01 New Year’s Day

I slid out of bed and grabbed my clothes from the floor. The man with his bright orange hair, whom I spent the night with, snored softly into his pillow. I tiptoed out of the bedroom and dressed as silently as I could.

Once dressed, I found a piece of paper and a pen.

Thank you for the wonderful memories, and I hope this next year is as pleasant as last night was. XOXO

I grabbed my purse and coat, then debated how to lock the door behind me.

Someone unlocked and opened the door.

I froze where I stood, then rushed over to the door.

The male dressed as the assistant almost shouted, but I put my finger to my lips.

“He’s still asleep,” I whispered.

We stepped into the hall and carefully closed the door.

“Who are you?” the male demanded, his arms crossed over his chest. His shoulder-length dark purple hair bobbed as he moved, but his yellow eyes were hardened stone.

I grabbed a hair tie from my purse and pulled my mid-back length pale green hair into a ponytail. “No one important. Look, we met last night at a New Year’s Eve party. He seemed like a cool dude, so we chatted and ended up back here. I didn’t realize he was loaded until we got here, but we were having too much fun to stop.”

I opened my purse and coat so that he could look inside of them. “I’m not stealing anything, and I don’t want him, or you, thinking I want anything of his. I’ve read enough romance novels to know how this would go. Rich hot guys always have baggage and usually a stalker, family, or business partner who tries to harm the female lead.” I shrugged. “I don’t want to be a female lead.”

The assistant blinked. “What are you talking about?”

I scoffed. “I know how it looks. Random chick meets with a hot rich guy, she must be after his money. I’m trying to tell you that I’m not. Pretend like you never saw me, and with any luck, he won’t remember anything about me except that we had fun.” My phone buzzed for the alarm. “And I gotta get to work.”

I dodged around the assistant and raced to the elevator doors. I waved to the man, who looked less confused than before, and pressed the button for the lobby floor. The doors slid closed, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

I stared at the reflective doors. At least I remembered to wipe the makeup off before falling asleep. My lavender eyes had bags that would last a semester of college under them. Despite it being tied back, my hair stuck out at odd angles. The wrinkled dress was an exclamation of being unceremoniously tossed aside, and my flats stuck to my feet without hosiery.

I wrapped the coat tighter around my body and pulled out the gloves, scarf, and slouchy hat I always kept in my pockets and then put them on. I twisted my hair into the hat to contain the frizziness and keep it off my neck. “Thank Goddess, I decided against heels. Now, to find my way home…”

When the doors opened, I opened the app on my phone to the maps. I bumped into someone and mumbled an apology. How am I so far away from home? I gritted my teeth. I texted my boss, letting him know I would be late. I wrapped the scarf around my neck, took a final look at the high rise, then headed to the subway.

I navigated on the maps to get close to my home station and sent another message to my boss with an estimated time I would arrive at work.

He finally replied, K.

I leaned back against the bench seat, pulled my earbuds from my purse, and turned on some music to drown out the railway. I looked around at my fellow passengers. Many were like me, coming home from a New Year’s Eve fling. Others were already dressed for their retail and foodservice jobs. I wondered how this train would look on a typical day, filled with the higher class of money people.

Men would be in suits and boring black ties, women in pencil skirts or pantsuits, non-binaries in their preferred form of professional dress.

After switching a few stations and arriving at my home one, I left the subway tunnels and walked to the small apartment complex that edged between the poverty class and lower-middle-class line. I found my apartment and went inside.

I snuck into my room and released the breath I was holding. I was not looking forward to the interrogation I would receive from my two roommates. I showered and dressed, then went into the kitchen for a quick breakfast.

One of my roommates, a sheltered Honor student named Melanie, opened the door, and I laughed. She still wore the dress from the night before. Her dark face blazed a dark scarlet, making her orange eyes and kinky sky-blue hair stand out more.

“So,” I began, but she raced to her room and slammed the door shut.

I walked over to it and knocked. “Would you like some breakfast?”

She mumbled from the other side, “Yes.”

“I’ll make bacon and eggs, then.”

“Thank you.” Her mousy voice was barely audible.

“If it makes you feel better, I just got home, too.”

She cracked the door. “You did?”

“Yup. First time staying out like that?”

She nodded.

“It’s almost a rite of passage, so don’t worry about it too much.”

“Thanks.”

“I’ll have breakfast ready in about ten minutes if you want to take a quick shower.”

She nodded again, then shut her door.

I reached the kitchen when our second roommate burst into the apartment. “Guess who had fun last night?”

I snickered and mumbled, “All three of us?” I grabbed the eggs and bacon from the fridge.

She put her arm around my neck and leaned over. “Whatcha mean, Geneva?”

“Well, I got home this morning, and Melanie beat you home by two minutes.”

“Melanie stayed out late?” Her pink eyebrows shot up to her pink hair, making her violet-blue eyes bigger and brighter.

I cracked the eggs and scrambled them in a bowl. “Don’t tease her about it. It’s her first time doing the ‘walk of shame,’ Krista.”

She wiped away a pretend tear. “I’m so proud.”

“You’re a terrible influence.” I tapped her hand so I could grab a couple of pans. “Want some?”

“Of course.” She strutted to her room. “We’ll compare notes over breakfast.”

I looked at my phone. “I gotta get to work.”

“Then for dinner!” she announced and went inside her space.

I put the bacon on racks on cookie sheets in the oven and set the range to turn off when the timer beeped. It did not take long for the eggs to finish. I scooped it out, took out some of mine, and then put the rest in the microwave to keep warm.

I wolfed my food down, grabbed my coat, purse, keys, and phone, and then rushed out the door before Krista could give me grief about my night. I texted the group chat that the food was in the microwave,

“She’s definitely going to give me crap when she realizes I didn’t even get the guy’s name.”