"Kiyah, this is brilliant. This is actually really moving." My best friend, Ariel, said as she finished reading the lastest article I wrote. "But it's not good enough to appear in Lilac magazine." Lilac magazine is the largest magazine company in upstate New York. Everyone wants their article to feature in Lilac magazine, the competition is fierce.

 

I let out a deep sigh, "I busted my off in grad school and for what? To be Kiyah Faye, the 'How To Girl.' I write articles like "How to love your legs" and "How to maintain a perfect garden." 

 

Ariel laughed softly as she sat on the corner of my desk, listening to my usual morning rants. 

 

"I want to write about things that matter! Culture, acceptance, individuality. Something that I'm interested in." I finished then looked up at Ariel.

 

"Just continue to bust your and you'll get there." She gave me comforting smile then stood up from my desk. "Away from all of that. I know something that will cheer you up~." She softly sang the last part. 

 

I turned my chair around to face her, indicating her to continue. 

 

"So you know that HR guy that you've been endlessly flirting with." She pulled out an plain white envelope from her desk drawer. "I guess all that finally paid off." She handed me the envelope.

 

"What's this?" I looked down at it. 

 

"Open it." 

 

I quickly opened the envelope. Once I saw what was inside I was beyond happy. "NBA finals tickets!" I squealed, earning a few looks from the other co-workers. This may not seem like that big of a deal but I'm a huge basketball fan. "You're gonna go with me right?" I looked back at Ariel.

 

"But of course." She let out a laugh. 

 

 

"Staff meeting, 20 minutes." I heard one of my co-workers say. 

 

"Hey, have you seen Mia? I haven't seen her all morning." 

 

We both gave each other a look because we already knew what was up. 

 

"How much you want to bet that she's wailing right now?" Ariel said. 

 

I sighed, "Its my turn this time. Meet me in front of the building in 20. Bring coffee." 

 

