Socialist Nancy, Communist Robin, and Anarchist Eddie love to have political debates in front of Steve, who doesn’t know who the U.S. president is.

The Gazers

warnings: fem!reader, stalking

he genuinely enjoyed observing your every move. how many times did you sneeze? how many times did you awkwardly try to fix your constantly slipping bra strap?

he wanted to know even tiniest, most minor things: how much time does it take you to take a shower? what's your toothpaste's flavor?

whenever it's lunch break and you walk to the cafeteria, he watches you from afar. hm? so this is your preferred food? oh no, the look of disgust on your face shows it's clearly not. he cagily pulls his phone out of his backpack and adds a bit of additional info about you on the notes app.

he never texts you, though. just observes. your boards on pinterest, your spotify playlists, photos on your accounts — he saves everything, listens to the same music you do, scrolls through all the posts you liked or commented.

"does she relate to those mawkish songs about loneliness?" "why did she like this meme? it's clearly unfunny" "her basket on amazon costs hella lot... it's a shame I can't pay for her"

a lot of things he finds out about you are unexpected for him, since he knows nothing about the way you act in reality. actually, the image of you in his head might be really different from real you.. he supposes you must be very gentle and nice from the way you treat your friends and classmates. at times, when he was stalking you walking home, like he usually does, he saw you helping some strangers on the street! carrying heavy bags for them, opening doors... his heart melted whenever you gave a shy smile in response to "thank you"’s.

if only he could receive such treatment from you... since he silently follows your every acc with notifications on, he gets to see all those pathetic vent posts you delete soon. he screens each of them. unlike your family and friends, he will appreciate everything you give to him. every smile, every glance, every word — you are simply divine, and he worships every tiny thing about you.

he is a knowledge-yearning obsessed scientist, and you are the main subject of his never-ending research.

Alhaitham, Kazuha, Freminet, your favs <3

How about number 3? Like, tell us all about it if you want :)

Oh my gosh 🥺 thank you so much for giving me my first ask! 💖 I'm eternally grateful I get to spill all my pheels out.

3. What is my favorite Phantom tv/film adaptation?

My absolute favorite Phantom is the 1925 Lon Chaney silent film. He just embodies everything that I like about Gaston Leroux's Erik for me and he is both horrifying and pitiable. I dislike the ending but I can live with it given it's what test audiences wanted at the time. I truly love his Red Death costume. You can find it on Youtube and the Tubi app for free.

My first runner up would be Claude Raines in the 1943 because his Erique so soft and tragic in that film I cannot help but love him. This was one was my grandma's favorite 'classic monster' movies that she loved, so I have a special place in my heart for this one. I love his hair and appreciate that he was one fine silver fox before the revenge and jealousy issues set in. The opera parts are a little boring, but the costumes and the sassy diva rival to Christine are worth the watch. We get 2 handsome Raouls who end up going to dinner together at the end of the movie and a Christine who gets to bask in the limelight of her career while not choosing any suitor, which is the best possible outcome for her. Double play for the win in my book! You can watch it for free on the Peacock app.

My next runner up is a 3 way tie between Robert Englund, Gerard Butler, and Charles Dance.

I honestly enjoy all their performances because they each bring something unique to the role.

I cannot stress enough how violent the Robert Englund version is if you want to give it a go, but Erik Destler is insane, twisted, and fabulously murdertastic in this. I love the creepy, evil vibes the man gives off. Think of this film as a time travel AU of the original novel. I feel like he nailed Leroux Erik's darker, snarky personality that some people tend to forget he had and the gothic horror parts of the original novel are there. Bonus: they keep the Faust parallels like in the novel!

I'm gonna say it: I love the Charles Dance miniseries. I know it's not the best, but damn, he is so dry and sarcastic I cannot help but enjoy his performance. I want to pinch his cheeks and smother Cherik with the love his father never gave him everytime I see him. Again, this one focuses on the operas a lot, and for me it's a bit boring. But the backgrounds, settings, and props in this thing are fantastic and the costumes are wonderful too.

That leaves Gerard Butler in the 2004 movie. No he is not the world's greatest singing Phantom, but I don't care. I absolutely love his facial expressions and body language. The Phantom is an emotional, expressive dude and the Red Death costume scene is pretty good. I love how kind and sincere Emmy feels in this film and I appreciate she's not overracting and doesn't feel fake compared to some other Christines *coughSierracough* Being the film version of the ALW musical, this Phantom story focuses on the romance and Gerard excels at that. When he and Christine are singing Past the Point of no Return, I FEEL THEIR PASSION! And that's what counts more so than hitting the same notes we've all heard a million times before.

Now for the versions in the 'I will eternally like this' category 😊 :

The Phantom of the Paradise from 1974. This is also a very violent and dark film so fair warning if you haven't seen it. It's a bizarre rock musical, but if you're weird like me and enjoy Rock & Rule or the Rocky Horror Picture Show, this might be a film you'd like too. I don't want to spoil it too much but the Faust/devil parallels are here too, as is various pop culture references. His teeth and mask are terrifyingly cool, and so is the electronic voice box he uses. It makes sense Daft Punk was inspired by this film. Maybe G1 Soundwave was inspired by this film too, but that's a debate for another day 😉

Next is the animated 1988 film. This one features animation on par with other 80s tv cartoons of the time. I love that they kept the Persian and the torture chamber from the novel. The Phantom's death scene is pretty damn epic. Christine is kind of a flake, but animated Leroux Erik is hilariously insane and terribly charming, especially when he calls himself a Don Juan. It's worth watching just for his antics and his dialouge.

You might not expect a Goosebumps episode to do a Phantom story any justice, but here we are: 1995, The Phantom of the Auditorium is a spooky fun take on the story and honestly, I'd like to see the full play the kids at that school are putting on cause it looks better than some of the live Phantom stage scenes I've seen. Both young boys playing the Phantom are fantastic actors and the plot twist at the end is great.

I absolutely have to give a shout out to Wishbone's Pantin at the Opera. He is the best, cutest, most adorable Raoul de Chagney ever and I will fight you if you dare talk smack about this version. I'm not even a Raoul stan by any means but like, this dog is precious and I enjoy this episode so much.

Also in the animated category and cute dog category is Scooby Doo Stage Fright made back in 2013. This movie is one of my fave Scooby Doo films (yes I own almost all of them on dvd) and there are multiple Phantoms, a reality tv show contest, and Fred and Daphne finally kiss each other! Lots and lots of hidden Phantom references in the background and lots of voice acting talent for those of us who appreciate that.

Now for the versions I intensely dislike 😏

The 1962 Herbert Lom version. UGH where to start. The sets are so small and everything looks dirty and of the wrong time period. The color in the film looks washed out. The clothes look too modern somehow (maybe it's their hairstyles?) and it bothers me. It feels low budget in a bad way and it shows. This phantom is not likeable or pitiable even though his backstory is similar to the Claude Raines version. He has no romantic interest in Christine, so it feels off. This guy is such an old a$$ piece of sh*t, he literally slaps Christine as she's singing for him for no damn reason. His paper mache mask looks like a Kindergartener's botched art class project. His personality is like somebody locked up cranky grandpa in the basement and he's PMS-ing because y'all forgot to give him his daily prune juice. This squatter's lair lacks creepiness, and his bizarre sidekick is annoying and yet somehow more interesting than the Phantom. The pervert manager trying to bang Christine aggravated me and simultaneously made me want to vomit. Raoul is the only likeable character in the whole damn movie. The Joan of Arc opera scene makes up for some of the film, but it's still terrible.

Next on my meh list is the 1983 made for tv movie starring Micheal York and Jane Seymour. Now, this one has some likeable and applaudable scenes: the various murders and general creepiness of the Phantom, and the lair scene when she wakes up in his bed and the Phantom gets all up in her face is so intense and so Leroux I absolutely love it. The rest of the film is a jumbled hot mess at best, but Jane Seymour is 🔥 and she gets some damn good sex, so hell yeah to that!

And lastly, I do not like the Royal Albert Hall 25th anniversary recording. I should preface this by saying it is Sierra I don't like. I like Ramin, I love Hadley, everyone else is wonderful but I cannot stand Sierra. She tries too hard to make Christine a Disney Princess- and that doesn't fly with me. It comes off as insincere or mocking the source material at best, and at worst it makes Christine look like an airheaded ditz. Apparently Sierra played Ariel at one point which is hilarious because of all the Disney princesses, I dislike her the most. But that's a different rant for another day.

And finally, the one I hate most of all:

The 1998 Argento film. This is the worst Phantom adaptation I've ever seen. It is a whole lotta nope for me. Between the rats, the unecessary and pointless telepathy, the r*pe scene, and the unfunny weird vibe from the murder going on in this film it's a disaster from start to finish. Honestly, it's the rats and his hair that bother me from a visual standpoint alone and it's beyond disgusting the way this a$$🤡 treats Christine. I don't like any of the characters in here and for good reason. It's not worth watching and if you do, be ready to bleach your brain afterwards.

💖 Sorry if this was a long read! Thanks again for giving me an ask and I will cherish it forver!!!! 💖

Daybreak over Manhattan (Scyvie) - Phryne

A/N: Long time, no see AQ! I’m finally back after putting DOPS on a slight hiatus to work on Ficmas and this fic right here. It’s a coffee shop au with some cute fluffy bits, a little angst, and that classic DOPS humor (I hope) we all love. 

Also thank you to @scarletenvynyc for being incredible throughout the whole writing process and encouraging me to see this fic through, and to @artificialmeggie for being the most incredible beta. 

Enjoy!

Word Count: 13K

***

Yvonne Bridges tugged at the collar of her tan trench coat in vain, trying to shield her neck from the mounting October wind. It was cooler in the mornings, though she didn’t mind it. In fact she quite enjoyed it. It was the time of year when the sun was just peeking over the horizon as she flew down the steps of the subway stop a few blocks from her apartment, and was fully bright, making her reflection golden and stretching in the skyscraper windows she passed, when she arrived at her first stop before work: the Starbucks. 

It was part of her morning routine, which she followed religiously. She arrived at the same time nearly every morning, buttoned the bottom two buttons of her pantsuit jacket while waiting at the register, placed the same order, checked her emails in silence while standing at the counter, waiting about about the same amount of time—it was a fairly empty store around six a.m.—and then left, heading on her way to work, fully prepared to handle her caseload, no matter what her boss would throw at her. 

It was comforting to see her usual barista Brooke and follow through the same thoughtless exchange. She only learned her name when she broke away from routine a couple months ago to study the barista. Brooke wore her hair wound up in a tight bun near the nape of her neck, her hair perpetually shiny and well placed. She wrote her name on her tag in all capital letters. It was severe. It was pointed. So was she. 

Brooke began each conversation with ‘hello’ and a nod. Yvonne replied ‘tall triple latte, blueberry muffin’ and pulled up the Starbucks app, her phone raising to a blinding brightness as she brought up her card. Brooke pressed a few buttons and said ‘seven seventy-four.’ Yvonne scanned her phone. Brooke nodded and therefore Yvonne moved to the side. They said a total of nine words to one another, each day the same nine words. It had been long enough that she shouldn’t have to explain her daily order to Brooke, but they weren’t feigning the closeness of friendship over ordering coffee, so they continued on with their nine word exchange, over and over until Brooke wasn’t there anymore. 

And on that October day, when Yvonne came in from the whipping wind, smoothing down her collar and adjusting her grip on her well-worn leather briefcase, the sunlight pouring in from the windows behind her, brushing against the back of her exposed neck, warming her so deliciously, so palpably, she was taken aback. 

“Welcome to Starbucks! What can I do you for this mornin’?” 

The voice was warm, like a well blended whisky settling in her belly, though it felt grating after what had to be years of Brooke’s cool, monotone voice. This voice belonged to a woman with brunette hair clipped back haphazardly, shorter strands escaping to graze across her sharp cheekbones, full from the smile she spoke with. 

The first thing Yvonne thought was that she couldn’t be from here, that was for sure. If the voice didn’t give it away, the exasperated joy at six a.m. did, the way she went about beaming at strangers like she had no good reason to save a grin that wide for a more special occasion did. She had to be new to the city—new enough to believe in the magic of Manhattan and all the people in it. 

Yvonne would scoff, but it would be quite difficult to scoff at the sun itself, and she thought that assumption applied here. She didn’t think she was bitter enough to scoff at joy incarnate appearing in front of her, wearing a leopard print cardigan and a soft pink t-shirt under her apron. 

“Where’s Brooke?” she asked, diverting the new barista’s question. “She’s always here in the morning.”

The barista finally broke from her incessant grinning, looking almost softer, more real, though Yvonne could now see the harshness of her jaw, the delicate point of her nose. She looked like a sculpture. She let out a weighted sigh. 

“Brooke got cast in some dance thing.” The barista drummed her fingers on the counter, pondering. “Like a group thing. I think she’s got some kind of team?” 

Yvonne put her phone down, the words still sounding off. More off than the prospect of Brooke not taking her order anymore. “A team?” 

“No, I guess that makes it sound like sports, huh?” The barista exhaled a light laugh, nothing more than an airy, thin laugh. “Like a ballet team. A posse? A gang?” She rambled on, somehow still holding Yvonne’s attention with each iteration of team, as though her words had a grip on Yvonne. 

“I don’t know,” she ended decisively. “But she got cast.” A little snort. Definitely a little miffed, which seemed understandable. 

The barista blew some hair out of her face before snapping back into her original sunny disposition. “Brooke quit yesterday, so now I have the opening shift,” she said. “I’m Scarlet.” And then she pointed to her name tag, her index finger highlighting how she wrote Scarlet in cursive, wide, looping letters, with little stars drawn around them. Yvonne couldn’t help but notice the stark difference between Scarlet and Brooke’s tags. And the difference seemed quite fitting. 

So Yvonne nodded, hoping to let that information pass, maybe even establish the same routine with this Scarlet, though it seemed unlikely with all the talking they had done already, which had to have passed her and Brooke’s nine word conversations. 

“Okay. Tall triple latte, blueberry muffin.” Yvonne said, watching her rapidly input on the register, tacking on “please,” as though it were necessary to be more polite to her—she didn’t know Yvonne’s routine yet. 

“Oh that sounds so good,” Scarlet replied. “I would kill to have a triple tall latte right now.” 

Yvonne couldn’t let what had to be Scarlet’s standard reply to an order hang limply between them. It all happened without her knowledge, the words firing from her brain and out her mouth, landing between them before she even knew it. 

“You’re telling me you haven’t had any coffee yet? And you’re like this?” Yvonne gestured lightly, now gripping her phone. “I’ve had no coffee and I’m like this.” She gestured down herself. Her exhausted self really — though exhaustion was a constant enough state that she learned how to look like it wasn’t. 

Scarlet laughed. And yes, it was a laugh directed at Yvonne’s thoughtless reply. It wasn’t even a joke. But nonetheless the laugh registered as authentic for a barista laugh. There was an appropriate lightness to it, enough to note it as actually funny but too much. Not enough to let Yvie know she was so unfunny that she warranted fake laughter from this poor barista. 

“You’re funny, even for this early,” Scarlet reassured. She uncapped her Sharpie and took up the cup. “What’s the name for the order, funny lady?” 

Her throat was tight. “Yvonne.” 

Scarlet nodded and wrote on the cup, setting it aside, ringing Yvonne up, and holding up the scanner for her phone. She stepped to the side, expecting the transaction to be finished. She didn’t expect Scarlet to tell her to “have a good morning” after the fact, and the elongated pleasantries left her floundering. She checked her emails, hoping to bring about a sense of normalcy. 

