Chapter Two.

December 4th

You would never believe the day I had. It was something straight out of a bad rom com movie, preferably one with Jennifer Aniston. Or Kate Hudson. I can never decide between the two. No wait, Katherine Heigl. Perfect. It started terribly, and I won't even mention what I had to do to get out of paying a ridiculously large taxi fare. Lou, if you're reading this, I hope the next customer you deal with isn't as cooperative as I was. But today I went to Central Park. I saw a little girl who looked exactly like me when I was little, who was feeding the ducks like it was the best thing in her life. Obviously it is definitely one of the best feelings in life, I would know. But she pushed another poor innocent girl when she wanted to feed the ducks too, and it almost made me feel sick. I hope no one takes offence to this, but New York, you really do need to work on your manners. As most of you know, I've lived here for almost a year now and every single nice encounter I've ever had in this city has been written in this newspaper. It's a rare occurrence here. I was losing hope on ever finding a genuinely good person when I found one. From a distance she looked a lot like most of you, with her office attire and coffee in hand, some kind of work document on her lap. She was insanely beautiful, she was honestly the most magnificent looking woman I had seen so far in this city. She looked like she belonged on the cover of vogue or walking a runway in a foreign country. For just a moment I thought maybe the New York attitude had stuck on her as well, and she would never give anybody like me the time of day. That thought vanished when she had an encounter with an army of ducks and, even if she wasn't quite happy about it, gave up the rest of her lunch for them. This is really cheesy, but she fascinated me. I really wish I had the courage to go after her and get her number or something, but I lost the opportunity. I'm crossing my fingers she'll be in the same place tomorrow. If I really did just find a genuinely good person, I need to know them. I need to know generosity and selfless people actually exist in this place.

Always yours, New York.

-B

Brittany dropped the newspaper into her lap and sighed, taking another scan of the area around her. This didn't technically make her like a stalker, right? Here she was, sitting in the exact same place the woman was yesterday. She had patiently been waiting in that exact spot for the last hour and forty five minutes, and she was starting to feel a little pathetic. This definitely had to be on some kind of stalker level surely, how would the woman even react to Brittany sitting there waiting for her? Brittany could remember how fast she left the duck scene yesterday, and could only imagine she would leave at the exact same pace. She really couldn't blame the woman, she might even be angry that a majority of New York knew about her duck scenario? Brittany didn't really think of that and she cleared her throat nervously. She really hoped that wasn't the case.

As creepy as she felt for sitting here, casually looking for the Hispanic woman's face in the crowds of people, she couldn't help it but take it as some sort of weird sign. When she left the park yesterday, all of her bad karma had left her and she didn't end up in one of those pathetic almost-crying shower situations for the forth day in a row. Brittany was a strong believer in fate, and something had to come out of meeting this woman. Whether she found a new friend in the city, or someone who was just a good person, there was something keeping her in Central Park for most of the morning. She just couldn't put her finger on it. It couldn't be a coincidence, there just had to be something.

But unfortunately, the beautiful duck woman was nowhere in sight. Maybe in fear of another duck attack? Whatever it was, it left Brittany feeling sad and alone once again. It was almost one o'clock in the afternoon when she gave up and decided whatever sign of fate she was feeling was wrong, and now she just felt like a loser. The only good thing to happen to her that morning happened as she was leaving the park, and a small boy gave her his red balloon because of the pout on her face. She brightened up after that and gave him a solid high five, since she really didn't have much to offer him back. The kid laughed at her and ran off to join his mom with the ducks and a pang of sadness hit her when she remembered why she was sad in the first place. She felt completely alone. She almost felt the urge to walk to the nearest rooftop and scream 'Where are all the good people?! Come here!' but that would definitely be the second crazy thing she had done all day.

