Kara
The next couple of months passed in a blur. I had been working at the bookstore and working hard for my degree. Now the time had come to graduate. Zoey helped with my hair and makeup, although my hair couldn’t be in an up-do considering the fitted cap I had to wear with my gown. We were going for a meal with a few friends to celebrate after the ceremony, so I’d gone for a red dress that hugged my curves. The sides had panels cut out and Zoey said it accentuated my ‘god given gifts.’ We’d decided on a nude palette for my eyes with black liquid eyeliner flicks. When Zoey had created the last curl in my hair, she stood back to get a look at me.
“You look amazing,” she said as she smiled that toothy white grin of hers. She looks genuinely pleased for me and this is the side of her I like the most.
“Thanks. I feel almost naked,” I confess as I look down at my dress.
“It really suits you and your makeup is on fleek.”
“Oh my god,” I cough as I try to cover up the most inelegant snort of laughter.
“What?”
“Do not use that phrase ever again,” I plead as I try to stop giggling.
“Why? All the cool kids say it,” she replies as she air quotes around the word cool.
“Yeah, that’s exactly why you should never say it again.”
She looks at me in mock horror that I would suggest she isn’t cool, then bursts out laughing. We both stand still for a moment as we try to calm ourselves down.
“Seriously though,” she begins as she regains her composure, “I’m so damn proud of you, girl. You are really going places.”
I smile at her compliment. She doesn’t usually hand out compliments very easily, so it means more to me than she knows.
“Thanks, Zo, I’m really hoping the bank will like my business proposal and help fund this little dream of mine.”
“I’m sure they will. You have money to put upfront yourself, so it’s not like they’re bankrolling the whole thing.”
“I’m going to get through today, and then I’ll have my meeting with the bank and see where I go from there. I’m not putting all my eggs in one basket. I really want this, but I can’t be too complacent. I can’t expect it will all go my way because it may not, and then I’m back to square one.”
“There is that, but I have faith in you. I’ll always have your back.”
I have to blink rapidly to stem the tears that threaten to fall at Zoey’s rare show of affection as she wraps me in a hug and kisses my cheek.
“That means a lot, Zo.”
***
I’m drinking a glass of prosecco to toast to my earlier graduation. I’m absolutely beaming with happiness that I passed with honours when I look across the room and see a figure I hadn’t envisioned seeing today of all days. I hope Zoey hasn’t noticed him or she’ll be spitting feathers. Deciding it’s best to distract her, I down my drink and then ask her to come to the bar with me. We’re jostled around by the sheer volume of people in here. It seems that a lot of today’s graduates had the same idea about where to come celebrate. I’m glad we have a reservation in about ninety minutes. With any luck, we can get out of here without having to bump into him. I can’t deny that my pulse has spiked though, or that I’m feeling a little hot, and it has nothing to do with the amount of bodies crammed into the bar. From the brief glimpse I caught, he looked good. He looked as though he was still keeping in shape. I didn’t manage to see who he was with, but I’d bet any money I have on it being a striking looking woman. It’s been months since he and Zoey split up and he’s bound to have moved on by now.
“Excuse me, miss, are you Kara?” the barman asks, surprising me.
“Yes.”
“This is from an admirer,” he says as he hands me a flute of champagne.
“Oh. Wow. Umm…who was it?”
“I’ve been asked not to tell you that, miss. He said he’d like to remain anonymous.”
I thought that was a little strange, but I accepted the flute he gave me anyway. I wouldn’t normally accept a drink passed on by a stranger, but seeing as the barman had poured it himself, I knew there was nothing likely to have been put in it. I’m always wary when I go out to drink, always buying my own drinks and guarding them carefully.
Zoey and I returned from the bar and I positioned myself so she would have to keep her back to where I’d seen him.
***
Reid
I was out for a few drinks with Jase and Liam when I saw her across the packed bar. There seemed to be an awful lot of patrons in the bar, so I’d asked the barman if he had any idea why. He’d said they were all graduates. I’d known she’d been working hard for her business degree, but I had no idea graduation had come around so soon. I asked the barman to give her a flute of champagne but not tell her who it came from.
She looked perfect, a vision in red. That dress looked like it was painted onto her gorgeous body. There were pieces missing just over each hip, accentuating the curves that I remembered so well. Her sumptuous cleavage was on display, but not so much that she looked cheap. Sexy as hell, that’s what she was. I could feel myself begin to twitch and had to imagine my old gym teacher, the ugliest woman I’d ever seen. I couldn’t go back to the table with a noticeable bulge in my trousers.
When I returned to Jase and Liam, they asked if I was ready to leave, and although I wanted to say no, I had to go. If she was here, then Zoey would be too. She still hasn’t sent me a message saying she’s ready to talk, so I am avoiding her at all costs. At least I have an image of a sexy red dress to keep me company tonight.