click the ⭐ to vote!

EVERY TUESDAY, without fail and like clockwork, he would walk into the flower shop. And every time, he would need to duck his head, because the doorframe was too short for him.

I had to be blind not to notice him—and every single time, I found myself pretending that I was. I would conveniently slip away from the cash register, and let Mae take orders instead.

I didn’t know why I hid from him. Maybe I wanted to spy on him in secret. Maybe he was quickly becoming my favourite thing to observe.

At 5’7, I wasn’t exactly short. But this man could give me a run for my money.

He was easily around eight inches taller than me, and it forced him to bend a considerable amount to reach a bouquet on the middle shelf.

The muscle under his tattooed sleeve shifted when he did, the slightest movement sending my heart into a quicker beat.

Three Tuesdays in a row he had come —7:30 am sharp.  And every single time, he’d picked the same bouquet. Pink tulips.

The girl he was chasing after had to know she was lucky. It was New York. Paired with the abundance of no strings attached hook ups and online dating apps, people moved fast, and if you were rejected, it would only take you a few days to find someone new.

“Indigo.” Mae’s voice snapped me out of my daze.

I glanced at her.

“He’s gone.”

I stepped out from my hiding place —the storeroom, with a sheepish look. You could get a perfect view of the shop if you stood in the doorway of the storeroom, and you were invisible to anyone except for the person at the register.

Mae had quickly figured out my game. She agreed to help me out, even though she found it bizarre. It was always the same old story afterward though.

“Why don’t you talk to him for once?” she asked. “What’s the point of hiding?”

I scrunched my face. “I don’t want to talk to him. It’s just… nice to just watch from afar. Besides, I have Kade.”

“No.” She laughed. “You don’t.”

“Shut it.”

Mae’s approach to my Kade-crisis had become “troll Indigo relentlessly about her breakup and encourage violent revenge over said ex”.

I was still getting used to it. She kept telling me to delete the pictures of us on my phone, but I couldn’t bring myself to.

While every other aspect of my life had become a dreary, exhausting sort of hamster’s wheel consisting of toothbrush shopping, campus, studying, shifts at the shop and avoiding Scarlett at night, the stranger’s appearance had become something to look forward to.

I’d noticed a few things in my strange observation. Other than the fact that he was tall, of course. He didn’t let his hair grow.

On the second Tuesday, it had grown out in the slightest, the dark blonde shade shifting his features and making them less harsh. On the third, his hair had been shorn back to its original buzzcut. I secretly lamented over it.

Another: he always paid extra. When Mae pointed it out, he just said, “Keep the change.”

And the last? His voice was quiet. Low. Rough, but only on the edges, with the cadence of wood and smoke.

This was the point when I was most tempted to sneak out of the safety of the storeroom and confront him.

But I never did.

On the fourth Tuesday, he didn’t show up.

I hadn’t realized just how much of a constant the stranger was becoming until he’d fallen out of his routine. At 7.45, there was still no sign of him. I swapped places with Mae, who yelled at me from the storeroom while packing deliveries.

“Indigo, why do you look like someone’s killed your cat?”

Her voice distracted me from the unsettling ache between my ribs. “I don’t have a cat.”

“Well if you did have one, and someone killed it, you’d be in the exact depressive state you’re in now.”

“Why would someone kill my cat?”

“Indigo darling, you’re missing the point here.”

“The point?”

Mae wiped her soiled hands on the front of her apron, walking over to me. “You, my sweet friend, are sexually repressed.”

I made a face. “What?”

“How long has it been since—”

“Mae, my mood has nothing to do with—”

“HA! So you admit you’ve been in a shitty mood lately?”

I paused for a second. Had I really been so transparent? Now that I actually thought about it, I had been getting tired and numb of my day to day life.

I’d even gotten bored of mindlessly scrolling through my phone.

The most exciting thing to happen to me this week was my anatomy test.

My life was, for lack of a better word …lame.

This was particularly bad when you considered that I lived in one of the world’s busiest cities. There was never really an excuse to be bored in New York. I glanced at Mae. “I admit I have been…inactive.”

Her eyes lit up.

Mine widened. “Wait! I didn’t mean sexually!”

She laughed. Then paused, looking at me as if to ask ‘so are you?’.

 I huffed a breath. “You know what I mean. I haven’t been with anyone since…” I sighed. “Mae, what do you want?”

“We just finished an anatomy test, no?”

“…Yes. So?”

“Let’s get wasted!”

I smiled. “Mae, no.”

“Mae yes!”

A chuckle escaped my lips. Maybe she was right. Maybe I needed a bit of alcohol in my system. To feel something other than the emotional equivalent of TV static.

“Alright. When?”

“Tonight. Delta Phi—”

I sighed. Not another frat party. The last one she’d dragged me to, someone threw up on me and I almost broke my arm.

“Oh come on.” She waved a dismissive hand. “They’re not that bad. Besides, I heard they’re not diluting their stuff. And it’s free.”

Right. Free booze was currency amongst broke college students. But going to Delta Phi would mean bumping into familiar faces. And to be honest, I didn’t really want to see anyone from campus while drunk.