 

~~~~~~

 

The walked through the corridor of Mia's building. I reached her apartment and knocked on the door. Mia opened the door, she was a mess. She looked like she had been crying all day and night. She gave me a forced smile. 

 

"Hey. How are you doing?" I spoke softly. 

 

Her smile faded and she began balling, again. 

 

I held onto her shoulders, "Get dressed." I let go of her and walked into her apartment. "We have a staff meeting in fifteen minutes." 

 

"I'm going back to bed." Mia shuffled to her bed then laid down. "I have no reason to live." She grabbed a tissue and blew her nose.

 

"Don't be so dramatic Mia." I went to the window and opened the curtains. "Look the sun is shining." 

 

I sat on the end of the bed and threw her a baby pink sweater dress. "Ooo cashmere." She snuggled with it. 

 

"Now put it on and let's go. I don't need you getting fired on top of everything." 

 

Mia reached over and gave me a hug. She sobbed on my shoulder. "It's okay. You only dated him for a week." I said and she continued to hug me. 

 

"It was the best week of my life." I rolled my eyes at her comment. I got up from the bed and pulled her off as well. 

 

"Let's go." 

 

 

(Tae's POV)

 

Traffic was terrible as I rode to work. There must have been an accident somewhere because cars were at a dead stop. I looked around then rode through all the halted cars. Benefit of driving a motorcycle. 

 

I finally reached my destination. I parked my bike and took my helmet off. 

 

I walked into my office and began to take off my jacket. Earning a couple stares from the women in the office as I did. 

 

 

"Tae. Did you hear?" My friend, Jimin, came into my office. 

 

"No. What is it?" He can tend to be a little frazzled so his early excitement was normal.  

 

"Sparklets is looking for  advertising to promote their new collection and Warren said he definitely wanted our company to be apart of it." 

 

"Are you serious? This is perfect." I got out of my seat. "Advertising makes up most of diamonds profitability. Sparklets is the major business in jewelry. Meaning, if I'm representing them then I'm basically representing the entire industry." 

 

I looked at Jimin and he didn't share the same excitement as I did. "What?" 

 

"Warren gave the job away already to the people on third floor." 

 

"What?" The people on the third floor, or as we call them 'The Robots', always take away any of our advertising opportunities. 

 

"Warren trusts their expertise more. We're only use to advertising sneakers and beer." Jimin looked at his feet then back at me.

 

I grabbed my keys, "I have to go talk to Warren." 

 

"No you can't. He's on a plane to Chicago." Jimin blocked me from leaving out the door. "And plus, he's meeting the robots at The Oak Bar on 5th avenue tonight to discuss their business plans. The decision is final. Warren's the boss. You can't change his mind."

 

"The Oak Bar on 5th avenue? Okay." I moved my way through Jimin and the door then left my office. 

 

"Tae where are you going?" Jimin called out to me. When I ignored him, he sighed and went to his office. 

 

(Kiyah's POV)

 

Mia and I exited the cab in front of our work building. On cue, Ariel stood waiting for us with three coffee cups in her hand. 

 

"I just don't want to talk about it okay?" Mia said to Ariel as she handed her the cup of coffee. 

 

"Okay." Ariel nodded then looked at me.

 

I shrugged and we began walking in the building. 

 

We only made it a few feet in the building when Mia stopped right in her tracks. "Why does this always happen to me? Everything was going fine for about a week and a half then all of a sudden it's over! And I'm miserable. Really, I'm miserable because it always starts off so well." Mia cried then continued walking towards the elevator. 

 

Me and Ariel looked at each other and softly rolled our eyes. 

 

"Our poor baby." Ariel said as we followed behind her. 

 

"You know after the first time we slept together, I cried because it was so beautiful." Mia went on. 

 

"You cried?" Ariel asked. 

 

"Yeah, I was really emotional. I even told him I loved him." 

 

"After how many days?" I looked over at her.

 

"Five." 

 

"Five days?!" I widened my eyes.

 

"That's how I felt, I needed to express myself." Mia whined. 

 

"Oookay. So what did he say?" I pressed the button for the elevator. 

 

"Oh he didn't have to say anything. I could tell he felt the same." Mia smiled at the thought. "But then he started to get really busy and I didn't know where he was so I kept calling and calling and he wasn't answering. He was never home an-" 

 

"You kept calling him?" I sighed and turned to look at her. 

 

"I didn't leave a message. He didn't know it was me, my number was blocked." Mia tried to justify herself. 

 

The elevator door opened and we all walked inside. The door closed and we began to move up. 

 

"But anyway, I know why he dumped me...." Mia paused.  "I'm too fat." She looked down at her stomach. 

 

"You're not fat!" Me and Ariel both said simultaneously. 

 

The doors opened and we walked out the elevator. 

 

"Mia, if the most beautiful girl in the world acted the way you did, any normal guy would still run in the opposite direction." I explained to her. 

 

"No Kiyah. No guy would go running away from you." Mia sulked. "You could barf all over him and he'll ask you to do it again." She rolled her eyes. 

 

"That is both incredibly gross and totally untrue." I let out a laugh. "If I did the things you did I would get dumped too." I said as we walking into the conference room.

 

We all sat in the conference room and listened to the ridiculous ideas that would be added to the magazine this month.

 

"How's it going with 'How to with Kiyah'?" My boss, Lana, asked me, taking me out of my trance. 

 

"It's going great. I was actually thinking about writing something new. It's a piece on Cultur-" 

 

"Kiyah." Lana started, "How many times do I have to tell you? You don't write about anything other than lifestyle and home living. You write what I tell you to write. Understand?" 

 

I only gave her a soft smile, "Yes."

 

"Thank you." She smiled then looked at the other side of the room. "What about you Mia?" 

 

"Oh, uh.." Mia sat up from the chair and moved the tissue from her nose.

 

"Don't mind her." Ariel spoke up. "She was just dumped." 

 

"Oh no." Lana said sympathetically then her frown turned into a smile. "You should write about it." 

 

"Oh no. I can't write about my personal life." Mia said and shook her head. 

 

"Of course." Lana nodded then turned, "So who would like to write an article about Mia's personal life?"

 

"I'll do it." One of the ladies in the room shouted and put her hand up in the air. 

 

"No! Lana, no offense but she has no business to dig into my personal life and I won't let her." Mia defended. 

 

"I'll do it." I finally spoke up.

 

Mia and Ariel both looked my direction. "What?" Said Mia. 

 

"Uh- I'll sort of do it. You'll be my inspiration." I smiled at her.

 

"For?" Lana asked turning her attention to me.

 

"Look at Mia. She's a great girl right?" I began to explain. "An amazing women. But she has a problem hanging onto relationships and she doesn't know why. Just like a lot of our readers." 

 

"Mhmm." Lana said, waiting for me to go on. 

 

I continued, "So I was thinking, I'll start by dating a guy then driving him away but only using the classic mistakes that most people, like Mia, make all the time."

 

Lana looked at me, interested.

 

"I'll keep a diary of it and it will be like a dating how-to in reverse." I finished. 

 

"Like what not to do?" Lana smiled. "Yes." I returned the smile.

 

"How to lose a guy in 10 days' I like it." Lana turned, "Now w-" 

 

I cut her off, "Wait, I'm sorry. Why ten days?"

 

"Because 5 is too short and we go to publishing in 11." Lana looked away from me and continued to speak again. "Next."

 

I sighed and sat back in my seat.

 

