Holy Mackerel

“Huh, what?” He hadn’t noticed that he’d zoned out until the woman spoke to him. “Oh, no, no, no, sorry. I wasn’t staring. I was just, um, thinking.”

“Thinking?” She wasn’t all that convinced.

“Sorry, you kinda have…” He trailed off pointing to his own lips, “Something on your lips. Sorry for staring.. It was kinda bothering me.”

“Oh god, for real? What? What is it?” She started brushing at her lips.

“Oh!” Evie exclaimed as she was pulled abruptly out of her daze, shaking her head. “I’m so sorry, you’re not even the first person I’ve done this to today - can I blame lack of sleep? My neighbor - who’s perfectly lovely - just got this dog. A very big, very loud dog. It’s an adjustment.” She admitted with a chuckle. Stevie felt herself beginning a ramble and attempted to cut it off. She had an unfortunate habit of letting her words just sort of… spill out when she was flustered or surprised - which happened to be two of her default settings.

“Right. Dog, no sleep. Got it. You should invest in earplugs or a white noise machine... maybe? I don’t have any other ideas.”

“Oh god, sorry,” Diana said as she blushed lightly.  “I just really love that lipstick color.  What is it?”

“Oh! Thanks, uhm, I think it’s cherry pop or something like that. It’s nothing fancy just drugstore a brand.”

Aiden was taken aback as he realised that he was indeed staring. “Oh sorry. I didn’t mean to. There’s a fallen eyelash on your cheek.” He pointed.

“I guess there could be worse things on my face.” She smiled softly and brushed it away. “Thanks for letting me know anyway. And I forgive you for staring.”

“I was actually looking at that poster behind you,” she replied, gesturing to the missing pet poster on the lamppost. “Your face is fine though. Completely clean.”

“Poster?” She looked back. “Oh. That sucks... At least we live on an island so it couldn’t have gotten that far.“

“Oh goodness, I’m sorry. I’m a bit on the tired side due to a long day at work and seemed to zone out,” Savannah apologized with a small frown. “But no, you don’t have anything on your face.”

“Ah. Cool, thank you. You were looking pretty intently, it seemed like, so I was really getting worried.”