“Yvie. Latte and blueberry muffin for Yvie,” another barista called out. He glanced around, noting only Yvonne and an older man in a windbreaker and running tights in the store. 

Yvonne continued sorting through emails, adding Silky’s ‘daily meme’ email to her spam folder.

“Order for Yvie.” The barista pointed at the muffin in the bag. The older man shook his head. 

“Yvonne,” Scarlet called over to her, now standing where the other barista stood, holding the same latte and muffin. “It’s your order, Yvie.” 

She should have been irritated by the nickname. Never in her adult life had she been called by a nickname — really, she didn’t think something as cutesy as Yvie could suit her. It sounded like a name for a well groomed Pomeranian, not a grown woman. 

But she nonetheless accepted her latte and muffin, finding herself glancing down at the way Scarlet wrote ‘Yvie’ in sprawling handwriting, the dot of the ‘i’ trailing off in her haste. It was endearing. 

Scarlet was quite endearing, and something she could get used to every day, she decided, walking past the window on her way to work, stealing another glance at Scarlet, only to find her waving goodbye, her fingers fluttering away. 

***

“Tall triple latte, blueberry muffin,” Yvie said, still buried in her phone. “Please.” 

Please had quickly become a part of her routine with Scarlet, as much as Yvie didn’t enjoy setting new routines. Through it didn’t feel correct to carry over the same practices with Brooke to Scarlet, especially when Scarlet always beamed back at her, especially when the October sunrise seemed to chase through the front windows to meet up with Scarlet, making her perpetual flush look warmer and the little frizzy hairs along her hairline look nearly blonde. It made the please deeply necessary, and therefore routine.

Scarlet pulled out a cup and wrote out Yvie’s name, chirping back, “the usual, got it,” before getting Yvie’s muffin from the case. 

Yvie continued typing away at her phone, feeling her face tighten and her brows thread together with no way of easing them. She scanned over the email from Silky, her coworker, with whom she was handling the Davenport case—a complex web of familial relations, undissolvable trusts, and heaps of old money. It was nearly all wrapped up, but Silky was now flip-flopping on their analysis for their client, A’keria. 

“What the fuck does this mean?” Yvie exhaled steam, rapidly typing back to Silky. 

Scarlet returned with the muffin, sliding it across the counter. “It’ll be $7.74.” 

Yvie groaned, swiping through Silky’s attachments from her last email. The message only said “please advise.” Yvie did not want to advise on what she’d already advised on for the past three months. 

“Capitalism, right?” Scarlet threw her hands up with a shrug. “But you still gotta pay, Yvie.” 

“Oh sorry.” Yvie pulled away, glancing up at Scarlet, looking more and more like a court jester with her puffy-sleeved shirt and exaggerated expression, as though she were on the set of I Love Lucy rather than behind the counter at Starbucks. She pulled up her app and Scarlet scanned her card. 

“What’s going on?” Scarlet printed the receipt, tore it off, and immediately threw it away. “You seem all tense today.” 

Today. Scarlet really did joke. “I’m a lawyer,” Yvie replied dryly, her voice gritting. Just thinking about Silky’s email made her grimace. “I’m always tense, Scarlet.” 

“Nuh uh,” Scarlet tutted back, clearly waging her bets and pressing further. She was a woman of nerve, that’s for sure, pressing at Yvie when she was in one of her moods. “You look more stressed than usual. I can see it in your face.” She held up her thumbs and index fingers perpendicular in front of her, making a frame for Yvie’s face, as though she were capturing a shot of the stress. 

Yvie gave in easily, turning her phone over on the counter, ignoring the email. She sighed. “Well, I have to go argue a big case. Like a big money case today. And my partner’s reconsidering our arguments like we haven’t been preparing our arguments for fucking months.” She let out a long exhale, meeting Scarlet’s intent gaze. “But whatever. I don’t want to just bitch to you about it.” 

Scarlet laughed, brushing her off with a flick of her hand. “Please. No one else is here.” She looked around at the nearly barren store, the lack of line behind Yvie, prompting Yvie to notice the same. “Bitch away, honey.” 

She walked on over to the espresso machine, released a hot spurt of steam from the wand, and grabbed a jug of milk from under the counter, then pointed at the stools that lined the counter opposite her. “Sit down and spill it.” 

And for no godly reason, by no logical means, Yvie felt compelled to do exactly that.  

“Also, Silky keeps this shit on her desk that I hate.” Yvie brushed her hair back. “Like she’s got this calendar of these hot firemen and their dalmations. And like, not to be gay, but I don’t get men and their dogs.” 

Scarlet peered up at Yvie while pouring the steamed milk over the espresso. Yvie broke her gaze, suddenly much more interested in flipping her phone over in her hands. 

“I’m more of a cat lady myself,” Scarlet replied easily, returning her attention to putting a lid on Yvie’s drink, scribbling something else on the side of it and sliding it over to her. Scarlet placed her elbows on the counter, leaning in on her hands, coming in closer. 

“Same.” Yvie took her drink, sticking a latte saver in it. “And she’s got a picture of Mr. Fuzznut on her desk—” 

“Who’s Mr. Fuzznut?” Scarlet could barely get it out without laughing. 

“Her dog. He’s a weiner dog. In the picture he’s wearing a wizard’s hat.” Yvie pulled up the picture and slid her phone over.

“Ugh.” Scarlet pushed it right back. She let her index finger rest against her cheek. “Why is she that way?”

“Beats me. I just listen to her talk about that dog and her men all—”

“Excuse me, miss?” A man in a suit called over from the register, the vein in his neck clearly throbbing from having to wait more than five minutes. He shouldn’t have even bothered with excuse me. “Can you take my order?” 

Scarlet tilted her head, staring blankly before snapping back into her usual cheer. 

“I gotta go anyway.” Yvie hitched her purse up her shoulder, readjusting the tuck of her silk button down into her gray trousers. “Big case and all,” she said, trailing off. 

“Of course. I’m sure it’ll—” 

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” Yvie patted the counter before taking off, leaving Scarlet to tend to this customer, who did not care for waiting now six minutes to order his coffee and told Scarlet just as much as Yvie left, in what had to be a demeaningly measured tone. 

Yvie noticed a touch of feathering Sharpie poking out from under the coffee sleeve, which was peculiar, as Scarlet wrote ‘Yvie’ on the cup and checked all the proper boxes like usual, but this marking seemed new. Maybe she did something different to her coffee and had to check a different box, like adding or replacing something would help Yvie’s constant state of exhaustion and stress, like Scarlet the barista knew best. Usually knowing best referred to her ability to select muffins, as she picked through the muffins with her tongs to find Yvie what she assured was the ‘best muffin.’ ”It’s the one with the most blueberries, of course,” Scarlet once explained with a cartoonish wink as she stuck it into a bakery bag. 

Yvie took a swig of the now cooled coffee. Perfect, as always. 

She slid the sleeve down and her lips tugged into a smile. It said good luck!! In her same loopy handwriting. And she connected the exclamation points to make a smiley face. Under the sleeve just for her. 

Yvie took pause, considering that Scarlet really thought to put it under the sleeve instead of out in the open where she could easily see it. Maybe she did that because she knew Yvie would see it anyway. But then she would have just said something, no? Maybe it was under the sleeve so it wouldn’t look weird in court, this coffee cup with messages. She knew if Silky saw it, she’d have a field day — even though Yvie’s girlfriend literally worked feet away from them — spinning some story about Yvie’s secret barista admirer. Maybe Scarlet was just smart. 

It was possible that Scarlet the barista knew best. 

***

It was the morning of Halloween and Yvie’s thoughts were rampant and ecstatic. Namely, she was contemplating whether or not she should waste her good witch costume on Silky’s party and how rude it would be if she claimed food poisoning at the last minute, just to stay in and gobble fun-sized Snickers while watching Carrie. 

As she approached the counter, she saw Scarlet all giddy, her little clip-on witch’s hat flopping its pom-pom tip, her cream sweater adorned with sequined black cats catching the light as she shimmied around. 

“Happy Halloween, Yvie,” Scarlet said with a little clap before pressing down on the counter, sharing as though it were a well worn secret. “It’s my favorite holiday. I love it.” 

It surprised her a bit, hearing that Scarlet loved Halloween, though she seemed just as adamant as she did about the holiday, and looked far more festive than Yvie, who could only muster the festivity of an all black pantsuit. She didn’t look like one to enjoy the spooky season — Yvie could more easily picture her in a soft, pale pink sweater and jeans, stomping her boots around in leaves and enjoying spiced cider from an earthenware mug than reveling in the blood and gore of a slasher flick. 

Though it was a good surprise, a new image of Scarlet in the fall time for her to comb over at her leisure. 

“It’s mine too,” Yvie replied. “Do you have any plans for Halloween?” 

Scarlet broke into a smirk, hand over her heart, laying in the slight twang of her accent. “Oh Yvie, what are you asking me?”

Yvie stopped dead, blood lying still in her body. She fiddled with her jacket. “I… I wasn’t…” 

“I’m just teasing, silly.” She brushed it off. “I gotta get my costume together and then my roommate, Pearl and I, we throw this big party. So we’ll have people over. I’m going as a devil.” She stuck two pointed fingers behind her head and giggled. 

Yvie laughed right back. It was a little absurd, thinking of Scarlet, with all her gentleness and joy, posing as the devil, in some sleek red thing, probably trying her absolute hardest to look cold and mean, though couldn’t possibly have a cold, mean bone in her body. 

“Oh, I almost forgot.” Scarlet startled her out of her thoughts, leaning in closer, Yvie following her lead. “Don’t tell my manager, but I invented a new Halloween drink.” 

“Oh?” Yvie didn’t know if she was more taken aback by the proposition of a new drink order, her willingness to accept it, or Scarlet’s closeness and how the fine hairs of her body stood at attention with every word. 

“Do you want to try it? It’s super cute.”

Of course it was super cute.

“It’s also a little unauthorized.” She quoted with her fingers. “Not as unauthorized as the first drink I tried to make, but still.”

Yvie pulled away slightly, her face willing itself to twist, but finding that she couldn’t, not with Scarlet already reaching for a cold cup from the stack next to her. And Yvie was not a fan of cold coffee, no not really, especially in late October, especially when it was barely over 30 degrees outside and she was in the same jacket she’d been wearing since the much warmer beginning of fall. Not with Scarlet already uncapping her Sharpie, preemptively doodling a pumpkin on the side of the cup, finishing it off with a curly stem sprouting from the top, just waiting to write ‘Yvie’ and seal the deal. 

So Yvie nodded and Scarlet rang her up for $5.04 and Yvie scanned her app and stepped off to the side, watching Scarlet take off, throwing one last glance over her shoulder at the back room before pumping some liquid into the cup and adding a bit of milk, pouring the mixture into the blender pitcher, and adding thick orange sauce to it. 

Yvie did not know or particularly like the idea of the blender. Or the thick orange sauce. She didn’t know how she was supposed to walk into the office with some kind of blended drink and be respected as an orator and a woman of law. Nonetheless, she trusted the decision, gaze trained on Scarlet, who added some more liquid and a scoop of ice and maybe something else into the blender, allowing it to pulverize the ice while she coated the side of the cup in a dripping, deep brown sauce, which pooled at the bottom. 

She was concentrated and swift, almost holding her breath as she poured the orange slush into the cup, careful not to mess up her design, smile tense as she topped it with whipped cream and a smattering of chocolate shavings that she found under the counter. 

“Here it is!” Scarlet placed the drink in front of her, using her elegant fingers to highlight each component, as though she were selling the drink to her on a home shopping network. “It’s a pumpkin spice frap with mocha sauce on the sides of the cup, whip, and chocolate shavings.” 

Yvie studied it for a moment. It was a very cute drink. 

Scarlet must have noticed Yvie’s quizzical look. “It’s Halloween because it’s orange and black and also it has pumpkin.” 

Yvie nodded, as though that answered some questions she had yet to form about the drink. 

“Try it.” Scarlet inched the drink forward. “I wanna see if you love it.” 

So she took a sip, the thick slurry like lead paint on her tongue. The pumpkin was combative with the chocolate, if she were putting it nicely. She swallowed, still finding the aftertaste of spice in the corners of her mouth, between her teeth. It was horrific—definitely a Halloween drink. 

But Scarlet was leaning on the counter, looking at her expectantly with her head resting in her balled fists, little witch hat flopping as she stirred while waiting for Yvie’s response. Usually, Yvie would have no problem bursting someone’s bubble; really, she did it for a living, and humility aside, she was quite good at it. But Scarlet looked so proud of herself and was so clearly excited over the drink, as much of a monstrosity it was. 

“It’s the cutest drink.” Yvie settled on, immediately rewarded by Scarlet bouncing around the prep area behind her, doing some kind of little dance that looked partially like a shimmy and partially like a medical emergency before coming back to the counter. 

“See? Aren’t you glad I convinced you to get it?” It wasn’t a question, it was just Scarlet excited to receive the compliment, and Yvie was happy to give it. 

“I am,” Yvie reassured her, slipping a sleeve over the drink to keep her hands warm from the frozen drink. And she was. She couldn’t bring herself to miss her latte, not when Scarlet was so pleased like this. She certainly couldn’t bring herself to remember her daily muffin, now absent from her hands.

And with that she left the store, absently taking another sip, immediately regretting the all-out assault she brought upon her taste buds for the second time that morning. She passed countless trash cans on the way into work, but on principle, couldn’t throw out Scarlet’s unauthorized special Halloween drink, even if it definitely qualified as a war crime, in her legal opinion. It would be far worse to throw out this piece of Scarlet’s joy. 

***

“Good morning, Yvie.” Scarlet began putting in her usual order—now that Halloween was over and Scarlet hadn’t had the time to come up with a comparably cute Thanksgiving drink—upon seeing Yvie enter the store.

However cheery Scarlet was, which was very, as per usual, she was incorrect in her assessment. It was not a good morning, and it likely would not be for a while, no matter how convincing Scarlet’s wholesome, toothy smile and strawberry red sweater were. She was not going to have a good morning and that was final.

“Actually, no muffin today.”

 Scarlet stood stiff as a board, grasping a muffin between her tongs, looking Yvie up and down. She was probably scanning over her to see if she was hurt, dying, hit her head — anything that would account for this sudden change in routine. All Scarlet could find would be a sad, brokenhearted lawyer requesting only a triple tall latte.

Scarlet finally stuck the muffin back into the case, her face still all screwed up like a lemon in a juicer, probably deep in contemplation.

 “Why don’t you want the muffin?” She returned to the register, making no moves to take it off the tab. “You’ve wanted a muffin every day for like a month and a half.”

 It was likely closer to two months, if Yvie really thought it through, thought back to when she started seeing Scarlet in the morning, when she thought back to the shock of her honeyed voice and her leopard print cardigan. It was exactly nine months and four days if she thought back to when she started getting a muffin every day.

“Well, I don’t want it anymore.” She could feel herself growing tighter, unable to fathom her stomach becoming any more tightly wound, any smaller than it had been since last night. 

Scarlet frowned. Fair. Yvie knew she was being harsh. “I’ll give it to you for free if you’d like.”

“No.” Yvie sighed, and allowed her thoughts to form sentences, gifting them to Scarlet, hoping to ease her tension.

“The muffin was for my girlfriend.”  Yvie shuffled her feet, back and forth over either side of the grout between the tiles. She stared at her hands. “And now I don’t have one of those, so I’m not going to get a muffin.”

She finally looked up again, only to find Scarlet’s flat lipped smile contrasting with her classic red lipstick. Only to find Scarlet’s downcast eyes, all blue and murky. Only to find Scarlet’s outstretched hand, laying on the counter, palm upwards, waiting for Yvie’s to join it, which she so thoughtlessly did.

