nearly went down like a pile of bricks.”

“Nearly?” Katherine asked.

The flame turned into a burn. “He caught me.” I could still feel the heat of his gaze, from the moment I’d first seen him standing in front of me until the second he let me go. That shifting, molten shadow behind his stormy eyes that had felt like a warning and a welcome.

Val’s eyes bugged. “No, he didn’t.”

“Oh, he definitely did. So embarrassing. And then he took me into his office and asked me to help him research a project for him. He said he was impressed. With me!” I felt drunk, and our waitress hadn’t even brought the drinks yet.

“Rin, this is incredible,” Amelia said, smiling so wide.

“I…I just feel so crazy.”

“Good crazy?” Katherine asked.

“Definitely good crazy. I can’t believe how it felt to have people look at me like…like I was important. Men held doors for me. A lady in the café told me she loved my outfit and said she could never wear heels like mine. I told her I hadn’t known I could either, until today.” I sighed, thanking the waitress when my drink landed on the table and she left again. “In one shocking day, I’ve gone from wishing I were invisible to standing out on purpose. People looked, but today, it was different. I mean, it’s weird for people to stare—oh, and at least seven people commented on my height today. But I didn’t mind because I felt so good.”

“Have you noticed the guys in the bar? They’ve been staring at you since you walked in,” Val said.

I lowered my head, shielding my face with my hair as I picked up my drink. “Well, you might as well have blown a bullhorn when I walked in.”

“That was ten minutes ago,” Katherine insisted. “I’m pretty sure a guy at the bar is hyping himself up to come over here.”

I felt the blood rush out of my face in a tingle. “We should go. Now.”

“You’re out of his league anyway,” Val said.

“I have no league. I’m league-less.”

“Maybe yesterday but not today, sister,” she volleyed.

Katherine picked up her gin and tonic. “If he does come over, say no to whatever he wants. He has a mustache.”

Val laughed. “It’s true, you can’t. It’s on the Never Will I Ever list between Butt Stuff and Sex with Food.”

Katherine’s nose wrinkled. “I can’t imagine how disgusting it’d be to be sticky. And the sheets! What about the sheets?”

“The sheets wouldn’t bother me,” Amelia mused, “but if you got it down there?” She shuddered. “That freaks me out. I feel like you’re just asking for a yeast infection.”

The list had been created in college after watching Love Actually one Christmas and being stymied by the conflicting emotions the movie had evoked. We had been both fluttery at the sugary sweetness and annoyed by the vast majority of the heroes (Come on, Alan Rickman!). Val had grabbed a marker, going to work on the list as we laughed and added in our Nevers, including everything from Dating an Asshole and Sex on a First Date to Guys Who Wear Suspenders and Guys Who Cheat (ALAN RICKMAN) with a host of things in between. It was silly—not only because it was, on certain points, a touch unreasonable, but because we had no prospects to hold up to the list.

Except mustache guy, who waggled his brows at me when I chanced a look.

“Shit,” I hissed.

“He’s coming over here,” Amelia whispered before locking her lips, clutching a Moscow mule like it was mace.

“Oh my God,” Val said, “he has an ironic mullet.”

“Shit. What do I do?” My eyes darted to their faces, frantic.

Val had a plastic smile on her face and said through her teeth, “Wing it.”

“Hello, ladies.”

I turned to the voice and tried to smile. He really wasn’t that bad looking, but the mustache-slash-mullet combo made him look like a porn star from the eighties.

“I couldn’t help but notice you when you walked in,” he said, his attention focused solely on me. “How come I’ve never seen you in here before?”

“I’m here every week.”

He frowned. “Seriously?”

I nodded, my face saying, Yup.

“Here? Every week?”

“At this exact table.”

He blinked. “No one ever sits here, except…oh,” he breathed, astonished as he looked me over with a confused and mildly sour expression. “What happened to you?”

My lips flattened as a flush climbed up my neck at the slight, my newfangled sass rising with it. “It’s okay. I never noticed you either.”

He scoffed. “God, you don’t have to be so touchy. I was just saying—”

I slid off my stool and stood next to him, towering over him by a solid six inches, and he watched me rise like a siren out of stormy water. “Sorry, I don’t date guys shorter than me.” I patted his arm and strutted off in the direction of the bathroom, leaving him gaping at my back.

My hands trembled a little as I pushed into the bathroom and stepped to the sink to wash my hands, figuring I should do something to accompany my dramatic exit.

Val burst in behind me, grinning ear to ear. “Seriously, who the fuck are you? And can we keep you?”

And I laughed, hoping for just the same thing.