“We all have crushes, especially when we least expect them,” Tina thought, “and we all think that he or she is amazing, quite possibly the one. It soon fades away, gets cured like a flu. But this time it’s so different. There’s this unexpected sense of magic floating in the air.”

Tina got up and straightened, no matter how good it feels to be thinking of magic and everything that comes with it, work can’t wait. She took a shower, made herself a morning cup of strong herbal tea, switched on the laptop and sat down at her table. She was supposed to write an approximate economic scenario for the economists to thoroughly work out later, she’d dive gladly into the actual production, but all the boring stuff comes first, leaving the fun for the dessert. She forcefully set herself in the mood of words and numbers and yet her thoughts stopped after the first few letters appeared on the monitor

Two days passed by before Tina could blink an eye. Apart from not having accomplished the mission she sent herself onto, she felt more exhausted than on Friday because of the amount of thinking she had to go through. Personal thinking. She decided to show up at Bette Potter’s Gallery on Monday after her workday is over and suggest they talk about what there is between the two of them if there’s anything at all. The big plan was to come and confront Bette right away, with no excuses, no pretending like it’s all fine and no hidden flirtatious aura.

Another twenty-four hours passed and here she was, standing in front of the building where Bette spent most of her time and where Tina first saw her, glorious, unpredictable and uh, *****. She took a deep breath and nearly laughed at that, feeling like a schoolgirl one minute before the exam. She entered a long hall to find nobody in it when a woman only a couple years younger than Tina appeared in front of her eyes.

“Is there anything I can help you with,” she inquired. “The gallery is closed for today, by the way.”

“Oh, is it?” Tina feigned a surprise. “I just have to talk to uh, Bette Potter. Is she still here?”