𝒹𝑒𝓋𝒾𝓁 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐦𝐞

watching josie smile, mardra couldn’t help but blush a little. she loved her work, and talking about it made her excited, but she knew that it sometimes got to be too much. at the same time, josie seemed to enjoy it and the blonde couldn’t help but treasure that. “southbound sail, yeah! think, like, lorde meets the 1975 meets clairo meets lauv. if they all got together in an orgy, they would be their lovechild,” she offered, although it seemed like a fairly basic explanation for any indie band. at the mention of josie’s hometown, something deep in mardra’s memory and at first she smiled widely before letting it fade, “actually, yeah. i have heard of almswood.” she paused for a moment, trying to figure out a way to phrase what she wanted to say without telling josie everything about her past, “an old classmate of mine had family there.”

while she may not have had any real knowledge as to how music worked, josie did love listening to it. the band that mardra was describing seemed like something that would be right up her alley. “that sounds great! i love both the 1975 and lorde. melodrama is probably one of my favorite albums of all time. is that the sort of music that you normally listen to?” josie raised her eyebrows. the fact that mardra had even heard of almswood — let alone that she knew of someone with a direct connection to the town — was pretty surprising considering how ridiculously small the town was. “are you serious? that’s crazy. it really is a small world, wow. what was their name? your classmate, i mean. like i said, it’s a really tiny town so i actually might know your classmate’s family.”

working at masters meant that heather actually had to develop a sleeping schedule. which was, probably, the most unfortunate part of her entire job, because she was always a night owl, and always found the most inspiration in the darkest hours of evening. weekends were her saving grace, the days she got to sleep in the most and got to stay up late to get her writing done. “josie,” she yawned into her hand as she entered their shared kitchen, “what do you think about me making blueberry pancakes? i know it’s like…noon, but it’s never too late for pancakes, right?”

one of the many things that josie appreciated about her roommate was the mutual lack of judgement in regards to both of their sleep schedules. on weekends, she always seemed to find herself going to bed as the sun was beginning to rise and waking up in the early afternoon. sometimes, like heather, this came about as a result of late night inspiration for projects that she was working on, but more often it was due to staying out late. truth be told, she had only gotten out of bed about 20 minutes prior to her roommate and was nursing a mild hangover. “heather my love, i am of the belief that it’s never too late to eat breakfast food. and you know what? nothing in this world sounds better than blueberry pancakes right now. if you’re making some, would you please consider making a couple for me too?”

there was a reason eliza hated social media, and one of those was because of how constantly full it seemed to be of people who were either bored, stupid, or both. “i swear to god,” she rolled her eyes, “if i have to hear about one more celebrity scandal, i am going to personally send hate mail to their management teams. this idea that there’s no such thing as bad press is so annoying.” bad press existed: bad press got people fired, it got people blacklisted, it took names out of houses and put them in garbage cans. there was nothing that made a management team look like more of a joke than shit like this.

although she completely understood why the other woman would be frustrated with celebrity scandals, josie did enjoy hearing about the latest antics from eliza. “what’s going on now?” she asked, interest piqued. “and whoever it was, were they wearing anything good?” while josie didn’t really enjoy writing about what celebrities had been seen wearing, people seemed to enjoy reading about it. perhaps she could use whatever celebrity scandal was arising to her advantage in regards to work.

“Oh, completely. I have no idea about anything that involves having to kick, hit, or catch a ball. It’s all Greek to me,” she nodded in agreement. Her parents had never been big on putting her in sports, either. “My parents always just wanted me to be athletic, but not necessary in a team sport. At least, not a team sport in which you have to pass things to people.” As a surfer, it was just her and her board, and the only time she’d ever be on a team is if she’d have made it to the Olympics, which was a big Nope at this point. Not gonna happen. Kai was grateful for the distraction from her clothes. She barely owned anything suitable for an office, and she didn’t want to think about it. “It’s Kai Carlyle. Nice to meet you…” she trailed off as if to wait for the other girl to place her name in the space. 

“i’m so glad that we’re on the same page. i didn’t really do any individual sports either but i grew up in a really small town and growing up, the kids kind of spent all of our free time running around outside. roller skating around town was a big thing. i was surprisingly good at it.” as the other woman introduced herself, josie looked her over. she seemed as though she felt really uncomfortable. although josie considered herself to be decently extroverted and really enjoyed talking to people, she was never great in the department of small talk. after a moment of thinking of something else to say, josie nodded and began to speak once more. “i’m josie. josie mirren. nice to meet you too. so! what brings you down to the good old fashion department?”

nodding, naomi took another sip. “yeah, i work in the art department. naomi, it’s nice to meet you,” she added with a smile. masters was a large building, so it was no wonder that there were people she had never met. josie seemed kind enough, even inviting her to get coffee. “i’m a nature photographer, so if i’m in the office it means either editing or looking for locations. and that means i always need coffee.” she probably could have gotten some from the office, but it was never as good as an actual coffee shop, and ice water couldn’t keep her awake as long as caffeine. “so what do you do? are you a model or design or something?” she asked, because although their departments worked together often she didn’t know much about the other except the jobs she mentioned.

as much as josie loved her internship and working in the fashion industry, there was no denying that it was absolutely exhausting. there was always something for her to be doing and that made it feel as though no matter how hard she worked, she would never be completely finished. with that on top of her sleep schedule — which, admittedly, could be a lot better — coffee was the only thing that got her through the day sometimes. today was most definitely one of those days. “glad we in the same boat. coffee is a must. let me just grab my purse,” josie replied, gesturing for the other woman to follow her. as she wove her way through the fashion department and back to her desk, she continued speaking. “i’m an intern for the fashion journalism program. it’s pretty interesting, mostly lots of keeping up with what’s clothing seems to be trendy at the moment. nature photography sounds really cool, do you have to travel any for that? i feel like it would be difficult to get nature shots in manhattan.”

