Page 3 of Flame and Starlight

again.

“Hiya, babes,” she said as she looked up at me and smiled and then went back to her phone. “Hey.” I smiled uneasily.

Tom looked up at me and handed me my tea. “You alright?”

I nodded and mentally shook it off. “I hate those stockrooms up there. They give me the creeps.” “Only two sugars to stave off the diabetes in your American blood. One day soon, we’ll have you

down to one.” He winked at me, and he most definitely did not look like he was having a stroke. My

stomach did a little flip. His blue-grey eyes always looked like they were laughing. He had on some

fitted jeans and a plain grey long-sleeve shirt that defined the muscles in his arms. I brushed past him

to get to the sign-in sheet and fixed the back of his shirt that was flipped up and out of place. “Cheers, mum,” he said over his shoulder, and I rolled my eyes.

“We still going out tonight?” I asked, taking a sip of my tea. Since being here, I’d grown to prefer

tea over coffee, and it settled my nerves. I noticed he had picked my favorite mug. Just a plain white

thing but wider and more sturdy than the others we kept at the shop. I grinned, and my eyes found his

again.

“Yeah, we were just talking about that. Figured we’d start off at Mad Eye down the road,” Ella

said, putting her phone back up in the cabinet. I peeled my eyes off Tom and let them find Ella instead. “Aoife is going to pop in at closing and go with us,” I said and started to follow Ella downstairs

to the shop floor. I turned around before heading down the stairs and looked at Tom, pointing my

finger. “That means she is staying with me. Which, in turn, means that I will not be able to take care of

your drunk ass again tonight, Thomas.”

He laughed and held up his hands in mock surrender. I turned back around and headed down. “Ass,” he said under his breath, mocking my American accent. I smiled, made my way to the

white tile floor, and went to straighten the shoes.

I took my break late so that I could get ready to go out and not look overdressed for the rest of my shift. I sat in the break room, curling my hair and shoving way too many pasties in my mouth. Every time I got ready to go out, my stomach would flutter with anticipation. I was never anxious to go out with these people, my friends.

When I first moved over here and got the job, I was nervous every day. And then over the last two years, they became my family. The butterflies in my stomach were in anticipation of the memories I would make. England felt more like my home than any other place I had ever lived. I loved this messed-up family of mine so much it hurt sometimes. I dreaded the thought of having to leave when my visa was up. I didn’t know where home was after this part of my story.

The little mirror I was using to watch myself curl my hair was really not doing me any good. All I could see in the tiny reflection was a mass of chocolate-colored waves. I moved it around to see as much as I could and called it a day. I added more to my makeup and donned a very deep-plum matte lipstick that set off my honey-colored eyes.

“What’re you wearing?” Ella stepped onto the landing outside the break room to take the stuffing out of some shoes for a customer.

“I just brought that plain black midi dress I’ve got with the slit in it. Just going to wear these same boots.” I lifted my leg to show her. “ You?” I threw my makeup back in my bag and turned off my straightener.

“I brought a jumpsuit that I’m going to change into. That dark green one I got the other day, remember?” I nodded and smiled, wiggling my eyebrows. She threw the paper at me and let out a small laugh. “Tom ran down to the shop to get us some pre-drinks.” She rolled her eyes before disappearing down the stairs. “That boy can get away with murder in this place!”

I laughed and clocked back in to start helping them close. Aoife eventually showed up and came upstairs to sit around until we were all done. She was dressed in a Peter Pan–collared black dress and Vans. Her hair was straightened and pulled halfway out of her face, showing off her pretty green eyes that I was insanely jealous of. I had never seen anyone with eyes the color of actual emeralds.

“You alright?”

Her feet were propped up on a stool, and her arms were crossed over her chest. Her eyebrows knitted together a bit as she looked at me like she was worried. She chewed her thumb and nodded, waving me off.

“Yea, I’m fine.” She sighed and stretched down to trace lines over the tattoos covering her legs. “Just thinking about a paper.”

I squinted at her, suspicious, but let it go and went upstairs to change. I was having a rare good night, more confident than I normally was. I wasn’t skinny, having a little more up top, in the middle, and in the thighs than I appreciated, but the dress I wore seemed to flatter my figure.

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