Max was waiting for her when she got back to her apartment, just like the loyal cat her was, and she gave him a small frown as she peeled off her winter jacket. "No sign of her. Maybe next time." She gave him a forced hopeful smile and set her keys down on the kitchen counter. Then she had a startling realisation as she stood alone in her apartment with a cat a few feet away, licking his paws and not even paying attention to Brittany. Now she was a stalker lady who talked to her cat. A groan passed her lips and she rested her forehead against one of the cupboards eye level with her. She really had no idea what she was doing anymore.

On the sixth of December, she did not return to Central Park. There was a feeling of urgency settled in her stomach and she couldn't quite place her finger on it, but she ignored it. She learned her mistake yesterday by waiting for so long. She couldn't depend on something like that again, it made her feel... stupid. A word she hated using under any circumstance, but this felt like a good exception. What was she thinking, ambushing some poor woman and convincing her befriend her? Sometimes excitement got the best of her and she couldn't help but think this was one of those situations. She made a deal with herself not to dwell on it any further and just lock it away as a nice memory of a stranger.

Instead, she chose to spend the day at the Bronx Zoo. It was cold and there were a lot of people, but there were three things in life she was absolutely passionate about, those being dancing, true love and animals. And her love for animals was like no other. Her face brightened up when she came across her favorite animals, much like most of the kids around her who would desperately cling to their parents leg and point excitedly at the animal on display. A great sense of longing washed over her at the sight. Her mom would always take her here when she was little, and on most of her birthdays up until the last one she spent with her. It was a bittersweet moment to remember, standing in the middle of a crowded zoo surrounded by families and couples, but there was a part of her brain that told her to stop feeling sorry for herself and just enjoy the animals.

And that's exactly what she did. Once she learned to just relax and enjoy herself, a small group of kids were more interested in being next to Brittany than they were being next to their parents. Her enthusiasm and giddiness radiated off onto the children, and she found herself spilling random facts about the her favorite animals to the little group she had with her. They would respond with awed ooh's and ahh's and Brittany would just grin happily back at them. While the kids were looking fascinatingly at a large Gorilla and the baby she was carrying, Brittany had a quick look around at the kids who were standing near her. The parents were all watching from a small distance, keeping an eye on their child at the same time as taking pictures.

She had a total of eight kids following her. She didn't even know when that happened, but her bubbly persona was probably what drew them to her. Kids just understood Brittany a lot more than most adults did, and vice versa. A small tug on her leggings pulled her out of her thoughts and she looked down at the African American boy with tight curly black hair. He looked to be about four or five years old, and Brittany remembered he joined her small herd at the Lion den when she told them the roar of a lion can be heard up to five miles away. They must have been his favorite.

"Do you work here?" the boy asked, not being shy in asking his question. Standing there in his small jacket and boots, Brittany thought he was adorable.

She shook her head and smiled at him. "Nope. I came here just to see all of the animals, like you did."

"Then how come you know so much?" He questioned again, his little eyebrows furrowing in question. Yes, definitely a cute kid.

Brittany shrugged again and looked up at the Gorilla exhibit in front of her, then back down at the little boy. She thought maybe it was better to explain in a way he would really understand. Kneeling down to his level, she noticed she had gained some of the other kid's attention with the movement and smiled at them. "Do you have anything that you really really really love?" she asked the small boy.

"Pretzels!" He answered immediately, causing Brittany's grin to grow.

"Same! But not really what I was getting at," she shuffled more comfortably on her knees so she could explain better. "Something with a bigger variety, like sports, or movies, televisions shows, cars-" "Cars!" the boy interrupted, his face lighting up at the subject. "I love toy cars. I have a whole bunch of them at home and I bring them to school with me," he rambled, while digging deep into his pocket for something. "My mom said I shouldn't in case I lose them 'cause they cost money, but I bring them anyway." He stated proudly, pulling a toy car the size of his small palm out of his pocket to show Brittany.

