Both times I’d last seen Celeste, I’d been wearing my usual work outfits. This is the first time Celeste has seen me in full makeup and a dress since college. Granted, there could be a whole other reason why she’s acting like this. But even the slightest possibility of her becoming this worked up about me looking nicer than usual makes me blush even harder.

I barely manage to finish the transcription and hit save.

The café had almost been empty when I came in, but by the time Celeste comes back with her drink, it’s almost full, probably because it’s now pouring outside. Every table around us is taken with people either hanging out or just taking refuge from the rain. Friends catch up over lattes, and various individuals read books with their steaming mugs of coffee. There are even a few other people on their laptops, which makes me feel better about working on a Sunday.

Celeste sits back down, and I look up from my computer again. She’s gotten herself a hot Americano in a cute turquoise mug. Yup, Celeste is definitely staring at me, her eyes lingering on my currently pink-painted lips.

I clear my throat and push my laptop in her direction. “So, what do you think? I’m going to add more text to introduce and conclude the piece when we have all the interviews, and the design team is going to make the layout look more polished, but this is basically what I have right now.”

She slowly scrolls through what I have so far. From the way her eyes are moving, I can tell she’s going from the pictures she took to the text I wrote and vice versa.

“It looks amazing, so far,” she says. “I like the pictures you picked out. Great choices, Gem. I can tell you put a lot of care in selecting the ones you did.”

“Thanks. And yeah, I did my best.”

Celeste sent me a folder of all the photos she’d taken during the interviews, and it’d been up to me to choose which ones to use. It was hard to only select a few, but I tried to choose pictures that I thought best portrayed the subjects’ personalities, based on the time we spent with them.

“I love this picture of Case laughing,” Celeste says with a smile. “Their entire face is lighting up.”

I grin, too. “Yup, that’s why I chose it.”

Our eyes meet. Celeste’s gaze flickers down to my lips again before she looks away.

I go over some more logistical things with Celeste, explaining to her what Evelyn told me about the timeline for the project. Overall, compared to our previous encounters, it’s a very productive meeting. By the time I finish, the din of the coffee shop is so loud that I have to practically shout to be heard. “Do you have any questions or concerns?”