Her palm was warm, so obviously softened by some kind of lotion, punctuated only by a few thin, plain stacked rings on her fourth finger. She curled her fingers around Yvie’s half smoothly, abruptly, and they just crested over the edge, Scarlet’s pale fingers with their short, blunt nails. And her thumb. How it rubbed the back of her hand. How it washed over her knuckles as though it could pull tension out of her. It could. Scarlet could. 

They stood this way for a moment, maybe more, with Yvie transfixed on their joined hands. And though she did not look up at Scarlet, though she could not tear herself away from the gentle palm under her own, she was sure Scarlet was looking at her the whole time, hoping against hope that she’d look up to meet her gaze. Yvie slipped her hand away.

 Scarlet nodded, the slightest dip of her sharp chin, and rang her up again.

 “I’m sorry.” It was weighted. It lay between them. Yvie didn’t want to pick it up. “That has to really hurt.”

 It did. And it was the best way Scarlet could have said it really. It did hurt. It was a dull ache between her ribs, something wet and scalding in her throat. It hurt. So, she nodded.

 “Would you like something from the bakery case? No extra charge.” Her voice was much lower now, as though they were words that needed to be spoken in the dark rather than a proposition about scheming her workplace out of one baked good.

 “Just the coffee.”

 But Scarlet was adamant. She already stood in front of the case with tongs in her hand again.

 “No really. On the house. Pick whatever you want,” she reassured, waving the tongs about to highlight the selection of pastries.

“Scar—”

“—And on God, you are not going to get a blueberry muffin.” She now pointed at Yvie, clamping her tongs a couple times, like a lobster snapping its claws. “That’s like the sad, drunk texting your ex of baked good selection and I can’t let you do that.”

Yvie laughed. She felt it warming her throat as Scarlet’s silly assertiveness made way for a return to her usual joy. That little smile, the crinkling of her eyes; she had to be pleased with herself. 

“No, really, I’ll pay for it.” She ceded all too easily, and upon further thought, far more willfully than she typically would, and for no apparent reason. She could analyze over and over, trying to figure out what did her in, if it was something about the joke Scarlet made, the tongs, the soft lights above both of them, breaking through the continual darkness outside, or maybe it was about Scarlet’s hand in hers and how her fingers ached for that touch again.

“Nope,” Scarlet said with a pop. “Just pick something.”

“Okay, a slice of that lemon cake.” Scarlet had the makings of a smirk spreading across her lips as she reached for a bag. “But Scarlet, please let me pay for it. I want to pay for it.” 

Scarlet placed the bag on the counter, quickly uncapping her Sharpie and writing “Yvie” on the bag, making a smiley face out of the curve of the “Y”

“Yvonne,” Scarlet admonished, setting her Sharpie down, catching her attention, refusing to allow her to draw away. “I’m not taking your sad, just dumped money. You’re just gonna take this free lemon cake.” She slid the bag over, practically pushing it against her hand.

So Yvie paid for her coffee, and as Scarlet turned away to place her cup on the line, Yvie reached into her purse, pulled out a fist full of crumpled ones and stuffed them in the tip jar. And as Scarlet caught her red-handed, Yvie pointed down at the jar and then at Scarlet, with a chuckle, and Scarlet rolled her eyes.

She wasn’t just going to accept a completely free slice of lemon cake without Scarlet getting something out of it. She didn’t need lemon cake charity, though she’d be lying if she said Scarlet’s insistence on cheering her up with the free lemon cake wasn’t highly endearing and somewhat helpful.

Yvie stepped to the side with her bag, watching as Scarlet made a little drawing on the side of her cup before sliding a sleeve over her Sharpie work and making the drink as usual, which intrigued her. 

Upon receiving her drink, the typical “Yvie” with the smiley face, all the proper boxes checked, she slid the sleeve down only to find a little drawing of two crocodiles standing upright with their splayed out feet and dragging tails. The first had a little speech bubble, complementing the other’s purse, while the other held up its purse and said “Thanks, it’s my ex!” It was stupid, a stupid joke with the cute little drawings, all crosshatched to show scales. But today, Yvie laughed at those dumb little crocodiles in such a hearty way, it almost felt as though she was clearing out her throat, finally unclenching her jaw. 

“Wow.” She drew Scarlet’s attention, even as she was making another customer’s drink. “That’s actually really good.” 

“Thanks,” she called over her shoulder. “Maybe if I can’t catch my big break in acting, I’ll try to make it in latte jokes.”

Of course that’s what Scarlet was after in life. Surely she could feign cheeriness at any sight, could have known that reaching out to her and taking her hand this morning was the right thing to do. And yet none of it seemed artificial of her. There was nothing method about it, surely. 

Yvie stopped herself from thinking about Scarlet becoming a star, accepting a Golden Globe in some shimmering, heavenly draped gown. 

She shrugged. “I think you could.” 

“Well, if my audition for corpse on SVU falls through, I’ll really consider it.”

The chuckle chased Yvie as she left the store, enjoying the little cartoon on her cup. Scarlet would continue with the jokes and drawings for weeks, until Yvie found herself struck with a new joy, walking the last couple blocks to work, watching the day break over Manhattan, sure this was exactly what Scarlet saw in this place.

***

Yvie now ordered “the usual,” as Scarlet had begun referring to her triple tall latte without blueberry muffin she purchased every day for $5.08 as “the usual.” And Scarlet paired this phrase, and Yvie’s growing affinity for this phrase, her affinity for having someone who consistently knew what she wanted, with her usual, all encompassing grin, from the moment she spotted Yvie entering the store, her head shooting up at the opening of the door at six a.m. This grin, which had a brightness rivaling only the sunlight bouncing off the reflective skyline and filtering through the storefront windows—which she deeply missed and would trade the late November haze for any day, continued as Scarlet picked through the bagels, rearranging them with her tongs.

Yvie was quite enjoying this new routine with Scarlet. 

Today, Yvie sat off to the side of the counter, perched on a metal stool, phone abandoned due to the miraculous sight of Scarlet’s concentrated face as she made Yvie’s latte. The bridge of her nose formed a couple wrinkles, three little canyons on its pointed form. Her eyebrows, unruly as ever, were tightly pulled together as her eyes became slivers. And her lips. Her bottom lip, bare and pink, chapped from the cold, crushed between her teeth. All this was shadowed by the little pieces of hair that fell free from her ponytail and now hung limply in front of her face. She held the cup up, inches from the counter while her left hand worked up and down, wavering the pitcher in slight, rapid movements, pouring out the milk with care. 

“Here, look Yvie.” Scarlet pushed the cup forward. “Isn’t it beautiful.”

Scarlet marveled at her own work and Yvie felt prompted to pull away and do the same. It was quite beautiful, this rounded thing that almost looked ribbed with the precise movements Scarlet made to produce it. It also almost looked like a vagina, though she wasn’t going to say that. She only nodded because it did look beautiful. 

“It’s a tulip,” Scarlet explained. “Or at least that’s what it’s called.” 

Okay, so same difference.

Scarlet scrubbed a hand through her piecey hair, letting the strands fall back in front of her face, not bothering to secure them in her gold scrunchie. 

But before those hairs fell forward again, Yvie noticed a teasing smear of brown across Scarlet’s forehead, glistening and decadent, far darker than the golden brown of her hair, especially in this light.

“Yvie?” Scarlet tried again, her look puzzled, and rightfully so—Yvie knew she was staring, though for how long, she wasn’t sure. 

“Oh, uh…” Her voice staggered before she straightened up, regaining composure. “You have a bit of… a little something on your face.” She pointed up at Scarlet’s forehead, circling her finger around the general area as Scarlet’s eyes went wide.

“Oops, thanks.” She swiped her arm across her forehead, only smearing it further. She raised her brows, peering up at Yvie. “Did I get it?” 

It was now only a thin film, it’s edge beading over her right eyebrow. She shook her head adamantly, endeared by Scarlet’s pout in response, and pulled a napkin from the dispenser. 

“Here.” She edged closer to Scarlet, motioning with her hand for Scarlet to follow her lead, drawing her closer. “Let me get it.” 

She didn’t know what made her say it, but whatever it was, it made her feel like her veins were filled with champagne, popping feverishly at every movement, circulating evenly within her. She glanced down at the napkin, looking up only to find Scarlet closer than before, held up by her left hand splayed on the counter, her arm straight, locked, and her eyes soft, unquestioning. And now that she said it and she was this close and she had the napkin in her hand, she willed herself not to tremble as she brushed Scarlet’s stray hairs from her forehead, holding them back with her overextended pinky, swiping the napkin across the liquid—what looked like chocolate sauce—resting her wrist against the curve of her full, perpetually pink cheek. 

She patted the napkin gently, though she knew it wasn’t clearing off more of the syrup, if for nothing but an arguably weak justification for why she was studying Scarlet like this. She dabbed and noticed the smattering of freckles across Scarlet’s nose, lingering, wandering off across her cheeks. The stray hairs under the arch of her brow, just dark at their tips, not visible at any further distance. 

She’d been staring too long. She knew this, though Scarlet made no move to indicate this. In fact, her eyes were closed and she somehow forced herself forward, as though she needed to be closer than before. So, she folded the napkin to a clean edge and gave it one last pull across her forehead before setting it on the counter. 

“It’s all gone,” Yvie whispered. She couldn’t muster anything louder. Especially not with how Scarlet’s eyes finally opened again at Yvie’s voice. 

Scarlet glanced down at her hands for a moment, her giggle like pennies splashing into a wishing-well breaking the cozy silence, before looking back up at Yvie. 

“Thanks.” It was warm and sincere, broken only by Scarlet noticing Yvie’s coffee, still without a lid, the tulip wilting into mere spirals of faint white. 

“That’s a hazard,” she muttered, pressing a lid over her creation and pushing it back to Yvie.

She was close enough that Yvie could smell a faint floral perfume on Scarlet’s neck and wrists, close enough that Yvie couldn’t bear to think about how fitting it was, how it all made sense with the green wrap shirt she wore, all sage and vital, dotted with splays of white flowers, without the burgeoning warmth in her core showing itself across her cheeks. 

Scarlet frowned a bit before pushing back against the counter. “Well, there you go, Yvie.”

Yvie nodded, slipping a sleeve on the coffee and heading out, gripping the cup tightly as she left the store and headed toward the office. Today, she was thankful for the chilling morning air, ensuring she’d be free of this excessive warmth by the time she arrived at work.

***

The store was crowded for the first time Yvie could remember. As she stood in line, she tried to figure out how there could possibly be a crowd, just today, when at six a.m., it was usually only her and Scarlet, occasionally some other business person or man who just finished an early morning run. She could count on one hand the times there were more than five people in the store when she was there.

But today there were far more than five. Yvie tried not to let this bother her, though if she had to rationalize two people in front of her in line, she also had to rationalize that while she could see Scarlet at the register, her hair held back by a red bandana, her voice strident, bringing forth a mounting warmth in Yvie’s core from a what felt like mile away, she wouldn’t really get time to talk to Scarlet. But it was silly to ponder such things, especially when her only real goal was to get her latte. 

Maybe there was a convention or some larger company was having a conference. She fidgeted with the belt on her black wool coat before stuffing her hands into its pockets, trying to warm them. It had to be something the store was planning for, as Scarlet was only taking orders while two other baristas filled those orders behind the counter. 

It didn’t matter. She was here to get her latte and head to work. 

Still, she couldn’t help but wonder what she’d miss by not having time with Scarlet this morning, if Scarlet would have to save some new wild story or additional details about shopping for the perfect Christmas present for her roommate, Pearl, who was the type of person who went on about how she didn’t need anything, though Scarlet knew she’d be upset if she didn’t receive a nice gift, so Scarlet took to prodding her over what she wanted, which wasn’t terribly fruitful, ending with the realization that the best gift she could get Pearl was tickets to Atlanta to visit her girlfriend, Violet, though she knew she couldn’t afford them. And then she added that she knew Pearl got her this beautiful, buttery soft red leather wallet she’d been eyeing from Coach for months, which she only knew about because she was ‘a bit of a rascal’ and ‘spotted the bag under Pearl’s bed while looking for her other winter boot because Pearl never returns shoes when she borrows them.’ 

Which is to say that Yvie would be very disappointed not having something like flights from JFK to ATL to look up during her lunch break. 

Not that it mattered or she had to be particularly concerned about Scarlet’s musings about maybe getting Pearl a pair of her own snow boots or possibly just some money stuffed into a festive card if she really couldn’t figure out something good. 

“You didn’t mark that right,” the man in front of her said bitingly,  pressed up against the counter, pointing directly at Scarlet, finger inches away from her chest. 

Scarlet stood paralyzed before spinning the cup around, gripping it a tad too tightly. She read it off, though she waivered, her voice staggered as she looked over her markings. “Grande three pumps vanilla, three pumps caramel soy latte?”

“Two,” he gritted out fiercely. “Two pumps of caramel.” 

“Okay.” Scarlet nodded and rang him up. “$6.05 please.” She stared down at the register, drawing in open-mouthed breaths. 

“Write it down because you’re not going to remember it.” His voice was scorching. Highly unnecessary. Yvie found her fists tight in her coat pockets. Attentive. Vigilant. 

“I’ll remember, sir,” Scarlet muttered, voice small. Body small. She still held the cup and her Sharpie in her hand, frozen. 

“I’ll write it myself. Fucking incompetent,” he fumed, a furious whisper he thought could only be heard by him and Scarlet, reaching over the counter to grab the cup. 

Yvie saw the mounting fury building behind her eyes, scorching her chest. And before properly surveying the man lunging forward, the line growing impatient over this man’s fit, she saw Scarlet flinch, swore she heard her breath hitch, cutting through the din of the store, and roughly drew the man’s arm back, grasping at a fist full of his jacket. 

“How dare you believe you have the right to insult her, let alone touch her” Yvie spoke fiercely, pulling the man roughly to face her, to meet her gaze as she looked down on him, at least an inch taller than the man in her heels. “Do you believe it’s in your right to attempt assault upon her?” 

The man looked shaken, making no moves to free his arm from Yvie’s grasp. “Well, I was—” 

“That’s not an answer,” she whipped back, feeling the store fall silent, save for the click of Scarlet’s Sharpie hitting the tiled floor. 

“I was just going to write it. It’s not assault to—” 

“You were going to grab something from her hands after an escalating exchange of language on your part. Assault is defined as an intentional act by one person that creates an apprehension in another of an imminent harmful or offensive contact. That is what you attempted.” She saw the smirk wash from his face as she recited the textbook definition of attempted assault. Practiced. Authoritative. Highly believable, and really she should be, having used it nearly daily. “Now, you are going to apologize to her for your attempted assault and hope she’s kind enough to make your ridiculous coffee. Do you understand me?” 

The man nodded, still making no move to face Scarlet, his eyes blank, still wide. 

“Use your words.” 

“Yes.” 

She came up close, lowered her voice to just above a breath, ghost quiet. “You’re just a little bitch yelling at a barista over a little bitch drink. Do you understand me?”

He nodded and Yvie released him and gave him a shove to face forward, allowing him to deliver his apology.

Scarlet still stood still, staring off past the man, mechanically accepting his cash and sliding his cup off to the side, surely still terrified. She preened over her piecey hair, tucking it and letting it fall, tucking it again as she waited for him to move away from the register to wait for his drink.  What she wouldn’t do to comfort her, to bring her in close, to wrap herself around Scarlet. 

As Yvie came up to the counter, she noticed Scarlet’s flush deepened as she stole glances at Yvie before pulling her focus back to tugging a tall cup from the stack. 