Brittany's eyebrows had risen somewhere in his little speech because of how much had spilled out of his tiny little mouth at the subject, but she couldn't control the smile that took over her face when he held out the car for her to take a look at it. It was nice that he trusted with her with something like this, she understood it could be a bit of a challenge with some children and their prized possessions. Gently, she picked up the car lying on his palm and lifted it up to inspect it. She made her eyebrows furrow deeply and her lips to purse in thought, making a small hm noise as she twisted the car around in her hand. "And do you know what kind of car this is?"

"A Camaro," he told her, his face lighting up again. "Like the one from Transformers!"

Brittany gave a nod of approval and smiled at the boy. "Well, when you're as passionate about something like this-" she paused, holding the car up in front of him, "-you want to know absolutely everything about it, right?" The little boy nodded enthusiastically, listening intently to every word she said. "That's exactly how I feel about animals."

The boy's lips formed an 'o' shape and he nodded understandingly, before grinning up at her. "Cool."

The children who had turned around to listen to Brittany talk had turned their attention back to the Gorillas, soaking up as much of the zoo experience as they could. The parents who had been following close behind and snapping pictures every now and then, stepped forward to let their child know it was time for lunch.

"Brandon Jay Williams!" A voice broke through them and the small boy she had just been talking to muttered a small uh-oh. "Tell me that is not a toy car in that ladies hand? How many times have I told you not to bring those with you, do you know how many you lost last month? You know I don't approve when you do this-" the little boy's face turned guilty and anxious about being in trouble, something he must get into trouble for a lot, and turned to Brittany. "Keep it, she might think it's yours." He said in a hurry, running back to where his mother was waiting for him.

Brittany looked down at the small car in her hand and back up at the boy who was talking to a woman with a stroller, her hand on her hip as she looked down at her son who looked like he was giving an explanation. She smiled when the mother just rolled her eyes in an 'I've-heard-this-one-before' way and leaned down to hold his hand as they walked away, possibly to go have lunch like the rest of the kids. With his free hand, Brandon as she heard his mother call him, waved to Brittany with a smile on his face before walking out of sight.

That was when she realised she was left in the Gorilla exhibit, still kneeling on the floor by herself. She laughed softly and stood up, again rolling the car over in her hands as she looked at it. She felt touched that he gave her one of his favorite toys, even if it just was to get out of trouble, and aw'd to herself over it. That was definitely the cutest kid encounter she had ever had.

It was December 11th, Christmas was slowly approaching and usually Brittany would be ecstatic to start setting up decorations around her apartment and writing a list of things she wanted to buy for her friends. But everybody she made a solid friendship with didn't live in New York City, and the only thing she had really gotten from her high school friends where store bought Christmas cards with a small heartfelt message inside. Of course she didn't complain, it was the effort that really counted. She also didn't complain because the majority of the people who sent her things usually left a candy cane in the envelope and that in itself was a gift.

Sure, she had a few casual friends in the city. A group of five girls swooped in on her one night, after just recently moving to New York while she was dancing in a club. The way she was dancing impressed a lot of people, and the group just insisted on her having drinks with them. It just sort of escalated from there. They were a bit older than Brittany and only really interested in going out and getting drunk every weekend, and that wasn't something she was into. At first she went along with it because she got to dance at some of New York's best clubs that they got her into, but the peer pressure to drink with them would be overbearing sometimes and she would be forced to fake an illness to avoid going out, choosing to stay home with her cat and containers of Chinese food. Occasionally those girls would call sometimes and ask to hang out or go to a new club opening, and she just didn't have the energy or patience with them to accept. There were only so many times a person could take being asked how their love life was going while some kind of fruity cocktail was pushed in their direction, all the while being secretly judged by all of them.

Really, the only way she could describe those girls would be if the characters from Sex and the City met the women from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and had children. They would be the children.

With Christmas coming up and the prospect of possibility spending it alone, she decided maybe it was a good idea to give them a call. Going out with a few people she considered her only friends, quotation marks on the word friends, in the city sounded less depressing than what she would do otherwise. It wasn't like she had some fancy date she could catch up with, or spend the holidays with their family in their home town. She had never really had a girlfriend or boyfriend around Christmas, it was usually just spent with her family for most of her life.

