Silver Lining

2. Candlelit dinners

49 days before

I pulled my phone out of my black Prada handbag, and checked the time. 6:00. There would be enough time to run to the pharmacy and grab a bottle of makeup remover before I started to make dinner. I put my phone back in my bag. "I'm just going to the pharmacy. I'll be back in twenty minutes, do you need anything babe?" I called out to Theo.

"No thanks, I'll see you in a bit!" He called from the kitchen.

"Alright, see ya!" I slipped on a pair of black ballet flats, and went out the door. Asher, our Bichon Frise puppy tried to come with me. "Come on, Asher. I'll be back soon, bub. Stay with Theo." The little dog whined, and my heart melted. "Aww, baby. You can't go into the pharmacy with me! I promise I'll take you to the dogpark tomorrow." He still looked at me, longing to come with me. "Theo, can you call Asher please? He wants to come with me," I called out to Theo.

"Asher! Come here boy!" He called, and the puppy ran off happily. I left, and went down the stairs into the apartment lobby.

"Hey, Madison. How are you?" Luke, our neighbour asked.

"Hi Luke. Good thanks, yourself?"

"Pretty good. I think there's some mail for you." He pointed in the direction of the mailboxes.

"Okay, I'll go grab it, thanks. See you around."

"See you!"

I walked towards the glass doors leading onto the street, stopping at the row of mail boxes before the doors. There was a white envelope sticking out of it, about to fall out. I took it out, and stuffed it in my hand bag without looking at it.

Main street is only a five minute walk from our apartment, which is nice. There's shops and restaurants, and a couple of little businesses. I walked into the pharmacy, and headed straight for the makeup aisle. I grabbed a bottle of Rimmel gentle eye makeup remover, and went towards the counter. Or I tried to, at least. But I may or may not of got stuck at a display of Maybelline lipsticks. I picked up a pretty coral pink colour. I tended to stick to reds for lipsticks, but this was a nice colour. And hey, maybe it would look brilliant and I'd be converted to coral lipsticks! But did I really need another lipstick? Oh, the struggle. I checked the price sticker. Eight dollars. Well, I'll try it, and if it doesn't look good, I'll stick to reds.

I went up to the counter, and placed the lipstick and makeup remover on the counter. "Hello, how are you?" Asked the lady at the counter.

"Good thanks, yourself?"

"Brilliant, thanks. Is that all for today?" She asked as she scanned the items.

"Yep, thank you." I pulled my purse out of my handbag, and handed her a twenty dollar note.

The lady put the note in the till and gave me a five cent coin back. "Are you the girl off Youtube?"

I nodded. "Yup, that's me."

She smiled. "My niece absolutely loves your videos, she watches them everyday. Do you think I could get an autograph for her, please?"

"Of course." I said with a smile. It just made you feel so good when you hear that people watch and love your videos.

The woman handed me a piece of note paper, and an orange pen. I signed my name quickly, loopy and slightly messy. I did a little love heart next to my name, and slid the paper and pen back across the counter to the woman. "Thank you so much," she said. "Lilly will be over the moon."

I smiled again. "No problem. Have a good day! Tell Lilly I say hi."

"I will! Thank you so much, have a good day!" She called as I walked out of the pharmacy, and down the street towards the direction of our apartment.