“I’m sorry if I embarrassed you or something,” Yvie said, pulling up her app to pay. “It just wasn’t right how he was treating you.” Yvie took a deep breath, willing her blood to quit its boiling at the thought of that man in his suit and gray coat. 

“No it’s…” Scarlet trailed off, rubbing her fingers with her thumb, steadying her breaths, trailing her eyes upward, over Yvie. “Fine.” 

Yvie let it go, not wanting to press her further. Scarlet rang Yvie up for her usual order, chewing at her lip, accidentally knocking the empty cup over with her frantic movements. And whenever she caught Yvie’s gaze for a split second, she drew away like a wounded animal, looking down at her hands. 

Yvie could take one, hold it in hers as Scarlet had done for her weeks ago, though she might be far too stimulated for touch. Instead she simply paid and added a hefty tip for Scarlet, if for nothing but to make up for that man’s behaviors. 

As she moved off to the side to wait for her drink, she caught Scarlet following her moments, having to snap back into focus to help her next customer. 

Yvie stood next to that man, who stood shuffling his feet, stiffening at her presence. Good, Yvie thought. If he makes one more move, I’ll have his balls rolling around in my Michael Kors. On Scarlet’s behalf, of course. 

***

“Yvie Yvie Yvie Yvie Yvie.” Scarlet bounced a bit in her spot, calling out her name incessantly from the moment Yvie exited the slowly falling flurries outside and entered the warmth of the store. She repeated her name, pulling her ever closer with only words before Yvie could bother to shed her scarf, so that the warmth of the store wouldn’t overwhelm her senses.

“Well, good morning, Scarlet.” Yvie chuckled at the woman’s excitement, placing her phone on the counter, unbuttoning her coat and unwinding her scarf. Somehow it was always a good morning for Scarlet, and though Yvie knew correlation did not necessitate causation, it generally meant she had a better morning as well.

“We got the holiday cups. Look.” She gestured toward them exaggeratedly, throwing her whole body into the movement, nearly knocking herself over. And Yvie was going to look, of course, though she wasn’t typically one to get excited over holiday Starbucks cups. 

Silky usually got excited over the cups and would get angry when she got a repeat within the first week or so. She ranted on and on for almost an hour in 2015 when they only had the plain red cups, as they ‘removed all festivity from Christmas, which could be considered culturally unsafe as defined within human rights law,’ which was not even the slightest bit true and made Yvie spend a bit of every day that December combing through all the choices that brought her to this desk in this law firm in New York. 

“I always like to rank the cups when we get them in,” Scarlet explained. “That way when people are rude or have children who are rude and shout about the amount of whipped cream they get, as though a cup can fit infinite amounts of whipped cream, I can give them the bad cup.”  

Yvie tilted her head at Scarlet cloyingly. 

“Yes, I have been yelled at by children. And, no, I do not like it.” 

“Right…” Yvie drew out as Scarlet’s frustration washed from her face, replaced with that same smile Yvie saw nearly every day, consistently took comfort in. The comfort of the toothy smile and the way her lips pulled back and her high, full cheeks, all pillowy over her sharpened cheek bones. She could run through the litany of Scarlet’s features by memory by now and she was sure they would never cease to bring her comfort. 

She held up the one with thin green and white stripes, pulling it close to try to make out the letters between the stripes before holding it out for Yvie to analyze. She gave it a passing glance. 

“It’s fine.” Yvie shrugged. She wasn’t one for games. But she was one for judging things, which made her a fan of Scarlet’s idea of a game. 

Scarlet put it at the end of the counter. “You’re right, like okay, still artful but not explicitly holiday-y.” 

She pulled another green and white striped cup out before retrieving a new design. This one was red and white striped, like a candy cane with ‘Starbucks’ written all over it. Again, she concentrated on the print, squeezing the cup a bit, as though to test the give of the coated paper, as though all the cups weren’t the same material. 

“6.5” 

“Okay, but how holiday-y is it?” Yvie retorted. “Is that not a pivotal measure of holiday cup goodness?” 

Scarlet lowered herself to a whisper, inching the cup closer to Yvie’s face, right until it was nearly touching her still frosty nose, a hair’s width from its tip. She leaned over the counter. “I don’t want to say this Yvie, but…” She poked Yvie with the rim of the cup, sparking something warm and electric inside her. “Is it possibly too festive? And therefore too festive to be holiday-y?” 

Yvie drew back with a gasp, clutching her chest. “Miss Scarlet!” 

“I know.” She pouted, playing into the idea that her language was vile, septically disgusting. 

“The blasphemy!” 

“I know!” 

It was silly, a silly game. And Yvie couldn’t remember the last time she played a purposeless game like this. Maybe when the M train was all backed up from god only knows what a month ago and she passed the time playing sudoku on her phone. But even that was numbers and patterns and some kind of mental gymnastics. Here, it was just saying whether the two liked the colors and patterns. It almost felt like playing as children. 

And as much as she could rationalize Scarlet needing this kind of fun in her menial job, especially with how she explained to Yvie that it was ‘so typical New York of her to make coffee until she got cast’ and how she likes to pass the time behind the counter making up characters to go with the people she waited on. Yvie probably needed this kind of fun too. 

“I see we’re doing this Merry Coffee thing, which is fun…” Scarlet trailed off, squinting at it. “Not that I’ve got important say here but I remember Brooke telling me about the time when they had just the plain red cups and oof.” Scarlet let out grunt with a quirk to her lips.

“It was apparently a hell shift. It was my first day and we were unpacking the holiday cups and she was on edge about them being Christmas enough for ‘Mothers of two-point-five kids and their husbands to not throw hot coffee at her’ like they did the year before. And then I was like ‘are they gonna throw coffee at me?’ and she looked me up and down and said absolutely.” 

Scarlet threw her hair over her shoulder. “And they have.” 

Yvie nodded, running through the math in her head, the idea of Scarlet covered in scalding coffee occupying only a second. If Scarlet started after that whole red cup, war on Christmas thing, then she had been here for years. Literal years. Yvie couldn’t figure what she had to be doing all these years to have never seen her, never taken note of her. She was sure if Scarlet was there the whole time, for years, Yvie would have noticed, no? 

Especially with how notable Yvie found her. Yes, that was what she would stick with. Her little cropped fuzzy sweater and her high waisted jeans, the ponytail and pink speckled acrylic hoop earrings. Notable. 

“I used to work nights only,” Scarlet added, turning the coffee cup about, as though she could read Yvie’s mind. “Actually, nights and weekends.”

“Oh.” Yvie felt completely slack, heat prickling at her cheeks though Scarlet was still studying the cup. Like she’d been found out. Like Scarlet had some kind of intuition for when she was on someone’s mind. Like Yvie had to be careful of something. “I’m always just here at six.”

“I’ve noticed.” A lilting exhale. 

“I’m not sure how to make coffee merry…” She trailed off, placing the cup to the side and deciding that she’d “try her damndest to make all coffee merry.”

She paused as the spotted the last one, with green polka dots on the red background, mouth open in a little O as she held it up to Yvie, the side of her hand brushed against the collar of her silk blouse, the touch perfect and chaste and yet Yvie found herself dumbfounded by the closeness of Scarlet’s to her chest, even with so many degrees between them. “Oh this one is perfect. It’s the exact same color.” 

Yvie glanced down, fully unaware of what she was wearing. She usually just got up and threw something together from her closet, sure she didn’t indulge in enough variation for anything to clash with anything else. 

But it was a perfect match between the red of her blouse and the red of the cup. 

“Huh.” Yvie couldn’t pull enough words together, especially with how Scarlet lingered, though they already matched up the reds.

But she didn’t move and Scarlet didn’t move, so they lingered on like this for a moment, up until Scarlet tore herself away to dig through tall cups to find this exact design. 

“I just think it’d be perfect for you to have everything all matchy.” Scarlet finally retrieved it and rang her up. “Like, it’ll be a fashion moment, for sure.” 

Yvie didn’t bother fighting against Scarlet’s excitement anymore. Instead she watched on as she marked up the cup and got to making the latte, pressing her hip against the counter, feeling the padding of her winter coat sink inward, finding herself staring at Scarlet and her meticulous movements, but not bothering to correct her gaze.

“You know, usually I hate when people order extra shots in their lattes.” 

“Oh, really.” Yvie’s lips curled at their ends. “You hate it?” 

“Well…” Scarlet pondered. “I surely don’t like it.” 

“Scarlet, is this your way of trying to get me to try some new Christmas drink you’ve come up with?” 

“No.” She steamed the milk before ceding to Yvie’s suspicions. “That’s still in its prototype stages. It’s just so hard to make things really green, you know?” 

Yvie could only imagine what kind of flavor combination was giving Scarlet such difficulty with making it green, shuttering at the returning thought of Scarlet’s Halloween drink, the thought alone turning her stomach. 

“Yes, I do know.” 

“See, Pearl told me that it needs more food coloring and less peppermint and caramel, but I’m just starting to think ‘making things green is hard’ might just be a fact of life.” 

“Well, when it’s here and green, I’ll try it.” Yvie said, somewhat hoping it would never become green enough for her to try, somewhat hoping it would, just so she could see Scarlet that excited again. It was cute how much someone loved the holidays, enough to make a drink for their own workplace. “You know, to save you from making all those extra shots.” 

Scarlet waved her off before pouring the milk, wavering just so, espresso rippling to create a leaf. 

“Wow,” Scarlet whispered to herself, setting the pitcher down. “God, I’m good.” 

Yvie came in closer to look at it. And it was exquisite. It looked effortless. Scarlet covered it with a lid. 

“I’m not supposed to tell you this, but this is my favorite latte leaf in my favorite cup and you’re my favorite customer.” Scarlet pushed the coffee across the counter before tending to another customer, now waiting at the register. 

She took the latte into her hands, relishing the warmth still so apparent through the cardboard sleeve, so cozy in her hands as she prepared to face the elements one more, though as she glanced back out the window, the snow seemed to have slowed down in the time she was talking with Scarlet. 

She turned over the conversation once more, staring off, half interestedly watching some city workers wrap the scraggly little trees that lined the sidewalk, shooting up from their gravel filled grates, in Christmas lights. 

Scarlet had been here a long time. At least three years. Three years of her menial coffee job. Three years of children yelling about whipped cream and making extra shots and business men with no manners and watching coworkers like Brooke finally get their big break, a break she’d been waiting her whole life for, hoping endlessly that she’d get called back for some minor role and that she could spin it into a career. 

Yvie craned her head back toward Scarlet, who counted change at her register, handing the man a few loose bills and a handful of coins.

It had been years, and that woman still had the nerve to get excited about cups and holidays. She had the nerve to have favorite latte leafs and customers, and tell them about it. The nerve to believe they cared as much about her as she did about them. 

And Yvie did. She was sure of it now. There was no way not to care about a woman with such a divine combination of grit and tenderness.

As Yvie left the store, she caught Scarlet mouthing to her “not my favorite” while giving a snappy tilt of the head to the man who just paid for his coffee, her grin snarky.

Yvie was sure Scarlet was her favorite barista. 

***

“Did you know that the mermaid on the latte stick is called Melusina. Well, it’s the mermaid that’s everywhere, but it’s also on the latte stick, you know?”

Yvie, now sat on the edge of the counter—after Scarlet assured her over and over that it was fine, no one was going to see her, and if her manager did see and yelled about it, Scarlet would wipe off exactly where her butt was, should her butt not be clean enough for Starbucks standards—stopped fiddling with the Christmas mug filled with those little green sticks. 

“No, I…” Yvie pulled one out and studied it, rubbing her thumb over the plastic embossing. “How do you know that?” 

Scarlet shrugged, pouring an espresso shot into Yvie’s cup, which this time was a green one, as Yvie insisted she didn’t need Scarlet wasting cups looking for one that matched Yvie’s ‘vibe,’ before Scarlet reasoned the green one did in fact match her vibe if she closed one eye and looked at her at a forty-five degree angle. Yvie supposed this was how vibes were checked nowadays. 

“I don’t. I was totally just lying to you.” Scarlet glanced up at Yvie, flashing that mischievous look at her before adding another shot. “If you say anything with enough confidence, you can make anyone believe you. Even a lawyer extraordinaire like yourself.” 

Yvie chuckled, shifting around on the counter, accidentally kicking her briefcase resting on the ground over on its side. “Gosh, I must be losing my touch.” 

“I sure hope not, or else you’re never gonna be a woman of the law in this here town again.” Scarlet leaned forward across the counter, slipping into a thick southern accent with ease, words dripping like molasses. Yvie played with the splash stick, staring down at her lap to hide how the heat prickled in her chest. Scarlet was very talented. 

“Nope, I must be losing it. If one little Lettie can lie to me and get away with it, imagine how many bad guys can?” Yvie faked a sniffle and a quivering lip. “If my firm finds out, I’m surely done for. They’d fire me on the spot, surely.” 

Scarlet scoffed. “I hope not. I got a feeling I’d like you less when you’re not in that whole lawyer-pantsuit-heels getup you got going on.” 

Yvie then felt very conscious of her clothing, of every pinstripe on her charcoal gray pants, of the white, silky blouse, of Scarlet’s eyes clearly scanning her clothing at the same time she was. She wrung her hands together. 

“I’m kidding. Gosh.” Scarlet shoved at her shoulder. “I’d like you in anything, nothing, all the inbetween.” 

Before Yvie could process, Scarlet ran into her next sentence. “Besides, not that I know how to make it as an actress, but I wouldn’t give up my lawyer job to follow that spastic lip quiver, wherever you think it’s going.” 

She slapped a lid on the cup and haphazardly pushed it across the way to Yvie, then moving to fix her hair. “Here’s your latte, Yvie, Ms. Lawyer Extraordinaire.” 

“Please, I’m sure you know enough about how to make it as an actress.” Yvie accepted the drink, fiddling with the sleeve on her cup. She made no move to lift herself from the counter, pick up her briefcase, and go about her day. “I know you have it in you. I’m so sure everyone’s gonna see it soon enough. I believe it.” 

And she did. Yvie didn’t expend energy lying, gassing people up, stumbling around fragile feelings. She never had the time for it and knew she probably never would. They were new words to her, assuring someone that their superficially outlandish dreams weren’t actually outlandish, but they felt correct to say. They felt like the most honest sentence she could say to Scarlet as the barista fiddled with her hair, trying to fit it into a suitable bun with a pout struck across her lips. 

Scarlet huffed. “You believed me when I said the mermaid was called Melusina and then you believed me when I said I was lying.”

“What does that have to do with anything, Scarlet?” 

Scarlet took the splash stick from her hands as Yvie looked up, following her touch, only to find Scarlet with her hair down and draped over her shoulders, those brown curls haloed by a golden friz, resting against the deep plum of her knit sweater. She cursed her body for acting as though she never saw a woman’s hair before, for picturing how it would feel as she grazed it, how Scarlet could just melt at Yvie’s fingers against her scalp. 

She would curse her mouth later for how it opened, how her lips parted at the thought. 

“I’m just saying, you’ll believe anything I say, even if it’s just me being delusional and really thinking I’m going to make it.” Scarlet gave the splash stick back. “Also it really is called Melusina and you should actually believe that.” 

She placed her latte back down on the counter. “Scarlet, I really do think—” 

But she was cut off by her fumbling hands as she tried to stick the splash stick into her latte without holding the cup firmly, tipping it over with her course movements, scrambling to stand it upright as the latte spilled out. 

“Fuck,” Yvie groaned, trying to pull a fistful of napkins out of the dispenser. 

“Hey, it’s fine” Scarlet reached over to steady her hand. She took a cloth to the mess. “I’ll just make you another.” 