~~~~~~~~~

 

Ariel, Mia and I all planned to go this place called the Oak Bar after work. 

 

I finished getting dressed then looked at myself in the mirror. "This is good enough." I said to myself then walked out to meet with the girls.

 

After 15 minutes we arrived at the Bar. 

 

"You are not going to be able to pull this off." Ariel said while she laughed at my plan. 

 

"Watch me. Tonight, I'll find a guy. Tomorrow, I'll flip the switch. Before the ten days are up im going to have this poor guy running for his life." I laughed along with the two.

 

"You're not gonna burn his house down or kidnap his dog, are you?" Ariel looked at me. 

 

I smiled, "No. I'm only going to limit myself to all the things women do wrong in relationships. Everything we know that guys hate." They laughed and I continued. "I'll be clingy, needy-"

 

"Be touchy-feely." Ariel added. "Oh, call him in the middle of the night just to tell him everything you had to eat that day." We both laughed. 

 

"What's wrong with that?" Mia said. We all laughed then entered the bar. 

 

(Tae's POV)

 

I got to the Oak Bar at 7:30 sharp. I made my way to the back of the room and waited at an empty table. It had only been a few minutes until Warren walked in with his two robots. 

 

"Tae." Warren didn't look too happy to see me, neither did his minions. "What are you doing here?"

 

"I'm here for the meeting." I opened the chair for him. "Robo-I mean gentlemen. Nice seeing you."

 

"But you're not invited." The taller robot said to me. 

 

"Yeah but I should've been. I mean it was me who came up with the ad for Sparklets just in case they were looking for advertisement, which they are." 

 

"I understand that but we need to look at who's best to represent our company." Warren said and sat in his seat.

 

"Yes sir and that's me. I want to handle this pitch." I smiled and sat across from him.

 

"You do sell the best for your department, I'll give you that. But these guys sell luxury better than anyone in the business. We need our best players on this. Sparklets is our biggest account." 

 

"Yes sir, but I believe if you would just give me this chance, you will not regret it." I pulled opened my briefcase and began to explain all the ideas that I had came up with. 

 

"Okay okay. I'll give you this one chance. But this is really important so don't disappoint me." Warren said then got up from table. "I won't sir, I promise." I smiled and shook his hand. 

 

When Warren was gone, I sat back in my seat, smile still on my face. 

 

"Well you sure seem satisfied with yourself." Robot #1 spoke up. 

 

"I am. I have my ways to get things to work in my direction." I smirked.

 

"Oh really?" Robot #2 looked at me unconfidently. 

 

"I have an art for manipulating my way with people. Why do you think I'm so good with the ladies?" I lounged back and took a sip of my drink.

 

"So you're saying that you can even get any girl in this room to like you?" Said Robot #2.

 

"Like is so elementary. I'm talking about head over heels in love. I can make any girl fall in love with me." I finished my drink.

 

"Sparklets is having a launch party a week from Sunday. Do you think you can make a girl fall in love with you by then?" Robot #1 gave me a smug look. 

 

"In 10 days?" I let out a laugh. 

 

"Yep. And we'll pick the girl, right now, in this bar." 

 

"Okay." I turned around in my chair. "Who's the lucky lady?" 

 

The robots' eyes began to scan the bar. I looked around and waited until Robot #1 finally spoke up.

 

"Her." He pointed in a direction and I followed with my eyes. "The girl in the red dress and gold shoes with the curly hair." I looked at the girl up and down. She was a smaller girl, her hair was dark and her smile was bright. 

 

I turned away from looking at the girl.

 

"If you can't get her to fall in love with you by that party, then you'll have to give up the Sparklets ad to us." Robot #2 nudged #1 as he said this. 

 

I thought about it then nodded, "Okay." I smiled. "We have a deal."