I walked out of the convenience store, confused, annoyed, but kind of excited. I don't know what Mimi has been up to in college, but jeez she couldn't have possibly picked a weirder person than Morgan to befriend. I hope she doesn't expect me to hang out with that loon outside of work. God. Outside of work. I have never had a "work" to be outside of before. Truly, this is the character development my parents have been waiting for my whole life.

I decide to walk past the park where all of those cool, hip, young folk were sitting. I have gotta get another good look at Jay before I go home. I've gotta perfectly memorize everything about him so I can 3-D print an image of him with my words when I see Mimi.

As I get closer to the park bench they were all lounging on, I realize that they're gone. 

"Like sands through the hourglass...", I mumble to myself as I gaze upon the now empty park bench. 

"What was that, asshole?"

I whip around and am now face to face with none other than... that girl who just called me an asshole. What is her name again?

"Well?", she says, shifting her weight to one side and placing a perfectly manicured hand on her hip. She's staring at me with her huge green eyes and suddenly I feel as though I'm just standing naked in the middle of this park.

"Well... what?"

"What are you doing here? Didn't you just fuck off to the Shit-E-Mart a few minutes ago?"

"Uh... well yeah? Hey, I don't really appreciate the-"

"So, what are you doing back here, huh?"

"I don't think that's any of your-"

"Hoping to "run into" Jay again?", she crossed her arms in front of her chest and took a step back. Oof, she got me there.

God, I have to get home. I don't have time to stand here and have a screaming match with that shrill of a voice. 

"Alright, listen. Maybe we didn't exactly get on the right foot. Now, I'm on this journey of self discovery right now and I've decided to be the bigger person here and-"

"That wouldn't be hard," she said, her perfectly glossed lips sneering at me.

"Wanna run that by me again?", I say, pretending to clean out my ears. I guess Mimi has to pick me up from the slammer tonight. 

The girl giggles to herself and walks closer to me, slowly. She bends down so that she is eye level with me, inches away from my face. She smells like Yankee Candle and a passionfruit smoothie from Pinkberry.

"I said that it wouldn't be ha-," she starts. Suddenly, her doe eyes shift to something behind me and get even wider. She quickly stands straight and distances herself from me. 

"Trisha! There you are! We didn't realize you were gone until we got all the way to Katy's place."

I whip around and come face to face with the love of my life. Jay.

His eyes move from Trisha and meet mine. Maybe it's just me, but they definitely perked up. 

"Oh, hey! Honey! You're back already? How did the job hunt go?", he says, flashing a megawatt smile. God, I must have him.

"Haha, you know it. You know me. I see what I want and I go and get it. And by 'it', I mean a minimum wage job with no benefits," I say, batting my eyelashes at him.

"Haha, that's great! I wouldn't say there aren't any benefits, though. Morgan is suuuuper chill and you can basically have whatever snacks you want," he says. He pauses for a millisecond.

"And I mean, since you're there, I'll probs be seeing you all the time. You could use a familiar face around, you know, since you're new and all...", he quickly added that last part. 

Trisha snorted like a bull and I felt her passionfruit scented breath right on my neck.

"Right! And I guess we'll be seeing each other a lot, too! New bestie," Trisha said, entwining her pinky finger with mine. Oh, fuck.

"Hahaha, that's the spirit, babe!" Jay practically shouted, grinning at Trisha. 

"Heeeey, you know what would be a great idea? Jay, baby, you're having a party this weekend right? One of your famous bashes?," Trisha said, grabbing a hold of Jay's toned arm. Party?

"Oh, hey, yeah! I almost forgot! Honey, you totally have to come! It's gonna be a fucking rager! My parents are gonna be away, so me and Morgan have got the house and the pool to ourselves. You in?" Jay said, once again dazzling me with his smile. They practically twinkle in the light. 

God. On the one hand, party. On the other hand, Trisha will be there. On the one hand, party. But... Trisha. Counterpoint... Jay. Counter-counterpoint, Jay, potentially shirtless and dripping wet. Well, that's settled.

"For sure! I'll totally be there! I'll be right there at- where did you say you live again?", I say, whipping out my phone to Google this kid's address and commit it to memory. 

"Oh, Trish can just text you the deets. And hey, feel free to bring a friend. The more the merrier, right?"

Trisha let go of her grip on Jay's arm and walked towards me. I saw a glimmer of something in her eye. 

"I'll text you tonight, okay, Bunnie?", she said, once again looking me straight in the eyes. I wish I was 6 feet tall. 

"Honey. And, sure. I'll see you at the party, Jay!", I say, tearing my eyes away from Trisha.

I wave goodbye to the future father of my children by fluttering each one of my fingers individually and shoot one last glare at Trisha and skip my ass back to Mimi's for a victory gloat. God, she is gonna flip her goddamn lid when I tell her this.