“No really, you don’t have to. I spilled it and there’s probably still a lot left and I don’t want to trouble you.”

Yvie tried to take the cup but Scarlet was quicker.

“No really. I want to.” Scarlet walked back over to the register and pulled out another cup. “And besides, if I don’t remake it, I’m gonna spend all day thinking about you how you don’t have your latte and I’m gonna be sad over it.” 

Yvie couldn’t argue for Scarlet being sad all day, especially if what could prevent that sadness was her getting to remake the latte. So she nodded, though she considered if Scarlet did think about her before deciding not to bother herself any longer with following such a silly train of thought. 

Scarlet handed her the new latte after sticking a splash stick in herself. “Because now I know you can’t handle the Melusina splash stick,” she teased. 

“I’m gonna handle the Melusina splash stick tomorrow.” 

“Yeah you sure are. And I’m gonna get cast.” Scarlet rolled her eyes and flicked a strand of hair over her shoulder. 

Yvie picked up her briefcase and turned to leave, tossing “You’ll see. It’ll happen.” over her shoulder as she walked out, surely not referring to the silly little splash stick. 

Upon taking a good look at Melusina, she now saw Scarlet wrote Yvie’s name with what had to be a heart. She could spend all day convincing herself otherwise, but that was a heart and the end of her name, small and filled in with black Sharpie. And she was very sure she was going to spend all day thinking about that. 

***

It was all wet. The clouds broke ever more, leaving the street slick and oily under lamps and strung up lights outside little bistros, against the roving reds and purples filtering through the window of the nightclub Yvie passed before crossing the street, shouldering people aside, hoping to get inside somewhere, hoping to charge her phone, call a cab, and forget this whole night had even happened. 

She pulled her trench coat tighter, cursing the flimsy fabric in the January chill. She hadn’t thought to dress warmer, walking down a now well worn path in her unsensible heels and smart black dress, feeling her feet soaking through as she dodged sidewalk grates. 

She was only thankful for the crowds and the downpour to hide her tears, to smear her makeup further, to allow her night—or what should have been her night of getting dinner with that girl from finance, maybe a few drinks afterward — blur into the collective night of Manhattan, filtering out of anyone’s care or consciousness but her own. 

She came past those same mirrored windows, tearing her gaze away when she saw her hair stuck to her forehead, how she shivered and looked so small in her coat. She kept walking until she landed on the Starbucks, the one she knew so thoroughly, knowing that it was a tad past closing time, but, God, she hoped the doors would open at her needy tug. 

They didn’t. It was locked. Barely past 10 p.m. and it was already locked.

Fuck. God fuck. She just wanted to charge her phone a bit, hail a cab, and maybe get in from the cold for a moment. But she shouldn’t have bothered in the first place. Or at the very least, she shouldn’t have waited for hours for her to show up, sipping water from a sweating tulip glass, obsessively checking her phone for a text, a call, anything, deleting old emails to pass the time between unanswered, frantic calls, until she was asked to give up her table, battery hovering around five percent, swallowing to keep her lip from quivering, unable to swallow back her hot tears the minute she left the restaurant. Fucking stupid.

“Yvie?” 

She looked up, meeting Scarlet’s concerned face, head tilted as she fiddled with the key to the door, unlocking it, pushing it open, and pulling Yvie inside by the arm. 

“What happened? You—” Scarlet looked her up and down from an arm’s length. Yes, it had to be bad.

“I just gotta charge… Can I charge my phone here?” Yvie paused. “Since when do you work nights?”

Scarlet didn’t answer. Instead, she wrapped an arm around her waist and lead Yvie over to the couch — this well worn cognac leather thing with a couple rips down the side, sat in front of the window — and lowered her down, resting her hands on Yvie’s shoulders, fiddling with the lapel of her coat before smoothing her shoulders. 

“You stay here and I’ll be right back, okay?” She waited for Yvie to nod before she scurried off behind the counter. 

“Can I charge my phone?” Yvie called back, feeling her voice waiver. It was even more apparent in the empty store, nothing more than two people and the sound of hot liquid hitting a paper cup, lifting her head to see Scarlet tearing open a tea bag and shoving it down into the water with a wooden stick.

Scarlet jogged on back to the sofa, swearing every time the water sloshed over the edge of the cup, and placed it down on the table before sitting next to Yvie on the couch. “Sorry, yeah I work closing on Saturdays and yeah of course you can. I have a charger somewhere, I just thought you’d like something to warm you up first. I didn’t know how you took your tea though so I—. 

As Scarlet rambled, Yvie found herself growing all the more worked up, as though her throat were swelling and her chest had this raging, prickling burn until she spilled over again, until she felt fat, hot tears running down her face, until she heard Scarlet mutter “oh no, Yves,” until she felt the soft, warm, faded cotton of Scarlet’s striped long sleeve shirt against her cheek and Scarlet’s arms wrapped around her waist, fingers interwoven and resting on her back, anchoring her down. 

She let out a heaving sob, but tried to pull away. It was pathetic. She was acting pathetic. But Scarlet wouldn’t let her go, just pulled her in again, shushing her as she cried. 

“It’s okay. You’re going to be okay.” Scarlet’s voice was smooth, soft, with the texture of a cello’s vibrato. “What’s wrong, Yvie?” 

“She didn’t show up.” Yvie mumbled against Scarlet’s shirt, sniffling. She was probably staining Scarlet’s shirt with her damn mascara. “She was supposed to show up and she didn’t.” 

“What happened?” Scarlet pressed her cheek against Yvie’s wet face, nearly speaking into her hair. “Who didn’t show up?”

“My date. She worked in finance. She was a friend of Silky’s friend. She just…” Yvie pulled herself back, tearing the heels of her hands across her eyes. “I waited hours and she never showed up and she never said why and I…” Yvie felt smaller now, sinking into her coat. She felt like a smashed porcelain doll, all shards where her body should have been. 

“Why didn’t she show up?” Yvie asked, much quieter now, like the words were cursed. They did haunt her though. Why didn’t she show up? “I just want to know why.” 

“Hey,” Scarlet soothed and took Yvie’s hands, now clenched, and smoothed them out, holding them in her own, resting their clasped hands in her lap. 

“Well, Yvie,” Scarlet began as Yvie looked down at her lap. “It could have been traffic. Or maybe a rogue taxi driver took her to Long Island by what had to have been a mistake or maybe some evil plot because, like, it’s Long Island. Or maybe her cat died? Does she even have a cat? Maybe she got stuck at work late? Does she work Saturdays? Or maybe her phone died too.” Scarlet gave her hands a squeeze. “You know, two people can have a dead phone at the same time. My phone’s probably dead right now.” 

Yvie giggled lowly. 

“But probably she got stuck in Long Island and she’s suffering double right now because she missed a date with you, and you know…it’s Long Island.” She laughed to herself and Yvie couldn’t help but join in, falling forward, shoulders shaking. 

“It’s the Florida of New York,” Yvie added meekly. 

“Please, it’s the Tampa, Florida of New York.” Scarlet laughed again at her own joke. “I don’t know if that’s worse. I don’t know a lot about Florida, but it sounds worse. I feel like shit happens in Tampa.”

Yvie couldn’t help but join her, couldn’t help but look up to capture the image of Scarlet’s joy in her mind’s eye, let it wash over her, let it wash over her thoughts, only allowing the pressing, increasingly present thought of Scarlet and how she wouldn’t have wanted to be here with anyone else, how thankful she was that she answered the door, how she couldn’t picture enjoying her date more than she enjoyed Scarlet.

And she was staring at her lips, Scarlet’s lips, with their ChapSticked sheen, as she spoke. And her hands were in Scarlet’s. Oh, how she did that thing with her thumb, as though she could ease all of Yvie’s pain with a gentle massage to the knuckle, as though that was where the hurt was, just like she did when she’d just been dumped, months ago. She couldn’t have remembered how it calmed her, that metronomic, even touch, how it eased her hurt with its ceaselessness. And yet, if anyone would remember, it was Scarlet. 

It was always Scarlet, wasn’t it? Why was she fucking around with some other date, some woman who worked in finance, when the best part of her day was sitting right in front of her, holding her hands, rambling on about how Florida alligators probably got to Long Island via underground sewer channels that spanned the entire east coast.

“Scarlet?” Yvie pulled a hand out of Scarlet’s grasp to rest it on her leg, taking Scarlet out of her speech. 

She snapped down to stare at her hand before meeting Yvie’s gaze again, failing miserably to hide the blush that had spread across her cheeks, right up to the tip of her sculpted nose, illuminated by the string lighted trees and their honeyed light filtering through the window and the flush of the lamps flanking the couch. 

“Yeah?” 

Yvie swallowed. “May I…” She shook her head a tad. “Fuck, I—” 

“Hey, it’s fine,” Scarlet said, rubbing Yvie’s shoulder, water still beading on the sleeve of her jacket. She rested her hand on her forearm. “We don’t have to talk about tonight anymore. It’s all fine, Yvie.” 

“No, it’s just.” Yvie pushed her hair away, leaving her fingers caught in her still dripping hair, heavy sigh escaping her parted lips. She locked eyes with Scarlet. “You make every day better. You make all my days better. Every morning I start with you is better and every day after is better. Even rotten, horrible days are better. And just… I just want more of that. I want more of you.” 

“Scarlet.” She pulled her hand out of her hair and placed it over her and Scarlet’s interlocked hands, wrapping herself around them. “Can I kiss you?” 

Scarlet pressed her lips together, closing her eyes and exhaling into a smile. She nodded eagerly, so Yvie brought her hand to cradle Scarlet’s face, fingers grazing her jaw, thumb swiping across her cheek. Scarlet’s eyes roamed, first to their hands, still connected, still in Scarlet’s lap, then around the store and through the window, then back to Yvie. Yvie was sure she was looking directly at her now. 

“What are you looking at?” Yvie ended with a hum, leaning in closer. Their legs brushed together. 

Scarlet’s free hand shifted from Yvie’s arm to rest on her hip, teasing at the knit fabric of her dress. “I’m just taking it all in, is all.” She halted her movement, tilting her head back down to look at her lap. “Just… I’ve been here before, wanting you to kiss me for a while. And now it’s real.” 

Yvie now rubbed over Scarlet’s knuckles with her thumb, watching her chin tilt up to release a breathy giggle, like rings of smoke floating into the air. “It’s real, Scar.” 

With that, she captured Scaret’s open lips with hers, feeling Scarlet’s hand inch upward to rest on her waist as she deepened the kiss, feeling Scarlet’s hair brush against her neck, feeling her nose against her own, feeling Scarlet’s fingers stretch in their interlocked hands before gripping tighter in an attempt to pull her closer, like she was hers. And she was. 

They parted, foreheads still touching, fingers still intertwined. Yvie pressed her lips against Scarlet’s once more. 

“I—” Scarlet began, eyes still closed for a moment, breathing still deep and calm, fingers pressed so ardently into Yvie’s waist. 

“I want to be with you,” Yvie cut her off, letting her hand fall from Scarlet’s cheek to play with a tendril of Scarlet’s hair, fitting it between her thumb and index finger. 

Scarlet mashed her lips together before responding softly, her voice plush and full. “I want that too. I want to be with you too.” 

Upon hearing that, upon processing that Scarlet wanted her as well, that she was wanted, the severe elation of being wanted after being so aggressively unwanted moments ago, how her slick coat and soaked hair reminded her as much, she broke their hands apart and grabbed Scarlet roughly by her hips, pulling her into her lap and kissed her again and again and again, kissed until it all felt well-worn and new in the same breath, until all Yvie wanted to do was fit her chin on Scarlet’s shoulder and revel in the closeness she’d wanted for so long in the exact spot she’d wanted it. 

They sat together, the hours passing, thin as gossamer, fractured only by their words and the smattering of rainfall outside, far too intimate in the empty room to be anything but whispered, if for nothing but the reassurance that they were theirs and only theirs, openly, finally, and ceaselessly.

Reviews On Blk Dating App

BlackPeopleMeet review will help you knowing some important criteria, including features, pros, cons and more Read our experts and customers reviews, compare with other dating sites and apps or find an alternative. For Black & Interracial Dating. Elite Singles doesn’t share its membership demographics, but we’re willing to bet it has a sizable African-American following. As a general dating site and app, Elite Singles supports a diverse crowd of singles with different backgrounds and values — but very similar life goals.

Reviews On Blk Dating App Reviews

Blk Dating App Online

Lia & Fahad

Zoosk inactive profiles. On the whole, the process of online dating is a great thing.

Singles dress up their bios with pithy zingers in an attempt to match with other bae-less individuals. Sometimes this pairing leads to an awkward exchange. Or, if both parties skip the coy act, it leads to a pre-first date.

Plenty of Fish Online Dating Women Not to Date List updated their profile picture. April 10, 2017 If you have had a bad experience with an individual on the Plenty of Fish online dating site, please JOIN THE YOUTUBE GROUP and add their user name and help guys everywhere out. Why online dating is good. It’s interesting how, with certain patterns, you can make a great online dating profile.I spoke with Whitney Perry, the founder of the Single Online Dating Guide, who shared a great analogy.If you are wearing a dress that has zippers up the side, you can show what the dress looks like in a different way to different people by zipping it up a bit. What to say online dating first message examples. Online dating to do the job. Your credit can never be overlooked when paying for your dream date. And you can always share what you have to offer – be it a good job, professional skills, bank balance or kids. Because dating is meant to be fun. Never online date on an office computer: Keep your personal life and your office life separate. Remember you company will have access to anything you do on their equipment. Don’t get seduced in online “shopping”: Beware of juggling too many people at the same time. While it’s perfectly okay to go slowly and initially see more than one. Dating can be expensive, and no guy wants to break the bank and go to fancy. Online dating do not date list.

As a black woman, however, trying to find love online isn't so simple. I've hit a few road blocks.

You see, it's an established fact that dating for black women is terrible. On dating apps, which were created to increase the chance of finding love, prejudice abounds.

OkCupid data shows that 82 percent of non-black men are prejudice against black women in some form, and I've found that to be true. My non-black friends typically receive right swipes from every Tom, Dick and Harry. Meanwhile, I can only guarantee matches with the Jamals and Akeems of the online dating world.

It's no secret Bumble and the like are largely used by non-black romance-seekers, therefore my chances of finding the one, if I want a black husband, are slim. This trend also makes BlackPeopleMeet, SoulSwipe and BAE (Before Anyone Else), a new dating app specifically made for people of color, absolutely necessary.

Brian Gerrard created BAE in April 2015 (along with his brother Justin and friend Jordan Kunzika) after seeing the racial disparities in digital dating. Scarred from their own letdowns, they wanted to stack the odds in favor of black singles.

Because of a few failed rounds of my own with Plenty of Fish, I'm averse to finding a boo online. Still, I downloaded the app to see if I had a better chance of snagging an eligible suitor.

As I expected, matching was easy.

The 'find a bae' formula? Spot a fine guy and swipe right. Sprawled across my bed, I signed up via my Facebook profile and the app automatically plugged in four profile pics. I don't know how BAE knew to use my super-cute selfies, but I wasn't complaining.

Basic stats like the city I live in, my age and occupation were also automatically filled in. I skipped over the whole 'witty bio' thing, then got back into the groove and browsed through my colorful options.

I was looking for medium brown-skinned cuties who were at least 5-foot-10 and had decent jobs. I'm also a sucker for well-lit photos and a smile. If you can't even find good lighting, a date with me certainly can't save you.

After I swiped on a few fellas I thought would be entertaining, it didn't take long for the match notifications to start rolling in. There were also a few non-people of color profiles, like one from a Channing Tatum lookalike I swiped right on. But, mostly I stuck to swiping right on black men.