That was enough to break her out of the thoughts that had been consuming her for most of the day. A small lump gathered in Brittany's throat as she remembered how her holidays would be spent before her mother passed away. Every family had their traditions, and Brittany definitely wanted to keep her alive. She made a small promise to do that even if she was by herself.

Clearing her throat of the lump that had wedged there during her deep thoughts, Brittany took a sip from her water bottle that was almost near empty, carefully swallowing because of her laying down position, and took another deep breath to make sure her breathing was back to normal. The grass was starting to make her arms feel itchy but she couldn't find the strength to move from where she was. Her eyes were shut and if she wasn't in the middle of a park, she could just fall asleep with how exhausted and spent she felt.

For the last forty-five minutes, Brittany had switched between sprinting and a slow jog around the block. The last time she had really dedicated any time to working out would have been months ago because of her funk, and she was starting to feel the take out food catching up on her. Though Brittany was active everyday and still had a perfect shape, she wanted to be in a better state of mind about being healthy and doing more things to stay in shape. Of course she had a little more motivation than she would like to admit.

She made the decision an hour ago. Tonight, she was going to call her New York "friends" and ask to tag along to get drinks with them. Though they kept their mouth shut while you were standing in front of them, their expression told novels about how they felt about certain things. The time she wore a salmon colored dress with yellow heels to ladies night got a lot of forced smiles and a lot of comments like 'That looks great! Have you lost weight?' or 'Before you, I didn't think anybody could rock that color. But just look at you!' while their faces were tight and unconvincing. She had the urge to tell them to never getting into the acting business because they were terrible, and Brittany didn't want to be judged by them of all people. So she shamefully made an effort whenever she caught up with them, no matter how much she didn't want to cave under the pressure of being judged. She was only human, after all.

And that's where she found herself, laying flat on her back, exhausted after an intense running session. It might not have been the safest idea to collapse in the park and shut her eyes while she had loud music playing on her iPod. Just to make sure, she titled her head to the side and slowly opened her eyes while adjusting to the light. On the bright side, nobody in the park looked like they were going to mug her or do anything worse. In fact, nobody in the park looked to be over the age eight. School must have just finished for the day, and fifty or so kids were playing on the different sets of equipment, and from what she could see, squealing loudly at one another. She was definitely not pressing stop on the Rihanna song she was listening to just to hear that.

With a small grunt she pushed herself off the grass and into a standing position, brushing most of the grass off her back while scanning the area at most of the kids. For a brief second she wondered if little Brandon was there, but the likelihood of that was rather slim, since she went to the Bronx zoo. A fair way away from the park she was at. The small gold Camaro toy he had given her five days ago was perched on a shelf in her living room, and she had the urge to smile whenever she saw it. If the child she hoped to eventually have was half as cute as he was, she would show them off at every given opportunity.

Thinking maybe it was slightly a bad idea that she was the only adult in a park, watching children, she picked up her water bottle and started walking in the direction of her apartment. Besides, she should be getting home anyway. She had an appearance to work on for some very snooty New Yorkers.

"You've got to be kidding me," a frustrated Brittany mumbled to herself. It was twenty past eight, which mean she had another ten minutes to meet her friends in Brooklyn, but she just noticed her most recent problem. For most of the night Brittany had been digging through her closet, looking for something that looked classy, but with Brittany's personality and how she was after a few drinks, it had to look flirty as well. And of course, she couldn't find something that matched the shoes she had picked out. After compromising and changing her shoes to match a nice black dress with shoulder straps, she had only just noticed the gaping tear near the thigh area. On any other day she would have laughed at the irony of the hole being there, but she was late and she was getting more stressed out by the second.

