50 dollars.

Yasmin Brooks hadn't expected that, she had been joking, or maybe she hadn't. The purse had meant a lot to her, but it'd been fraying already and she'd already accepted defeat in saving it. Sitting on the deflating couch in her dusty ass apartment, Yasmin stared at the 50 dollars in her bank account.

The key in the lock of the front door was what pulled Yas from that thought. Mai, her roommate and long-time friend, also ex-girlfriend, walked in. Her surfboard a bit scuffed from walking up the long stairs. "Work was a bitch," Mai said, throwing her purse on the small kitchen table and setting her board on the stand by the door.

"Someone sent me 50 bucks."

Mai cocked her head, probably just as confused as Yasmin was. "Huh? Like, a rando or like someone in a class?"

"Yeah no, just a rando. I bumped into this girl on the street and, well... flirted with her, I guess," Yas said. She was still not exactly sure what happened there, her hands worrying with the frayed edge of her phone case. "And gave her my number, joked about her sending me money–"

"Wait, explain better?"

Yas sighed. She stood up, walked over to her room, grabbed the broken purse, and tossed it to Mai. "She bumped into me and it freaking exploded everywhere."

"Ooh, yeah that's busted as hell," Mai said, running her fingers along the seam that had busted open. "Okay so you joked about her repaying you and she... what, sent you money?"

She threw her hands up as Mai looked through the fridge. "I'm fucking starved, have we shopped this week?"

"I did," Yas said, pointing to the shopping bags on the counter. "And she sent me 50 bucks. Like, I used it to get those groceries. It was insane."

"Did you get the good bread?" Mai asked.

"Yeah. Sorry, is the bread more important than the absolutely gorgeous but insane girl I met today?"

Mai shrugged, starting to dig through the shopping bags for the good sourdough bread. "I mean, kind of. Like, I'm hungry, I've been up since 5 am, let me make a sandwich and then we can chat about crazy girls."

Yas sighed, "Right, yeah, sorry."

"Stop apologizing, babes." Mai put away a few of the groceries but paused as Yas came over to help. They moved around each other smoothly, the closeness of their relationship as well as the smallness of the apartment had them knowing exactly how to move around each other. Mai started working on her sandwich, something that involved some deli meat, sliced cheese, hummus and shredded carrot. Yas learned a while ago to just let Mai create whatever food monstrosities she desired and not to complain about it.

Tossing an apple from hand to hand and sitting down at the kitchen table across from Mai, Yas slid her phone to her best friend. "Like, what do I even do with this?"

"Jean purse?"

"I don't know, I just put it next to my name on her phone when she asked." Yas blushed a bit, taking a bite from the apple. "She was just so abrupt, and I was trying not to be flustered. You know how I get when someone is flirting with me."

Mai raised an eyebrow, laughing, "Oh boy do I. God, I thought you hated me for like a full month."

"Yeah, but you're confident and like... persistent."

"True," Mai said, taking a bite from her sandwich, the crunch of the carrot along with the squish of the hummus making Yas need to look away. "What?"

"Sandwich, weird textures," Yas said, staring at a long painting on the wall, one Mai had made back before she'd dropped out of college. It was a painting of the sea made entirely with plastic Mai'd found on the beach, the waves stippled with plastic fruit bags. "You know."

"Right, okay whatever," Mai said, taking another bite and then continuing to speak through her weird food concoction. "I feel like you absolutely have to text this chick back, like come on. You accepted the money so she knows you saw it, it's only polite to say something back."

Yas sighed yet again, feeling like deep exhales were a big part of who she was now. "Okay, but like, what do I say? I actually think I could like... be with her, you know. But I don't really know, like, how I'd do that."

"You're the worst at flirting, Yas," Mai asked. "Just ask her if she wants to do dinner or something. If she's rich she'll probably shell out for a nice place and, if not, y'all can just go to the diner by the beach." Mai shrugged, shoving the last bit of her sandwich into her mouth and speaking through it. "It's foolproof."

Yas was a fool so it'd better be foolproof. She didn't have much of a choice.

Yas: sorry if this is forward but

Yas: wanna go out for dinner some time this week?

Lori: yeah

Lori: does tomorrow night work for you?

Lori: theres this place ive been wanting to go

Lori: if youre up for italian

Yas: sure sounds good

"Whelp," Yas said, her face on fire in a sort of excited way. "I guess I have a date tomorrow night?"

Mai pumped her fist in the air in response. "Fuck yeah!"