Silver singles dating site cost. Altogether, I racked up 28 matches over two days. Not too shabby.

But, the messages were still awkward.

There I was, poised to reply to 28 matches I'd gotten based on mindless right-swiping.

I wasn't necessarily shocked at the amount of replies, though, because connecting with black men online is truly as simple as the click of a button. The problem boils down to interest beyond superficial physical attraction, like a connection based on chemistry and correctly spelled words.

Reviews On Blk Dating App Reviews

Most conversations started off as casual small talk, but quickly became banal. The worst of them revealed just how awkward and unfunny men can be toward women they don't know.

Don't get me wrong, some standout guys were pleasantly sweet. But, the fact is, I just don't enjoy inorganic interactions. I prefer reading a person's vibes IRL, striking up an easy exchange over Jameson shots or meeting in the pasta aisle at Whole Foods.

Additionally, men tend to be way more predatory behind the safety of a computer screen, which completely turns me off to digital dating.

Ultimately, I want to find bae offline.

While I love the fact that black women have tailored dating options with this app, it's just not my thing.

Online dating, as an idea, is cool. Even Twitter can double as a dating site if you play your DMs right. But, the cheesy lines about how gorgeous I am and the guy who spelled 'together' as '2gether' reaffirmed my deep disdain for finding a mate online.

If I have to weed out f*ckboy BS, I prefer to do it in person. However, if I ever venture back to the Internet for a date, I'll stick to the kind (like BAE) with less racial bias.

Blk Dating App Online

Overview

BLK is a newcomer in the world of online dating, which aims at creating a friendly and genuine community for black women and men to connect based on kindred interests and likes. The community of black is full of different characters, and the BLK was designed with this thing in mind. You can take advantage of this dating app to get in touch with like-minded people and find your connections.

Since its launch and introduction on the market, the BLK dating app has evolved and grown its user base, which is elite to black singles living in Canada and the United States. Thanks to its stringent registration procedure, you are certain that the majority of its users are authentic and have quite genuine intentions for using the app.

You were wondering how does BLK work? Just like most other dating apps available out there on the market, all you need to do is to swipe right if you like someone or swipe left if you don’t like it. You can even tweak settings for what and who you’re looking for. If your interest is to meet black singles, then it’s definitely the right choice to find your connection and start chatting with other like-minded singles. For that, all you have to do is to BLK app download today to explore who’s around you and looking for matches like you. One thing is certain that BLK experience will be great for you if you would like to meet and connect with black singles near you.

answer in the form of an answer, part 25.

Does music have a big influence on your life? Your answer: Yes Answers you’ll accept: Yes | No Importance: Very This sonofabitch app didn't let me enter an explanation alongside my answer, and I'll be damned if I let something go unexplained. (...Hmm.) ANYWAY: Yes. Not that my ambition is to be a musician or anything. (Although, real talk - I did spend an inordinate amount of time on eBay eying SP404s and MPC 1000s, because I are one.) No, I just like music, and I hope that you do as well. (Aside: I don't necessarily buy into the idea of shared musical interests being the end-all, be-all of things. While I certainly understand that it's useful in some respects (mostly functioning as a proxy in regards to the other person's general likes, dislikes, tastes, etcetera), it does have its limitations. Very specifically, if you and a potential match like all the same things, what incentive is there to explore anything new? (I'm just sayin'.) (That more people should listen to jazz.) (as of the time of this writing, i have 28 posts in my drafts. however, tumblr only lists 27 of them, and it is bothering me to NO end that i can’t get the 28th one to appear. the first time i noticed it, i legit thought i had skipped over it, and so i added the missing post to the top of my drafts, and then it automagically appeared where it was supposed to be. and yet, i remove the duplicate draft post, and the original one fucking disappears.) (wordpress is looking better and better by the DAY.) any other day, i would comment on the whole MPC thing, but i want to go a slightly different direction for tonight, so here’s a (hopefully) really brief comment: i still don’t have a musical bone in my body, still have no real interest in becoming a musician in any real capacity, and yet i still want to buy a MPC, just to fuck around with it. (in all honesty, it would probably be more productive for me to buy a pair of turntables and a mixer, and practice making my own mixes, similar to the ones that i constantly watch on youtube, since listening to mixes is probably more my speed these days, and a not-insubstantial part of me misses the days when i spent hours making mix CDs for myself.) (for the record, it’s worth watching/listening to the whole thing from the start, but the beat that starts at 15:22 has been permanently burned into my mind.) (...actually, that was pretty brief by my standards, so well done, me!) the “slightly” different direction: as i mentioned in a previous post (maybe - i no longer have any idea if the thing i’m referencing is in a published post, or in a draft somewhere, because i tend to work on those concurrently), i have a stack of these things queued up so that i can have them ready to go when it’s time to post my two for the day, so that i can keep this train chugging along. most of the time, after posting, i go through my drafts and prewrite commentary on at least two more, just so that that becomes one less thing to worry about on the subsequent days. last night, however, i found myself not as inspired to sit down and prewrite something, because...i honestly don’t know. that happens sometimes - back when i was actually taking writing much more seriously, trying to publish actual novels and shit, i’d encountered the dreaded writer’s block, as one does, and eventually found that the only way through was to sit my ass down and just power through with whatever garbage that i could pass from my mind through my hand through the pen onto the page. (despite my newfound proclivity for writing on a laptop, i’m still a longhand writer at heart - nothing gets me going more than a cute face and cute butt a yellow legal pad and my tactile turn pens..) (...i mean, also that striked-through thing, but...well, i have said to myself on numerous occasions that masturbation and writing are essentially the same thing, given a long-enough timeline, so...) ANYWAY. i thought about doing just that (the second thing, not the first thing) (i do the first thing on my own time, thank you very much - mostly when i wake up in the morning, or as part of a midafternoon break from the day job (because working from home is some other shit, my nigga), or right before i go to sleep, or basically whenever the mood strikes me, apparently) (also once in a sleeping bag during a camping trip, but we don’t talk about that), just to have something substantial to post, because...well, it kinda feels like i’ve already set a bar for myself with these things, adding an additional 800-1000 words to each question as commentary, and i felt like i would feel bad if i didn’t continue that. and yet? yesterday, just couldn’t do it. couldn’t find the motivation. instead, i jumped onto OKC to peruse profiles*, and then i came across two profiles that...well, we’ll get to that. first one goes up tomorrow, i promise. it’s...it’s a thing. and that thing was probably the most substantial bit of writing (if we can charitably call it that) outside of these individual posts that i’ve done in a long while. it actually wasn’t until today that i realized that i was putting those aforementioned 800-1000 words per post (on average) - i’ve been posting every day since february 21st, and i’ve actually made it a priority to carve out time each night to JUST** sit down at this laptop and bang out these words, and post them, for basically only me to see at this point, but even still - an audience of me is still an audience. i think i’m kindasorta taking this seriously, in other words. and i notice that things tend to happen when i take writing seriously. not just*** with the writing itself, but in other aspects of my life. the universe’s way of telling me something, i guess. the universe’s way of telling me that i should be DOING something very specific, i suppose. today, 3.4.21, two interesting things happened to me - one in my professional life, and one in my personal life. now, i’m not quite ready to talk about either one, 1) partly because i’m afraid of jinxing it, as i’m prone to do, and 2) because it honestly would be premature to talk about either before anything of substance occurred (one doesn’t start for two months, while the other just started - i’ll let you decide which is which), but my takeaway for right now is that it’s so incredibly FASCINATING what happens to me when i take writing seriously, because the last time i did so, i moved my entire life to new york, and for the most part, that worked out pretty fucking well. as i love to say, “let’s see what happens”. wish me luck. *in another post, i may or may not have mentioned that i use the word “just” a lot. (also “vis-a-vis”, as you’ve probably noticed. now that i see it, i certainly can’t unsee it.) if i didn’t: i use “just” A LOT. this asterisk marks the FIFTH such instance of me removing a “just” from a draft. there’s no real way to have known this without me telling you, or you seeing the original first draft, but good lord - i really DO use the fuck out of “just” when writing. i even accidentally used it when typing out the previous sentence, and it didn’t even make any contextual sense to be there! i just having fucking “just” on the mind! **fuck it - i’m going to capitalize, bold and italizice every single instance of “just” that i come across moving forward. not sure if i’ll learn anything from it, but i guess we’ll see if shame actually has no real effect on me, or if this JUST (...fuck) becomes another thing that i make into a very unfunny running gag, like i have a habit of doing. ***to clarify, the previous point, ONLY when it makes no contextual sense, and is just a placeholder. it makes sense in this context, so it can stay.

6 Things I Currently Hate on the Internet 😠😤😡🤬

These topics based on the internet that i have observed for many years including pop culture. Anyway, those are just my personal thoughts that may find to be “TRIGGERING”

1. Tik tok

Tik tok is one of the most popular apps in the end 2010s. It looks similar like Musica.ly Everytime when i watch this stupid shit compilation like dance, challenge or viral on Twitter, Instagram and Youtube, it makes me cringe all the time. The majority of tik tok users what i have seen are kids and teenagers or even called Gen Z.  I really don't understand why they are become famous because of tik tok like dance inappropiately frequently for underage, unfunny jokes, etc. even though they come from nothing. I also have a friends, and cousins who have a tik tok, then upload that video through Instagram stories, but sorry i don't watch it because i'm not interested, so i just skip it.

Thank god I don’t have a Tik Tok because i am absolutely loathe this app, and don’t want get into make the content such as challange (i.e. emo, barbie girl), and cringy dance to get a viral and views. When i make that content, it feels like i’m living with the wrong generation. (Whoops)

2. Social Justice Warrior (SJW)

This is the most atrocious I have ever seen in my entire life. It appears on Twitter. eveytime i scroll timeline on Twitter, it is full of anger, war, hatred, debate, and drama. Mostly, people tweet about religion, culture, feminism, politics, economics, and viral gone wrong. But OMG, most of the time, they're completely not constructive criticsm. It's like they don't want to be accepted or don't appreciate and scramble their opinion with somebody else. Of course, they treat their opinions as a facts. Then, i'll be like "fuck them, you need to find your hobby and stop making a war with somebody else that you don't know that person on Twitter". Of course, SJW needs to get a life and log out Twitter, so don't be outrageous.

3. Cancel Culture

When i pop up in my head, cancel culture be like “you’re cancelled”. Cancel culture is like especially for public figures including celebrities, influencers and politicians are exposed problematic to make a statements like homophobic/transphobic, assault cases, allegations, body-shaming, slut-shaming racist jokes, rape jokes, playing victims, supporting each other that people dislike, and many more whether in the past or present. When it comes out that problematic, eveybody rants them which is true or not, and then use that term “cancelled” or hashtag #isoverparty in Twitter to avoid public figures to stop being act so innoncent. It’s very fucked up for me Not only that, but also it’s so annoying if everbody says “you’re cancelled”. If  i was public figure for being called “cancelled”, i feel like i want to go  jump off the cliff and never want to see that term again. 

4. Beauty Standards

There are people mostly girls when you were born being ugly and insecure, you want to be perfect and glamorous like celebrities, and models on advertisement, magazine and Instagram. In Asian country especially my country, Indonesia,  there are so many beauty standards like for girls, like  you have to be fair skin, straight hair, curve body but not super skinny. And then, you don’t have to wear fully makeup like a clown, you have to look stay natural and glowing face without a makeup, for example wear a skincare. In contrast, if you have a dark/brown skin and curly hair, people probably think that you look ugly, trash, and stink. It shit happening, trust me. I mean, the majority of Indonesian people have natural brown and yellow skin, so  if they want to be fair skin like western people, they have to use skin whitening for face and body to make look bright. 

But not only that, in western country like US and UK, i found that they want to have full lips like lip filler, huge ass and tits from implants, tan skin by using a spray/lotion tan although white people’s skin are pale, botox, flat abs from liposuction, and skinny like Victoria Secret’s model or curvy like Beyonce, Rihanna and Nicki Minaj.

Besides that, another Asian country like South Korea, i found that mostly celebrities like boy/girlbands. and actors have had a plastic surgery to make look famous. There also found that korean people want to be super skinny like kpop idols, They should follow strict diet. And then, they want to have a light skin by using a skin whitening, they want to make a glowing face with using a skincare which is booming in korea. And don’t forget, they have to wear a full makeup, so they look more beautiful. In korean culture, their parents want to children to get a plastic surgery as a gifts if they have a good grades. Basically, korean people were born to be ugly face, so they have to get plastic surgery like make a doube eyelids, a big rounded eyes, a pointed nose. a v-shaped chin,and a slim jaw.

The reason why i hate is because it makes me feel more insecure, worthless and uncomfortable with my own skin. I just want to no longer follow their society like beauty standards. Beauty standard is should be not existed. It needs to go away, and needs to be stopped. I mean everybody looks beautiful not for me, but to all of you. Everybody need to be beautiful not only the outside but also the inside. You don't have to follow that standards including beauty that would be necessary cool, i promise.

I have to admit, my skin tone medium, not too fair or too dark. I am still using whitening lotion to exfoliate and to remove sunburn. Then, my face look chubby and i have a double chin, i wear a glasses. i have a fat tummy even though i am not a chunky not very slim. i have a hairy hands, armpits, stomach and legs. My mom won’t let me shave them because they will grow someday. 

5. Instagram vs Reality 

When i follow account including @Celebface, and @exposingcelebsurgery. I observed that comparing with celebrities, models, and influencers’ real photos or fake with using photoshop. Instagram VS Reality is absolutely garbage. Take a look at celebs’ photo everywhere with full editing like face,hips,ass, etc to make look professional.But in reality, they look different not  look like which is totally catfishing. Sadly, the cringiest part is there is analyze the angle with the wrong well-shaped. I mean when you look at the view of the background, you can see the curve appears that seems unprofessional, that is what i called failed photoshop. 

I don’t mean to blame photoshop, but it is so overused. The reason why i don’t like this is because it is full of manipulative for celebrities, models and influencer to make it look sexier than real life.  It makes me want to delete my instagram account and never want to see that again. 

6. Toxic fandoms in music community

Be a fandom is fun, and wonderful .But Hey!  Look at my Tumblr, Weheartit, and Pinterest, i have so many photos which include my favorite bands or actors. I’m also huge fan of the band particularly, rock bands and K-pop idols. 

However, sometimes being fandom is being toxic, overly defensive, and delusional.  The reason why i called toxic fandoms is because mostly they are intolerable, immature and annoying. Oh yeah, the similarity of toxic fandoms is called crazy stans. For example,when someone (hater or not) dislike an idol or band, crazy stans started trolling like send a death threats like “hope you get chocked”, "hope you'll die", “you need to go fuck yourself”, and many more. Also, when someone being called a fake fan because they know one or two songs on the radio or TV, they don’t like idols’ new song which is totally different then or support their relationship go public. Otherwise, they are very disrespectful with their idols' privacy, such as stalking at their house or hotel for almost 24 hours. PRIVACY IS A MUST. IDOLS ARE JUST HUMAN BEING. And you know the worst part is that when an idol is dead, they are extremely freak the hell out, they tend to commit suicide which is really dangerous so they want to meet their idol in afterlife. 

Based on my thoughts, being a fan with your favorite idol is the most precious thing. I would love to be a fans with the bands/idols but i don't want get involved be part of crazy stans. Like i said, they are not intolerable and delusional.

That's the end of my writing about six things that i hate. You may think that after you read this, you'll be like "damn, you're so hater, you're so jealous, and you're so bitter". Ugh shut up.