With a loud and dragging groan, she stomped away from her mirror and back to her closet, flinging her dress off in a quick movement. Luckily her make up would suit any color she wore, as she opted for the black smokey eye look, so she wasn't completely doomed. After a few moments of holding up dresses against her body and imagining what they would look like on her, she settled for a dark blue skin tight dress. It was her go to party dress and something she wore often, but she was out of options and out of time to decide. Trading her bra for a strapless one, she was soon snuggling her body into the tight material and looking for a pair of matching shoes.

Max hadn't moved from his place on her bed since she started getting ready, and decided it was time to let out a loud meow. Brittany tensed up for a moment, forgetting he was there before turning around and gesturing her body to her cat. "How do I look?" she asked settling her hand on one hip in a pose and waiting for any kind of meow or slow head bob, just anything. After a few seconds of silence she sighed and dropped her arm from her waist. "What would you know about dresses, you're a boy." She turned back around to continue her hunt for a pair of shoes, before she settled upon a tall pair of black stilettos. She couldn't stop the silent victory 'Yes!' that came out of her lips at her find, waving them in the air briefly for Max to see. "For a moment I thought my bad luck was coming back." She mused, sitting down on the edge of her bed to put them on.

Thinking back on her bad luck brought her to the only memory she had of that stranger, and a small smile spread across her lips. It was one of those memories that you could just look back on and smile at, no matter where you were or what you were doing, because it was that adorable. It seemed like forever ago that she saw her in the park, and she wondered what that stranger was doing on a Friday night. Did she have a large group of friends to go out with, or did she prefer to stay home with take out like Brittany often did? Maybe she had a late night at the office, or a partner to go out with for dinner? Brittany shook her head at herself in a surprised way, wondering why she was even thinking about this stuff.

She was distracted enough that she hadn't even started to put on her heels, and all thoughts of the Hispanic woman vanished when she realised she was definitely going to be late, and not on the right road to impressing her "friends" for the night.

"And then she told me that her boyfriend- you remember Marcus, right? She told me that her boyfriend was caught in bed with some skank from Detroit. I mean, you think he'd have some class, right?" Bethany, one of the main gossipers of the group, shook her head and downed the rest of her drink. She might also be the biggest drinker, but nobody spoke of that out loud. Brittany didn't respond and sipped on her own drink, orange juice and vodka. She was the only one on her second glass, and she'd already been there for an hour. Bethany just polished off her fifth glass of some expensive cocktail with a sexual sounding name, while the rest of the girls were on their forth.

"Marcus? Do you really think he has class if he was with Anne in the first place?" The oldest of the group, Estelle, had a voice that had been strangled with years of smoking cigarettes and various cigars. It was croaky and she sounded like a man sometimes, but again, that was something they never said out loud. It was observed. She gave a deep throaty chuckle after her joke, and the other four girls joined in with her. Brittany just gave a small smile in response and took another sip, a larger one, of her near empty drink while trying to avoid eye contact with them all.

"You're awfully quiet, Brittany." Mindy, was a twenty-something dancer who lived the closest to Brittany. When Brittany learned that she was also a dancer, she lit up at the idea of having a dancing friend in the city who could possibly show her the best dancing places. That was until Mindy politely informed her just exactly what kind of dancing she did, and how Mindy turned into Mandy on those nights. It was followed up with a quick 'Only the private dances, of course. I have to keep some dignity.' Brittany wasn't entirely sure Mindy knew the meaning of the word dignity, seeing as her breasts were almost completely spilling out of her top.

Brittany cleared her throat at the sudden attention turned onto her and shrugged her shoulders lightly. "It was just a long day, that's all." She reassured, hoping that would get all of the attention back off her and onto Marcus and Anne's most recent break up. She didn't even know who Anne was.

