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bittersweet part 2: rose and thorn

the morning after their first "date", rosaria texted sucrose's number.

'hi', she typed, hitting send and forgetting about it a few minutes later. she didn't really expect sucrose to contact her, not after how that night had gone. and really, she didn't care if she got a reply. it had probably been a one time thing, a prank set up by their coworkers. a pity date for both of them.

but two days later, just as she got home from work, her phone buzzed.

lighting a cigarette and sitting on her mattress, rosaria picked it up, expecting it to be a spam text. the only kind of messages she got lately were strange numbers inquiring about her car's extended warranty. and as much as she pretended not to care about sucrose, seeing the familiar name light up her screen almost made her smile.

'hey, it's sucrose. i know you didn't feel good when we went out but i was wondering if you wanted to try again. i think you're interesting.'

rosaria studied the screen for a while, wondering how to respond. part of her felt like lisa had been bothering sucrose again, telling her to ask for a second date. that now instead of sucrose being the butt of the joke, it was both of them. but it wouldn't do much harm to play along, would it?

'sure. when and where?' she replied.

the response was almost immediate.

'how about dinner? tomorrow, after work. we can go together or separately. what kind of food do you like?'

'i don't care what kind of food. tomorrow works. just send me the address of the place.' rosaria flipped her phone over and lay down, putting out her cigarette and closing her eyes. the apartment was cold but she didn't feel like turning down the air. maybe she'd just fall asleep and forget about it.

her phone buzzed again. she'd check it tomorrow. she didn't care enough to hide under the blankets or to have another cigarette.

she woke up earlier than usual. the text from sucrose was still sitting there unread. an address. rosaria didn't think it needed a reply. she lit another cigarette and plugged her phone in, wrapping herself in the blankets. too early to get up, too late to go back to sleep. so she sat there and stared at the dirty walls of her room, the clothes on the floor, the pile of cigarette butts in the ashtray. she should probably empty that one soon.

her alarm to get up went off and she sighed, slowly going through the motions again. get dressed, look somewhat presentable, drink terrible coffee. eat a dry bagel she found in the fridge. leave for work and get there right on time, avoiding lisa and her friends in the break room. work.

all work, all day. the letters on her computer screen blurred together and she wished she'd gotten more sleep. her phone was still in the apartment.

she left at the usual time, rubbing her half-open eyes and trying to wake up. sucrose deserved a nice dinner, at the very least.

there were three texts waiting when she got home, all from sucrose.

the address from the night before.

'you seem tired today. if you need to cancel it's alright.'

'sorry, i don't mean to be rude, but if you don't want to go to dinner can you tell me? sorry.'

a half-smile snuck its way onto rosaria's face. 'still okay to go. meet you there.' she hit send and took a deep breath, trying to let the heavy feeling from work go away. thinking about how their date had been the last time. maybe it would be better now. maybe they would have fun.