💰💦💪How To Make More $$$ With These Freelancer Apps + Websites w/ 208 Monkeys' Damian Alpizar

Episode Sponsors below** Damian Alpizar is a director, producer, writer, photographer, editor, podcast host of The Wrap Party, and owner of 208 Monkeys, a video, film and animation production company in Ybor City, Tampa, FL.

🎧 iTunes http://bit.ly/sweatequitypodcast 🎧 Laughable http://bit.ly/2k7y6Ff 👓 Facebook facebook.com/SweatEquityPodcast 👓 Youtube http://bit.ly/swequityyt

Grasshopper, the virtual phone system.  Sweat Equity listeners save $50 when they sign up using the special link  TryGrasshopper.com/sweat

John Jacobs album, Summer at Southside  https://bitly.is/2p96enf

Nick Hoff's album, Baby Daddy https://goo.gl/oZo6it

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT VIA DRAGON DICTATE

 Yes now you see the red light damage rely guys right I feel and get himself I like doing this little tease music and beginning now just before you really start to get a vibe going you know like foreplay if when are you today that yeah you play the role of my wife in a sitcom study that that set up just got done talking on them and let her we just got done talking about but we may have to get an apartment together because were nerdy out so much because were working so hard yeah yeah that's it but let's do no support the sponsors that support the show right back of like this if you like this podcast were trying to give you the pragmatic advice we stumbled upon via conversation or interview and so why not when I have a business line you know when I have a good app that is your business line not not don't go to Verizon go hey I need a second line added here's why did you get confused when it was on call it love it when idiots like that come in right in your call be like you do the joke I like to do you say no limit studios you know that's a funny answer quote unquote when someone when someone calls my personal line but now my business line so when people call business line we have say talk about your consulting no or we share the business line yeah you have the app you have the same line I do it's scalable so let's get some grasshopper action going on the virtual phone system you need to get for your business to eight monkeys.com let's get creative but our listeners get $50 off if they get a trygrasshopper.com/sweat let's TryGrasshopper.com/sweat and that's… Like Nelly Furtado in your favorite dude I don't remix like I'm not a good DJ but I am good at telling about good abs grasshopper the entrepreneurs phone Ray get this thing going and my dad is the thank you grasshopper hello we'll talk later a minute and a three and a two and a body chatty you love that love it I love it I love it why because I hated you I do I got there David yeah hey got new this thing will come in handy liberty do many episode today we've got some in the hopper coming up because I listen to a lot of podcasts and I hate when they just take the holidays office I do bake couple episodes so I was on my friend Krishna readies just tube which is science with a comedic kind of taste on it little approach to that Sweden's first one in here so it look very similar this set up when you see it if you want to watch a video and then we gotta do to two freebie shout outs to come to sponsors John Jacobs comedian buddy of our our program of cigar city comedy in this the Tampa Bay area he's got an album out called some Summers Southside we got a huge argument last night if you look up on iTunes I said he had to redo his album art because it has McDonald's logos as the atoms of what was the argument yeah it's like he doesn't want to change it so I was shot often to vehicles look at Jacobs do like this not an argument you have to do it he's here claiming parity law I said parity laws fine but Bill do a cease-and-desist and then by the time you figure it out it will be here at least that those that become like great marketing then because he's got like this to make it talk about so negative I will be to do that so I said if you have an organic audience and then you make it a big shade about it then yes that would be fine he doesn't have that you have a big enough audience for that to create like a crazy fervor on Twitter or whatever and then on the other side he does have the money for PRT and really execute that it's one of the other would come back from it so yeah just like because I feel like some of these PR like spats the really kinda calculated you know you were to do this on Tuesday morning because that's gonna be the album he dropped album on a Sunday Lord's day every album comes out on a Tuesday so I like that still exist yeah me anything about got drop bombs on Tuesday so you do on a Tuesday same it I think some people don't but same logic with movies so they did it on Fridays because you want the box office for the weekend they kept creeping back you want to get the midnight showing's accounts towards your first weekend all that stuff Tuesdays you do it so it has like a ripple effect throughout the week so a bunch of people bide on to say the big fans and then that'll have like a snowball fight for more people to hear about it more people to buy it Tuesday seem to be that's going to go away doesn't seem to me is that you still standard the right yeah but you know him say like it's not that you look at the physical CD copy but he does have some funny he does have some funny stuff and that's another interview we have banked that were to put on I go through Facebook I do like the music it's funny it's good it's really funny I I thought it was gonna be like really esoteric garbage and he did what I want to I don't like giving the confidence you do love you do love the very Tim and Eric that would be so yeah I would love to be Simon Rex turning into dirt nasty work be a rapper as a big show in a bisexual and right if this is what you know he is he is yeah sure no legislation so the other one hour another shot I will give is another comedian buddy Nick Cortes now will now check it out on Amazon and in iTunes as well give let give us a five star review give them a five star review all that should really help sets a cheat code like creep creep up the rankings so now that's out of the way yeah and half my body I used to tour with a love you know him and I will meet we get a lot of arguments but I still love him like a brother and he's opening for Foxworthy and Larry the cable guy over the country and cool which is cool but that is I see them big names but say what you I know I don't know say what you will about the those flavor of comedians by you know those guys have a crazy work ethic and you don't really get that good by being unfunny I think they chose a path of what yeah exactly latest decided they can just go right down that narrow little Foxworthy used to work at IBM smart noon that's Larry the cable guy from this area yeah yeah Hilda now cable guy surprises what yet when his accents fake to people it's an act I know that but I don't think everybody else does dude I was told some last night 1/3 of the country doesn't care about jokes feeling like no most the countries I am care but what's funny and so are just as like the other guys that is creative that's that's the property you know all that kind of stuff what what we want to get into we had some I told you to Cork until we started deeming outputs are what the net neutrality others mean there's that mean that that's a big thing right now especially a man much on a harp and be like oh no net neutrality is completely horrible I mean I understand why some corporations like hey look we need to you know what is it for about wondering what okay will net neutrality and and and and and I'm trying to existing not skip and jump all over the place I'm also directing over here because it's got some with me was got some weird angles that is trying to jump to the wife it is had to do it yourself well you know how it would please the showoffs yes director heads it's like picking want to keep talking people's heads it now it's the Meebo's fault now you claim in the I am or what I am I am you had I am totally annoyed by no no no you didn't I see nothing episodes and he just get head chopped off quite a bit so no so one of things what net neutrality in an in layman's terms is that originally the Internet was supposed to be like the information as long as you're going through an ISP it was all treated equally no matter what band with you so if you are going with streaming nine porn videos at one time if you streaming nine porn videos at one time or if you're just putting up some text you got equal pager you paid your ISP you got through it you you you you pay for your band with and you can use have been with as as needed the analogy that I saw on Forbes I believe was shelving on in a supermarket where you know you people in retail they pay for in a preferred shelving and pervert space in the supermarket to consumer preferences and consumer preferences pay more its dynamic pricing you pay more to be on the in At a grocery store I'm kind of obsessed with I like a lot of that stuff like will the serial killer existing to pay a lot more to be on the in because you impulsively get Cocoa crispies or whatever they remember the commercial where the guy was walking squatted down and there's trying to sell that bag cereal on the bottom of the shelf whole gimmick was that he was walking real short and that's alien pay extra for literary people don't want to bend over so that the loan literally they don't exist at all know that serial anywhere you and then a new answer and then they do the reverse one now were people now know to go down to the lower floor so this like the pen ultimate the one that's just off that I noticed that the other day the frosted flakes like on the bottom like the that will be going on on the bottom if there was a printed Lord of the frosted flakes on the bottom because kids can reach and grab it and put in the car they want to put those were dry it can grab it like I did grab the process of the worst box sometimes is the not the bottom but right above that and then ultimate the top because most people can't grab the stuff on the top so so you just cook is like I do that sometimes my I don't have I got like T Rex arms like the you know when you do this you do your wingspan does and how tall it mine site I be like a midget is essentially really worth excuse me little little human could to sell yourself short arms how much shorter are the now I don't know not much but it's alligator arms measure that and I always do the debate like I get someone from Publix over here now just get the thing I don't want to try to there house been what is never seen convenience be such a big part of business dynamics now because it used to be used to be price or uniqueness right does work on it right here and now convenience, in the middle of that yet convenience time time is to be the big thing but now it's now convenient as it is another big factor that's all was basically happening is that but you see stores have limited space they have square walls they have an area that they have to stay within so you can charge more for premium space and things of that nature but when you come to the Internet which doesn't have any limitations as to realistically does have a notation it and you can't say that oh you're running out of space on the Internet or speed on the Internet really you're not so what is happening is that now the ISPs can say hey you know what Netflix you've got a whole lot of people using your stuff were going to charge you more to access and push through intern human Netflix obviously being a corporation is going to just eat that cost are going to raise their price and that consumers will not have to for Netflix get more but here's the problem is that let's say Disney is getting ready to do their streaming service right and they strike a deal you already know the disease try to strike a deal by Fox what if they struck a deal with Verizon and say guess what will make sure that all of our streaming services only go through Verizon network so if you're on the spectrum or another network of any type now you can get the Disney streams of youth the log on to their that particular ISP provider to get that because now does he like okay well you can go with you guys versus because you guys giving us the better deal for the band with you giving us your giving us a better deal for Ben with will go you guys that that the blocks out the other guys now Netflix is only available in one versus it being neutral were all of them are treated the same and anyone and as a consumer we can pick and choose and just let the free market that neutrality I thought it was reverse of what you think it is by the name you want net neutrality want not want all you want to want to be neutral yet you want you want all the ISPs to treat all of the providers equally no matter how much popularity and that their business doing great you don't want them to say hey by the way you got a great service right to charge more for now the rock is a problem with that is that everybody says all man net neutrality site will note that the the law against it whatever that so that the problem is that whoever branded this did a really good job yeah fuses me every time I listen to it I hear it my lizard brain goes what should be neutral and then I think I don't know like what you want and I want it over the Internet will be free market and then like and I have to remember that it's not admit it's not at first blush what you think it is and if you like work in this world a little bit or a lot I'd say I feel like the generation older than us supercomputer I'm sure there's so many complaint letters that went in that said get rid of that neutrality and they think they're wanting one thing when there now well then yeah that means probably get it had to happen to his I hear it all the time and and and it could be confusing because you have to look at it and say okay why do I want all of my providers to be treated equally will you want them to be treated equally so that when it's up to their service to you that's going to determine how successful they are you want to be a matter of that they made a deal in the back in with somebody and now all of a sudden because they made a deal they blocked out competition and that's the problem that you're running into situation were now corporations are deciding what can be the better service for you to have and your internets can go out so we are to go up it's weird that in all, revolves around corporate consolidation because I do not feel so that John Oliver piece couple weeks ago is great iconic explain like every big business in the United States is all corporate consolidation like so therefore ISP there's a for Internet people you can choose from basically Google fiber tried to get in the market it you literally have to lay fiber down like there's fiber that goes from from the East Coast United States across to Europe like there's little I know it's crazy that's so crazy sitting on the ocean floor there's good Michael Lewis I was called flash boys about how these guys manipulated the market because they could get I have second faster from the Chicago trade to where the servers were so that Chicago's marketplace Star Trek stock marketplace Jesus Christ to New Jersey that so it's all about this guy like train the pipeline through Pennsylvania Mountains and stuff to get 1/2 second faster made boot two dollars because their Internet connections faster essentially airlines right it's all it's all an oligopoly I get a lecture from my good buddies because I went on a rant couple years goes like it's all godly man like preach price fix how many airlines are there the four right Southwest Delta American United maybe I think we only fly spirit because my wife is cheap that doesn't really count as that's like Greyhound that people bring on like Phil and Joe Stelzer L no not wearing shoes and chickens flying around inside then they charge you for like headphones that you brought so like what happens is with the net neutrality stuff this year for providers right it's like a double flock of us think about it so you only have for you we have most places you have one or two to pick from the United States Internet wise right and then from there now were seen the Disney fox probable no acquisition of Fox which they'll take Julio and it will be a juggernaut against Netflix both are huge sucks on on Internet bandwidth and then they now have their own kind of bottleneck on the entertainment stuff that everybody wants see I okay so these this could be a good thing just like your mom say yeah my mom would find a silver lining is so will you get every movie ever I don't remember what 20 but is there's a city that's they're gonna start treating broadband Internet like a utility where the city's organist start developing their own broadband system somehow and then providing it from there and then you also got I don't know if that's a good idea it's an option are more options I mean what we can only choose one electric provider right now I don't think that's a great great thing is manna because they bring our options because they lobby to block solar energy for long time which means were worth talking laggard state always here we also just go to make a get to the point where Elon musk puts all his Wi-Fi balloons in the space and then we all have Wi-Fi for free forever it will write our I'm trying to think of how this affects most people really on the ground level because while we can you know is it it's like the tax stuff that everybody's pitch about maybe seven days ago already forgot that's what's crazy about all the new cycle is like it is so ADD out that like I can want to write down what people are already in hysterics like put it on the wall remember that if we can go talk a month later bola and we look like were very thoughtful yeah well this is that I mean unfortunately it's it's you know people very forgetful and I think that definitely there and as it were in a teenage were all that was so tweeted you know five minutes ago but it will affect people long run there's a mic and harp on Amicus at them like oh no you all rise and and and they got people that are fighting against it there's going to be the must center actually sent me a letter saying sorry that that got those kind of messed up energy that are lower than ours online sorry RR Sen. right I didn't get anything well which Sen. Utah yeah other public figure usually Hoosiers not going to LaRose on most are you on the inside no way I read the thing is failure rather will have two senators already sorry I rep about this but let's let's dovetail this into some Moroccan out looking at because I'm certain of the tax stuff and that was affecting a lot of freelancers right because I've got 15 minutes until I got to get out here and that that affects on freelancer's of what they're some of the tax code that there is a change you can't get nearly the write-offs that you do now that was to be the big overall thing and what's crazy about that is you now you see New York City if your independent contractor now they kinda have laws to protect them a little bit like minimums and like and things things that higher rate people that are hired and freelancers have to do now which is good and bad at the same time with it for like it's good but it kind of defeats the purpose after while that gets to restrictive well the thing is with freelance in particular like for example and in our industry which is primarily the foreman and movie industry freelancers are essential to me they are the ones that projects are spaced out and so in order for you to if you are going to commit yourself to one particular job that's a sound guy and you got equipment and even all these things that you have to rewrite often the travel there's a lot of things that right that are involved with freelance work that should be expensed nicer restricting some of that and you start give making it so that it different more difficult for these independent workers to find work because let's face it it's not like videos being shot every day they have to go where the work is and throughout the state of Florida's perceived nonunion so you run into the situation where they have to get equipment update their stuff keep up with the gas to all the stuff you certainly start restricting some of those things that are in that our tax write offs and now they are in a position that it hurts them at the end of year this is good already have a cheat sheet for this because I wrote this down I was going to do a blog posting and I was five I broke this long I was on a flight route this like is towards my standup comedian brother and that I don't like when they pitch about life they can't make enough money because they can clearly do something on the side and this is good is appropriate for a podcast because it's a lot of people that might want to do their own thing or not doing it because they need a little bit more cash flow or while they're doing it they need to add some other income coming in and I will always tell the comedians of my you could be content writers you know you could be you write all the time you to be social media marketers to since I get to the side gig yeah why not abort the kick at current answer is just work harder not not to that but I'm saying like the it's kind of a separate thought are turning old white man you know will I feel like a low-sodium fire suit straddling and get your ship but I do feel like you can that can be a self fulfilling prophecy that it defeated some kind of attitude were you go let me I'm already doing this you know like I yeah like I've had three gigs going at all times for 10 years and yeah a little crazy but it's made me so good and send so many different ways that were doing meetings I'm not nervous to talk about certain the law stuff will I think I mean freelancers and again I'm only speaking about in particular in my industry freelancers in mind she can sometimes moonlight in other positions rats okay but when you're let's say you're in contracted guys right right your to like production stuff is like your contracted for months right I'm talking about like I was directing this more towards people who say they want to do something I wanted to start this but the goat man I don't have I have a job and you know like you like okay we have let's just break it down if you have a 50 hour week job call at all that put people on the on the defense of the cool want to prickle that down but way too busy to even do that right wool coat let's call it 9 to 5 job I don't know including like an hour like get there get back you know whenever Scott 50 hours right and then 60 just be conservative you got 20 other hours a week probably right depends if you have family kids mail it all depends what I say I know that's a really nice letter yes right but the yes here's a list of sites you can go on and you can do freelance work in this gig economy right so it's I think that's what it's coined as the gig economy you can go on up work with the lance and O desk merge together it's the biggest freelancer website this is also good for project manager to people that need other people to it that's probably the best marketplace for the soft skill stuff programmers graphic designers animators video editors I think I haven't done it on there but we need to get our agency account back up because the more you do on their you knocking started a high dollar per hour at first because you don't have any reviews yet you haven't done anything so what with all this stuff online decide to him to give out you going to start a low dollar per hour in the news creep it up the more jobs you do the more five-star reviews you have the better right so up work there's guru that's a 1.5 million freelancers on that with the time tracking system freelancer.com fiver which is kind one of my favorites yeah it in and then just because fiber don't think that you start off at five dollars and you can now offer a five dollars service but their people are starting off their you might hire Ira five Ron Tosh .0 when they used to pay five bucks for people to do silly stuff around the world and then I looked at it because I would do it for like a joke for fantasy football get some someone you don't know like that's worth five bucks yeah I said something and it's fun it's funny to me it's worth five dollars S what what I see Eric now going on five or me like I want people to snow just to silly stuff for me in Uganda is like that can go to fark is that YouTube guy puny pie he tried to do it any try to do like I Hitler joker some basically took him out of Disney's favor ruined up so don't hurt too far with your Hitler jokes is as a house if so fiber is a good one if you need like little things done you know I need to get the background out of this photo can you take that out in vector that out were can you do a jingle for me or voiceover sometimes those like little things that can just prolonged projects that you need sometimes you get that done pretty quickly let's see I you got a menu got over left you see a lot of that going on the rideshare stuff yeah you can do for each grub hub delivery all that were the other sets of that task rabbit in some cities for writers online writing jobs.com daily posts text broker journalism jobs.com and pinch me.org those are all good writer no losses he doesn't really prepare these pockets but he seems awfully prepared thank you for the ship this hope this was for this was for a blog post and research for nap for one of our clients had it I have in my Evernote ready to go and we start on about tax codons like yeah yeah yeah yeah visual exclude visual arts jobs you can put your creative's on be Hanse.net which I like because that's were like the kind of the best graphic designers are the Hants the Hanseatic that the heart part of Adobe now I figured is kind of prepping me for when you tell me to hit the bricks know so you listen to the podcast schedule… Talking with you as I write to give the fungi of the flipside of this is a second because it's not it people think that's easy like it's easy to screw over get freelancers a lot of what we do here is switchboard operator flock load of freelancers right yeah so you need you need good operating contracts independent contractor operating agreements need legal that's the other part say they say you get a logo made by graphic designer they just copy it from someone don't get the license don't tell you about it and then you pass it on company uses it now your indemnification just like the McDonald's and Jacobs iTunes art I told him I was like your signed contract from it help you because if I put ads out and it leads to iTunes album cover that has a McDonald's logo on it I can be I can control tubes can have a hard time making the song taken a big Mac big time for charities yeah what a mean-spirited I think I hear you say what everyone is like is a whole album about McDonald's is no title to food okay will when I made it home if it is a movie that pretty much bashed McDonald's entire times I'm pretty sure the king when the founder no no not not not not the founder that's good movies I like that the founder they you know McFadden's oversizing supersize me yeah so soon what were those chains were supersize out of it so so you can't and you can't tell freelancers as someone hiring when you can't tell him hey I need to be online this dated this the of these hours or I need you to do I need to be in office like you know 95 it doesn't work like that you have to give them due dates for everything so it is a pain in the ass to hire freelancers the beginning if you haven't really done it and you try do a lot of them to save money week on occult money bawling the best like teams best groups of people together because now everything so segmented out for the online world let us talk about that like there's 40 different kind of programmers there's 40 different styles of graphic design yeah things will we do more valuable oh right so why not pluck the best specialists out when they have time and you need a specialist to know you know because you can't just be like hell, to start a company and I don't anything about the sums going to go ahead and you know pulling a much freelancing traffic I need this you still need to vet those guys and look at their work and say yes worth it and yet not not worth it and so that takes professional life so that that is what we as switchboard operators would still need to operate in an in a show our expertise in that sense and the other went on to throughout there because I'll have a few minutes before I get a heart out is is LinkedIn's legit if you're looking I we was gonna save you bring up a can link to click and heat how do I don't understand the wording I will eventually sponsor the show hello it right now you do so for you for instance because you just got your profile on we need to add a bunch of stuff on there you've worked on a bunch of stuff in the last nine months so I need to write a recommendation for you so you need to go out and request some from people all he is so setting you up for for moving on into freelance world no online resume thing away into the make here is it all helps because your under our company account it says you you work here at took about a consulting so the better your profile the better our profile as a whole but at the same time all the connections are better to so the more user profile the better I can reach out to people to it just it built that social capital is a call it a dishy term but Pro finder you should be on LinkedIn Pro finder there's no reason both yell should be on their it's free to sign up I was at a meeting last night happy are just having beers on site just do this while you're sitting here it takes three minutes to fill out an application no you have thought that much and I've gotten for really high quality leads for proposals just from that and I haven't done anything it just like a Angie's list of business professionals essentially but it it just use your profile so people can look at it and I had like all over the board, thing like had some that were print consulting price consultant which I don't really push out there that much but I guess someone to put it in my skills endorsements I think prices are saying that I was like yeah I we can deftly help you that that is that is that it that's what this podcast for the time yet so look that's my advice those are the list of sites on it were to Dragon dictate this out and hopefully I don't have to do too much editing but will all the links of the places I just said should be in the transcript on our site will replace the blog post so real quick before you head up so we can wrap this up holiday in holiday planning special holiday plans are you yoga first why get this music going fine art no now like the end like not even trying out a family are you seeing anything, knowing that while my wife probably is I have no idea my in-laws are coming over think spending the night waiting for Santa and then that's it also do you have any kind like a holiday tradition that you normally do if you started a huddled under Francis I mean I think Christmas has enough traditions only to be make up my own well-known on on my talk about slaughter pressure will know sorry life example will are are were trying to start like my family had their holiday tradition and then were trying to start like me and my wife are trying to start a kind of a neurologist right now are the only thing we got so far is keeping each Christmas tree from each year to the to make an art piece out of it later on but I'm just saying like the only thing we thought it was like a reporter changing credit to reclaim what I was asked to go to the dump why don't we just save these every year until the we have enough until I decide to smooth a lot more work to save a minute if the people who had ratified I would've prefer to throw more but I see the man is behind the art and the history behind it so I understand what you're Cuban to do the notes what is it the no show the rail note of when I let you do you deny that she go to hang on a spit we don't especially since we had a pet pig for a long time so we don't put the guns but we do Panini but we don't ask to put the pig on a spit and there's a Tampa Bay times writer that was looking for someone to write an article so if you want to do what you got going on just ugly ugly Christmas where parties can have actually went because of my recent life changes wedding and now home possibly yours to buy my house can't take that back I said possibly you were actually doing will try to keep it easy for everybody and not worry about get the change just have a good gathering food in an ugly sweater party of the onesie party to look as good intentions will seal that plays out we get we wish you for that but we don't do it I haven't I don't think I've ever left for Christmas ever my family is one of the rare families it's been in Tampa for like four generations or something mind to witness they're all here yeah so it it kinda sucks when it's really hot to doesn't feel like Christmas on a night like Christmas 80° right now but you were three days is hang out I'm excited to see our little boy is about you mean your kids are right and the best age that well yet evident Tom Iverson so close five and five and 217 FF know you're the one great improper notice yes and yes and I have other kids that other different ages I know I said 70 but they it's a good age for them yet for sure there that's the best age the right there in the suites but I'm pretty sure my daughters onto it like she's not in ugliness and a ship next year she is already get to the bottom of things do show or cramp us I was looking that up the other day I think a pretty good movie yeah I thought I better highlights its name from you if it's a comedy horror it's actually really good movies as far as holiday movies are concerned and since I'm the movie guy here grandpa's jacket off yeah all right will let's let's play it out thanks for hanging out yeah man hey LLC guys between now and then I