"Oh come on Brittany, you can tell us," Sharon, possibly one of the more attractive women of the group, tapped Brittany's hand in what was suppose to be a comforting manner but was just a sloppy slap. "We're your best friends." She stated. It wasn't a question or something they had ever discussed. She just simply stated it like it was a fact. It triggered a small nerve in Brittany, but she kept calm and collected as she sent them all a reassuring smile. "Trust me ladies, I'm fine. I just had a big work out today."

The women at the table seemed to take that as the truth and go back to talking about Anne's love failures. She wondered if they ever spoke of Brittany like this when she wasn't here with them. Thank god, she thought to herself. A waiter who had been assigned to serve their table, correction; ordered by a drunken Bethany to come back every ten minutes, politely asked them if they wanted another round of drinks, and this time Brittany finally put her hand up. She needed it if she wanted to deal with these people. Maybe it was the recent discovery she had, that it was extremely hard to find a genuine person in New York, or she was just too busy drinking and dancing the other times, but she never really noticed how truly awful they were. All they did was gossip and talk about things Brittany wasn't interested in, like Fashion Week or the newest diet ideas. If she was being honest with herself, she was only hanging out with them because she had nobody else. It was terrible, and she felt a certain level of guilt and shame, but it was better than being completely alone, right? She didn't even know anymore.

Stuck in her own thoughts again, she didn't notice the drink being placed in front of her until Glitter, yes, that's right, Glitter, brought her back to reality. "Oh honey, you're really sticking with that same drink? Mix it up a little!" She said, sucking greedily on her straw of some odd colored looking drink. It wasn't said in an accusing way, Brittany knew that much. Glitter was born and raised in Queens, and married a man who played for some professional basketball team. She had money and class like the rest of the ladies, but she was also the nicest among them. She was the girl who got on the bucking bull first that one time they went to the cowboy bar, she was the only one who could drink so much and be able to walk without stumbling, and she basically pushed everyone out of the way when her favorite song, '1, 2 Step' played at any club. She was really the only one who knew what it was like living at the bottom, but she still talked like she had lived at the top her whole life. Of course Glitter wasn't her real name, she wasn't completely sure what it was. Although one time she heard Bethany drunkenly call her Latifa. Brittany had no idea if there was a connection there.

Brittany smiled, genuinely, and shook her head. "Someone has to stay sober, you're all a mess." This was something that happened. The pressure to drink more and stronger drinks. It happened every time.

Glitter shook her head, taking no for an answer and making a move to get out of her seat. "Uh-uh, no way, you're the only one here who can shake her booty, and we all know you shake it better with a little liquid courage," she raised her eyebrows in a way that said 'This is happening, you're drinking,' and pulled Brittany out of her chair, towards the direction of bar. Mindy followed closely after them, yelling something about having an equally as good shaking booty. Brittany swallowed nervously. She knew exactly what was about to happen.

She was right. It happened. I was right. I was right. I was right. The words in her mind matched perfectly in time with the hammer to her skull. It felt like Bethany, Estelle, Mindy, Sharon and Glitter were personally taking turns thumping her on the back of her skull and drunkenly laughing afterwards. A small groan escaped her lips and she might have mumbled 'stop' to no one in particular. Her mouth was too numb to tell. Her tongue ran slowly across her bottom lip, checking it was still there. It was, luckily. Just as she got to the corner of her mouth, her tongue touched something cold and hard and she pulled her tongue quickly back into her mouth at the feeling. It didn't taste like anything in particular. Her eyebrows scrunched forward and she decided to ignore it. Opening her eyelids right now seemed like a large task, one she didn't want to do.

"Coffee?" A bright voice asked. Way too bright for Brittany's liking at the moment. She groaned and lifted her hand up to shield where the noise came from, waving her hand aimlessly in the air for a few seconds before it dropped again. Onto a cold, hard surface. "I'll take that as a yes." The woman said, and sound of fading footsteps followed soon after. Brittany didn't reply with an 'I'm not a big fan of caffeine' like she normally would have, nor did she open her eyes to find out who it was. God. The thumping was getting louder as the sound of more footsteps approached, but quickly faded away just as quickly as they came. It was confusing her and she didn't like it. Eventually she knew she had to check if she was in some stranger's bed or something. Or on their floor, maybe. That felt like a bigger possibility.