“josie, be honest with me.” lindsey sighed, frowning at her camera, at the tablet she held in her lap. she was trying to be anywhere but her actual office right now, as that meant being able to be a slight pest to people she liked in other departments. josie was the victim of the hour. “do you think that this looks halfway decent, at all? this is supposed to go with the shoot i organized and i’m starting to second guess…literally everything.” she turned the screen towards the other girl, torn between wanting to be told she was overthinking it, and wanting to be told the unedited truth.

the photograph looked good. or, at least, josie thought it did. that being said, she had basically no idea what she was talking about. “okay, i’m gonna be honest with you here. i don’t know a ton about photography. BUT i think that looks really good. i like what you did with the lighting a lot.” she looked back over the photo once again, admiring the other woman’s work. “you know, i really like photography. i almost took a class for it in my sophomore year but didn’t end up doing it which i kinda regret. what was this shoot for?”

journalism always sounded interesting, but mardra always connected it with rory gilmore and she never considered herself smart enough to do it. she nodded at josie’s words, although her wardrobe and creative choices were mostly based on pinterest ideas or people she had seen walking down the street. biting down on her lip to avoid smiling too wide, she couldn’t help but get excited talking about her work, “i mean, i think they’re good. they have a bedroom pop vibe, but they’re kind of learning their sound at the same time i am.” she paused for a moment, scrunching her face in the other woman’s direction, knowing that she had seen josie somewhere else, “where are you from?”

she rested her chin on the palm of her hand, listening intently as mardra described the band. the other woman’s excitement about her current project brought a small smile to josie’s face. she loved seeing people who were passionate about their work. “they sound really cool! what did you say that their name was again? southbound sail? i’ll have to look them up.” she bit her lip. the question of where she grew up always seemed to catch her off guard and this time was no exception. she played it off with a smile before she continued speaking. “i’m from louisiana actually. i grew up in almswood, it’s about an hour and a half out of baton rouge, spitting distance from mississippi.  i totally don’t expect you to have ever heard of it, it’s a tiny town and isn’t even on most maps. anyways, what about you?”

looking at the other woman’s lunch, mardra couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. she should have gotten something better to eat, but she was too stressed to focus on anything other than work. “its okay,” she said with a smile, glancing at what the blonde had taken out of her bag. “are you in the fashion department?” she asked, figuring most people working in print media had laptops for work, but there was no replacing a classic sketchbook “i’m mardra, it’s nice to meet you. uh, kind of. we just signed a new artist, southbound sail. so i’ve been trying to figure out their sound so my samples aren’t completely out of nowhere.”

as josie pulled her chopsticks out of their paper wrappings, she nodded at the other girl’s inquiry. “yeah, i’m a fashion journalism intern,” she rested her chin on her hand and glanced down towards the sketchbook. “i’m not a designer by any means but it’s fun to play around with making my own stuff sometimes, you know?” she listened intently as her table-mate began explaining the current situation that she had on her hands. “ah, so you’re in music production? that’s really neat, i’ve always wished that i understood more about music. so, are they any good? this new band, i mean”

Kai breathed a little sigh of relief. She had no idea about the Mets or the Jets or hell, even the weather, she hadn’t paid that much attention. If she’d been forced to hold a conversation with someone over that silly little topic she picked and knew nothing about, she would have metaphorically shot herself in the foot for it. All she knew about the Mets and the Jets is that they were a New York thing, their teams rhymed. She had no idea what sort of ball they each threw around, though. “I’m kind of relieved because I wouldn’t have been able to keep up a conversation on that anyway.” She looked down at her shirt, which she’d been trying hard to hide, but obviously failed at it. She shifted a little bit so her jacket covered it a little bit more. Something just made her feel watched in this thing, and it was getting hotter and itchier by the minute. “It’s from Rip Curl,” she said. “It’s like a surf style shop.” 

“glad that i’m not the only one who’s totally clueless in the sports department.” josie grinned. “my parents never made me do team sports as a kid so i never really figured out how anything worked and i’ve never been able to make myself care enough to learn.” she noted the brunette’s response towards the mention of her clothing and bit her lip. she hadn’t been intending to insult the girl’s clothing choices and hoped that she hadn’t interpreted it as such. oh well, she thought. most people didn’t care about clothing nearly as much as she did, which made sense – she did work in the fashion department after all. “anyways, i don’t think that i caught your name.”

@jcsiie​ // closed

although she worked in the art department, naomi often found herself on the fashion floor to visit friends or simply get a change of pace. she paused to fill her water bottle and noticed another person nearby, a face that was vaguely familiar but she hadn’t seen often, maybe just in passing. regardless, naomi found herself walking over to the blonde and smiling warmly at her, “hey, have we met?” she asked in an inviting voice before taking a sip of water.

after looking the figure up and down, josie concluded that while she couldn’t place the other girl, she definitely recognized the her face. “you look good really familiar and i’m pretty sure that i’ve seen you around here,” she replied, gesturing towards the office setting that surrounded them, “but i’m assuming that you work in another department? i’m pretty sure that we would have formally met by now if you were in fashion.” she appreciated the stranger taking the time to initiate a conversation and found herself intrigued. “hey, i don’t know what you have going on in terms of work right now but i was about to go down the street and grab a coffee. would you maybe want to come with me? oh, and i’m josie by way.”