File Under...

I feel like motherhood has turned me kinda into a man. Hahaha.

I find myself too tired and too busy to deal with my emotions/feelings/thoughts--like seriously, who has the time or energy to cry, get mad, or even show real happiness anymore? I feel like on a scale of 1-10, I'm always 5 now.

I've been compartmentalizing everything into the file cabinet of my mind. And maybe one day I'll get to feeling every little thing I've filed away, and if I never get to it, at least it's filed away somewhere safe instead of rotting away in my heart... 

so here goes. 

 -i never thought I would be one of those parents that posted 10million pictures of their baby. Sorry social media friends, I'm one of them...

then again, I sift through  political posts/quotes/posts about sales at friends online store/weight loss stories/  old memories/ complaints and rants...so isn't it only fair that you sift through Yume's pictures too.. :) At least my posts are always cute.

-I never thought I would be THIS tired. Omg, if I were to sleep a full 24 hours I would still wake up tired. I have averaged about 3 hours of sleep for 8 months. I know what you're thinking "but Yume's only 5 months..." ya, I barely slept during the 3rd trimester...

- I never thought I would walk 2+ miles everyday (except when it rains) 

-I never thought I would hate rainy days. Hahaha, I live for my daily walks, and I'm all about keeping Yoomz on a schedule, so when it rains it throws off the schedule, and then I'm in a totallllll tizzy. Oh, and dirty wheels fucking suck.  

  -i never thought I would want to and/or care to write to the city and county about their bumpy-ass uneven sidewalks

I'm trying to take my baby on a smooth ride without tripping and/or waking her up with every huge bump in the road. Get it fixed, Pearl City...

-I never thought I would miss real adult human interaction. For the most part, I'm really not a people person and I love my anti-social-ness, but now that my existence is pretty much ignored (people talk to me through Yume. For example: (in baby-talk-voice) "did you go walking already?" "Did you go ne-ne (sleep)" "have you had milk yet?" "Did you go to the store? Oh ya! what did you buy?" - I guess me wishing someone would just talk to me would be silly, right? I not asking for a full blown, --let's sit down over coffee and talk-- but a "how are you?" Would be nice, sometimes.  Sigh

 (Segue!!)

-I never thought I would appreciate my sister so much. She's seriously like the only person (besides Dean) that talks to me about like nothing and everything--like general life stuff...

She sends me articles, she texts me recipes, she makes me laugh, she asks about my day, and shows that she cares and doesn't just text me when I send her a picture of Yume--she is basically is my daily reminder that I'm still winnie, and not ONLY Yume's mom. I really...really...appreciate it. Thanks Rei-rei. (Sigh)

and, to be fair...when my friends had their children, I pretty much dropped off the face of the planet, because I thought they would be too busy to talk to me, and now, of course, I get it. It probably would've been nice if I called more and asked about how everything was going...but, that wisdom only came after-the-fact.... 

-I never thought I would feel confident as a mother. But surprise, surprise...every once in awhile I get the "you got this" shiver that goes down my spine.  it normally happens when I'm the only one who can comfort Yume's cries... or when we have our day together and she just looks at me and smiles. :) it's nice to feel like a hero every once in a while...

-I never thought a 5 month old could make me laugh so much. Yume is a really funny girl, and her little giggles crack me up. She laughs at the most unfunny things, and that really tickles my funny bone. Haha

 Next file folder  

   -Places that are not stroller/baby friendly...  

omg, my friend KC and I went to the Contemporary Museum last month, and it is SOOOOOO not baby friendly. It's a two story museum with no elevator, no ramps, nothing. There is a beautiful grassy sculpture lawn, with no cement walkway, so people with babies are supposed to, 1) only view the top gallery (and/or leave their stroller in the front and walk down a flight of steps holding a baby while trying to balance) and 2) I guess, push their strollers through and/or carry their baby through the normally wet thick uneven grass. (the museum is in Makiki, one of the wetter parts of the island)

Like omg, seriously it's 2017. put a ramp and cement path in, not just for the strollers, but for the wheelchairs...

unless of course, people with babies and disabilities aren't supposed to enjoy contemporary art... time to Yelp it. Lol

 -Mom Forums 

For those of you without children, bless your heart for not having to read through any mom-forums. Mothers (women) are the most judgemental people on the planet who tend to give horrible (online) advice. I have like 10 thousand baby apps on my phone becauseI like knowing about milestones and whatever, but every once in awhile I check a forum when I have a small concern about Yume (I.e fussiness at the breast) and I'll scroll through pages and pages of bad advice and women who ride their high-horse of "well, my baby never had THAT problem..." ugh.. it is time I'll never get back again. I've decided, if it's a real concern, just call a doctor and fuck the forums.

 -omg, Me. Lol, I'm a lot more annoying now. I've turned into the complainer mom that wants the world completely to change to fit my needs, or else (dun dun dunnnnnnn) I'll Yelp it.  All i need now is an A-line hair cut, and khaki shorts that bunch at the crotch showing off the "v" shape of where my thighs connect to my vajay...and then I'll completely be your full-blown complainer mom.

with that said, let's move to the last file folder (lol) 

  because, after all of that, it's nice to know that I do still love things... 

duh, I love Yume.  

Lol I could devote an entire website with blog after blog writing about how much I love Yume, and it would just be the tip of the iceberg. She's the absolute best. And ya, duh...she tops my list of loves. ❤️awwwww❤️ 

now on to my more superficial loves... 

 omg, I love Target. 

If i could live in a store like corduroy the bear, I would choose Target (welllllll actually it would be Neiman Marcus, but we're talking about right now in my life...I'm living on a stay at home Mommy budget, and I'm definitely nowhere near my well-showered, groomed self--so ya, no living at neimans right now. Lol)  anyway, omg Target. Cutest baby things. Cutest home style stuff, loooooooove the kitchen supplies, and thank you for well priced pantry items! :)

 -Omg, and I love Safeway! 

I've always been a Safeway girl (sorry Foodland and Times) but now that Pearl City has finallllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly jumped on board with the new renovations, omg, the Safeway is like beautiful. It's no Whole Foods, but I'm not in the position to drive 45 mins to buy lettuce. Maybe next year..lol

Anyway, I'm all about picking the nicest clean and unbruised apples, and i looooooove checking every single egg for hairline cracks, but I'd rather do that in a nice clean atmosphere where people are few and far between (foodland is SO crowded!) so Safeway, thank you for not being the local favorite~ :)

I love doing laundry. 

omg, hi domesticated woman. No, I don't exactly loooooove doing laundry, but now that I'm a mom, I love finding a tiny random single sock in the laundry. It is the highlight of the moment, because it's soooooooo cute.  

    I'll try to keep my file folders as a reoccurring blog, because it's kinda fun to write this out, rather than just keep it all in my head. Plus, I have sooooo many more things that I love, and so so so sooo many more things that annoy me, but I just don't have the hours in the day to list them all In one sitting.

anyway, thanks for reading!  

 Winz~