Her left eye opened first, and she was met with the skin on her left arm. She was definitely resting on her face on her forearm, she concluded. That would explain the tingling feeling in her fingertips. Her right eye followed shortly after and her eyesight was blurry for a few seconds, slowly adjusting to the light that was coming through the glass window a few feet away from her face. Where she could see people. Cars. A road. A street. Sitting up quickly out of panic wasn't a good idea, her head spun and she felt a wave of nausea pass over her. She shut her eyes tightly and swallowed hard, tasting the alcohol from last night still on her tongue. On top of that, her mouth was incredibly dry. Once the nausea had eventually passed, she carefully opened her eyes and let them adjust to her surroundings. This was definitely not somebody's apartment. This was a diner. Correction. This was a diner, with people inside.

If Brittany wasn't so distraught with pain and had a small urge to throw up, she would have been horrified. The hungover, slightly still intoxicated Brittany just accepted her fate with a huff. At least the diner wasn't crowded with people, only about ten or so people. Good. She must look like a mess.

A girl with the name tag Holly came bounding towards her with too much enthusiasm for this time of day, she really didn't even know what time it was, with a fresh pot of coffee in her hand. She gave Brittany a megawatt smile as she poured her a large mug full. "Don't worry, we get this quite a lot." Holly said, in a quieter voice than earlier. She smiled sympathetically at her and turned to leave before Brittany caught her wrist.

"Where exactly am I?" she questioned in a croaky voice, her eyes squinting up at the girl's face. She might actually be attractive if Brittany's vision was completely clear. All she could see was dark hair in some type of bun. So she couldn't be quite sure.

"Julie's Diner. On the corner of West 11th street." The waitress responded, only to get a blank look staring back at her from Brittany. "West Village."

Brittany visibly relaxed. That wasn't far from her apartment in Alphabet City. And no, she did not move there because of the name. Maybe. "Thank you." She said to the waitress, sinking further back in her chair.

"No problem. I'll bring you some breakfast." She replied, not giving Brittany the option to say no. It was a good idea though, she skipped dinner the night before and got drunk on an empty stomach. Not the best idea in the world. Listening to her "friends" while they convinced her to drink wasn't the best idea either, but she went along with it and now she was paying the price. She couldn't even clearly remember what happened after they started dancing to that new Jason DeRulo song. How had she gotten from Brooklyn, all the way to a tiny diner in West Village? And apparently slept there, in the same clothes as the night before.

She groaned as she dug into her purse, which was luckily sitting on the booth seat next to her, and picked up her compact mirror. She licked the tip of her finger and tried to wipe some of the smudged make up away from underneath her eyes, then gave up and used a napkin. After a successful five minutes of making herself look neater and more presentable, which included combing through some of the knots in her hair with a fork, she looked almost the same as she did before she went out the night before. In her opinion, now she didn't look like a hungover drunken mess.

Brittany decided as she cut into her eggs and bacon, using the spare fork, of course, that Holly was a life saver. It hit the spot and she let out appreciative moans every now and then, sending Holly a thumbs up with her mouth full when she looked in her direction. Now that her mind wasn't so foggy, she could see herself coming back to this place. It was nice, quiet, and the breakfast was amazing. She had no idea what kind of bacon she was eating but it was orgasmic, and she devoured the lot. She was feeling fifty percent better when she finished, and gently wiped her face with her napkin.

Holly was some kind of physic or something, because she was at Brittany's side after she finished and taking Brittany's untouched, and now cold coffee away. "Would you like anything else?"