But one look at Mae’s pensive expression amplified that dull ache at my chest and I decided, what the heck. It was now or never. I wasn’t about to spend another night falling asleep to Netflix or studying.

“Okay,” I said, “Let’s go.”

The rest of the day dragged a little less now that I had something else to look forward to. Even if it was a stupid frat party. Chad seemed super stoked, though. I knew because he wouldn’t shut up about it during one damn lecture.

“I’d pay for the mysterious disappearance of that fool,” Mae muttered while we shuffled into our seats in the auditorium.

I snorted. Sometimes I wondered how he got into pre med school in the first place.

After a long hour of listening to a lecture on acid reflux, we were finally done. It was close to dusk when Mae and I took to the streets, the New York sun dying on the pavement.

I was hallway through a revelation that I needed to wash the laces of my Converse when we reached Delta Phi. It was almost six, and a crowd was already building up. The building was uncharacteristic: simple, brown. Historic, almost.

If it weren’t for the atrocious music and marijuana smoke billowing out the entrance.

Mae and I cut through the bodies, heading straight to wherever the hell the alcohol was at. The quicker we got in, the quicker we could get out. Plus, we hadn’t pre-gamed.

I was way too sober for this.

Someone bumped into me—a pretty looking boy with dark hair. He grinned, eyes sparking. He muttered a quick “sorry” before someone called out “Ace!” and he slipped away.

I managed a few steps before I narrowed my eyes. The voice seemed familiar. When I couldn’t put a finger on it, I brushed it aside and pushed forward.

Once I caught sight of red solo cups, my body moved as though it was possessed. Then, at the table I met the gaze of my roommate. Scarlett Vasquez regarded me with vague boredom before her gaze flickered to Mae beside me.

“Indigo,” Scarlett said.

My jaw slacked a little. What? Scarlett almost never initiated conversation with me. I grabbed a cup and downed it before an earthquake could hit and the world could end, or something.

I nodded my head. “Scarlett.”

She just narrowed her eyes so that the piercing in her perfectly plucked eyebrow moved, too. “Take care of your friend.”

I furrowed my brows, glancing to my side as I realized she was talking about Mae, who had somehow gotten hold of wine. A bright red flush was creeping over her face. Her pin straight hair, chopped to shoulder length, remained perfectly unfrazzled.

When I glanced back to offer some response to Scarlett, she was gone. Shrugging at my cryptic roommate’s strangeness, I downed another cup of whatever was in the cups, and it sent a warm buzz under my skin.

Scarlett and I were scholarship students. We’d managed to convince the board to allow us to live off campus, which meant that we got our own rooms and a little off-campus freedom, but a portion of our allowance would go to rent and food.

Giving up on Scarlett meant giving up the tiny bit of off-campus freedom and the proximity of the apartment to the flower shop. It was the main reason I endured her shenanigans.

Nevertheless, I took Scarlett’s advice, swinging an arm around my tiny friend. I was just under foot taller than Mae Nakamura, and when I pried the cup of wine from her hands and finished it myself, she practically hissed back at me like a baby rattlesnake.

I chuckled to myself. Why were all short girls such demons?

Loveable demons nonetheless.

I reached for another solo cup, but it was quickly stolen by Mae, who downed it all in one gulp, scrunching her face afterward with a faux gag.

“Burns,” she said simply.

“Yeah.” I laughed. “It’s almost like high percentage alcohol wasn’t meant for human consumption.”

“Less talky talky,” Mae said, lifting a cup and handing one to me, “More drinky drinky.”

I rolled my eyes, but accepted the cup anyway. This time around, it actually worked on my gag reflex. Mae wasn’t joking when she said these guys didn’t dilute their stuff. I was pretty sure there was vodka somewhere in there.

This was it. I was starting to feel extra warm inside, and there was a buzz flowing through my veins. Drinking any more would be pushing it.

I grabbed Mae’s hand. “No more.”

She nodded. “Let’s go play beer bong!”

I gave her a pointed look. “That means more drinking.”

“For you.”

Technically, she was right. I wasn’t half as good as her at beer pong. But I let her drag me deeper into the frat anyway.

In a sudden turn of events, Mae whipped around. She shook her head. “Nope. No beer pong. Beer pong bad.”

I scrunched up my face. Mae never turned down a game. I cemented myself to the ground, not letting her drag me in the opposite direction. “What are you talking about?”

“It’s nothing. Let’s just go somewhere else.”

“What?” I turned to catch a glimpse of what was bad enough to chase Mae away, but she jumped into my line of view lightning fast.

“Indigo, let’s just go!”

The girl was obviously trying to distract me. She kept contorting her body so that it looked like a cross between a jumping jack and a spasm. I pushed her aside, and then I wished I hadn’t.

Because distinctly standing a few feet in front of me, despite the crowd of people milling around, was Kade.

His arms were around a girl in a way that couldn’t be a mistake.

And his lips were on hers in a way that had to be on purpose.    

a/n:

hello!

reading the comments on this book really keep me going, so let me know your thoughts!!

stay gold,
yuen