I Won't Tell A Soul

two: wallet

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Lisa's head hurt, and a lot more than she had expected it to. After Nate had dropped her off, she got undressed, took her makeup off, and knocked out. She even woke up late, which was unusual, especially because she fell asleep much earlier than normal. She rushed to get ready, throwing her curly hair up into a messy ponytail after her shower and applying much less makeup. She even wore a dress - which never happens - to speed up the process of getting ready before hailing a cab to Starbucks.

On Fridays, the workday started at ten instead of nine, so she and Kelsey usually got to the city early and grabbed some coffee before work. Luckily, their work building had a Starbucks in it, but because they worked on the fourteenth floor it seemed miles away from where they actually did work.

But Lisa made it on time, arriving a little bit before nine. When she walked into the Starbucks, she spotted Kelsey already sitting at one of the tables with both their drinks—a venti caramel frapp for Kelsey with extra caramel and a shot of espresso and a venti strawberry açaí for Lisa with lemonade and light ice. If she doesn't ask for light ice, she gets more ice than she does the drink.

"Good morning, Miss Hungover," Kelsey said in a singsong voice and she giggled at her friend. "You... you look a mess, hun."

"Is it that obvious?"

"As obvious as Carol and Marcus' affair."

Lisa seethed in discomfort. "Oh, it's that obvious." She immediately pulled her handheld mirror out of her purse and began fixing her hair and poking at the imperfections on her face.

"Oh, stop, hun. You still look good."

Lisa rolled her eyes and continued to primp herself. That was easy for Kelsey to say; she was so effortlessly beautiful. She had perfect porcelain skin with dainty freckles to match. Her eyes matched her hair—dark, dark brown. The contrast between her pale skin and dark hair accentuated her natural facial features, and her beautiful nude-colored lips were absolute perfection. She never had to try to look pretty, she was just pretty.

And Lisa contrasted her by a million percent. Lisa was much darker than most of her colleagues; her parents explained to her when she was young that her birth parents were a teen couple, half black and half white, which resulted in Lisa having a golden, caramel-y skin tone to her and having insanely thick, curly hair. Her lips were thick, not plump, in her eyes - much too big for her tiny face and they always made her insecure. The only features she could appreciate were her hazel eyes and little nose. Otherwise, Lisa did not liken herself to being physically stimulating all that much.

"How are you and Beto?"

"Really good and really bad at the same time," Kelsey confessed. "To me, everything about him is... absolutely perfect. Literally, he's so sweet, he's super good looking, he and I have the same interests and the same goals."

Lisa furrowed her eyebrows at her friend. "So... what's the issue?"

Kelsey sipped on her drink and leaned back into her chair exhaustedly. "The issue is that... I'm so young. And this guy, I honestly think he's my fucking soulmate. I just don't know I'm ready to commit to him, you know? We're only twenty-four, but he's thirty and he's at that age where he's ready to settle down. Do I look like I need to settle down?"