"Just the bill would be great, thank you." Brittany replied, shrugging her shoulders lightly. "I kind of have to get home and wash the smell of tequila off of me." Holy sent her a smile and took the dirty dishes back behind the large counter of the diner, where more people had started to pile in on the stools. Now that the room wasn't spinning, she could take a proper look at the place. The clock on the wall read 9:56am, which was pretty early to be awake after a night of heavy drinking. She was pretty proud of herself for waking up early, before most of the breakfast rush of customers came in, like they were now. It was a simple diner, with red booths and white tiling. It looked eighties in a way, and Brittany could only imagine the large chocolate milkshakes they probably had here.

Spiked with interest, Brittany picked up one of the menus to her left and skimmed through some of the meals they had to offer. Of course, they had any kind of flavor milkshake and those traditional large ice cream sundaes. She was sold on this place. She definitely had to come back.

Her eyes only left the menu for a brief second, looking up at someone just passed Brittany's booth and had their back faced to her. Brittany's heart leapt into her throat for a moment. As much as she felt like a perve for thinking it, she knew that backside. She had seen that frame before. But surely there was no way it could be? There were literally tens of millions of people living in New York. The chances of running into her, here? Impossible.

The woman who had walked passed soon seated herself in booth a few away from hers, facing her direction.

God, she looked different when she wasn't being chased by ducks. Still mind blowingly attractive nonetheless.

Brittany sat, mouth agape, looking at the woman who hadn't even looked in Brittany's direction since she sat down. Her eyes were glued to her phone in a focused way, not even bothering to look at the menu as she taped away in silence.

"Here you go!" Holly's voice made Brittany jump and flick her gaze up to meet Holly's with a confused look on her face, who looked back at her slightly cornered. "Your bill?"

"Oh," Brittany breathed, digging into her purse to find enough cash to pay for her breakfast. Holly gave another warm grin and took the tip Brittany gave her with an appreciative look. "Thank you. Have a nice day." She said, sauntering off to wait on other people.

Brittany looked back over at the woman, who's name she didn't even know, and breathed deeply. She was unsure of what to do, because one hand, she didn't want to let the woman out of her sight again without a name or number, anything. She would hate herself all over again. But on the other hand, she was still in last night's clothes, with last night's make up and smell of alcohol oozing off of her, and she wasn't even wearing shoes. God knows where they went missing, but they definitely weren't on her feet.

Holly walking passed her again caught her attention and without thinking she reached out and grabbed her elbow, hopefully not too roughly, and scooted closer to her on the booth so she didn't have to speak too loudly. "Sorry," she said, just realising what she did was a bit overbearing. Holly just gave her a confused smile and tilted her head. "You see that woman over there? Do you think if I wrote my number on a napkin, you could give it to her?" Brittany pointed with one finger in her direction, and could see she was still furiously tapping away on her phone.

Holly looked over at her and her face warmed with recognition. "Oh, you mean San-" -'Holly! More people are piling in, we need you," a passing waitress said in a hurry, reaching the woman's booth to serve her. Her eyes finally left her phone, but only to look up at the waitress. Brittany frowned deeply.

"Look, she eats here almost everyday for breakfast. Maybe you could stop by and give her your number then?" Holly gave her a reassuring smile before quickly getting back to work, walking straight past the woman of main conversation and back behind the counter.

Almost. Every. Day. She had a place she could possibly see this woman again. That was all she needed. She casted one last look in the woman's direction, only to see she was back to typing on her phone with a concentrated look on her face. Yes, she would definitely be seeing this woman again.

Now sitting in the safety of a taxi, Brittany pulled out her phone from her purse, which has a ridiculously small amount of battery life left. She didn't care, she was grinning from ear to ear. Her positive attitude on fate had been restored and she really only had one person to thank. Her phone might die before she even sends the text but she doesn't care. Her fingers work quick and she could almost feel the happiness bubble over inside her when she hits send, seeing the message had sent.

To: Glitter
10:04am

Thank you! Thank you thank you thank you! Thank you! Thank you thank you thank you! Thank YOU! Thank you!