When Blue dreamed of being a costume designer as a young ignorant high schooler, she wasn't exactly sure what that would look like...but she knew whatever it was, she wanted it. Her imagination would run wild with images of an infinite amount of fabrics and textiles piled high to the ceiling of her workshop. There would be rows and rows of people at her command - cutting and stitching and bringing her ideas to life. All the tools and threads would be neatly organized and color-coded along the walls so everyone could easily find what they needed.

But real life wasn't as glamorous as her imagination.

Multiple times, Blue had used a sewing machine on the ground with her leg propped out to the side to push the pedal down. She had lost so many pins and needles that she was afraid to walk around without boots on just to protect her feet. She had personally napped on a pile of fabric at least half a dozen times.

Some of the productions she had worked on previously had a bigger budget than others, and those workshops were somewhat closer to her high school dreams. But in front of her now was a wonderfully blank canvas, ready for her to fill with the colors and textures of her choosing. Her word was final, if she wanted the ribbons organized not only by color but size as well, then so be it. The crisp white walls and floors had just been painted, she could still smell the slightest chemical odor in the air since there were no windows to ventilate the room. The bright fluorescent lights hummed overhead and illuminated the room perfectly so that every tiny stitch would be easily visible. There were three huge workbenches ready to draft patterns and cut fabric on. Lined up against the wall, an assortment of dress forms and mannequins stood at attention as if they were an army battalion awaiting their orders.

As she stepped further into the space, her daydreaming was interrupted by an extremely tall girl sitting at a table typing away furiously on her laptop. Her dark braids covered half of her face because she had to hunch over so far at the small table she was crammed at in the corner. She never even noticed when Blue and Gael entered the room because she was so engrossed in whatever was on her computer screen.

"Hey, Kiara I was hoping you would be in here," Gael interrupted her concentration which caused her to look up from the screen finally. "This is Blue Everson, our new costume designer."

Blue waved hello and said, "hey Kiara, nice to finally meet you! I've heard great things about you from Arjun, especially something about strawberry muffins that make you lose interest in all other baked goods and never want to eat anything else? I think those were his exact words," she chuckled as she remembered his compliment.

Kiara laughed and said, "oh yes strawberry muffins were my obsession two weeks ago, but I've conquered them and now I'm perfecting a blackberry tart." She stood up from the tiny desk and started walking over to them. "I think the ratio of flour to butter is almost optimal, once I figure it out I'll make sure to enlist you as a taste tester."

Blue nodded enthusiastically, "uh yeah anytime you want to throw baked goods in my direction, I'm game. I'd like to say I'm basically a professional sweets eater, so you can trust my tastebuds. I'm also not afraid to be brutally honest..."

"Thank God!" Kiara interrupted. "Gael literally says everything I make is great, which I know is statistically impossible." She gave him a knowing look and shook her head.

He laughed and shrugged, "I guess my sweet taste buds aren't as developed as Blue's apparently are. I'm more of a savory guy."

Blue's jaw dropped and she stared, unblinking. "I will hear no such sacrilege in my sacred workshop. This is a place to worship desserts and pastries! I have a feeling Kiara and I will be ingesting quite a few treats together while we work over the next few months."

Kiara seemed excited to have an experimental subject she could try out new recipes on. Blue seemed excited to have someone that wanted to give her desserts. Already, it was obvious they were going to be a good team.

Gael chatted with Kiara for a few minutes while Blue started unpacking her bag, laying out her notebook and all her tools she brought from home onto one of the workbenches. Here was her first chance to test her theory and see how he interacted with another girl, one that was clearly good looking and smart based on the two minutes she had known her.

He stood at least three feet away from Kiara and leaned up against the wall right behind where Blue unpacked her things. He was definitely comfortable talking with her, but there was something different about it. Kiara cracked a joke and he did the quick blow-air-out-of-nostrils laugh, nothing compared to his normal booming laugh she had begun to look forward to hearing. It was all business, no flirty double entendres or Spanish nicknames.

Well great.

According to the scientific method, she just tested her hypothesis with an experiment and should be able to move forward to the next step, but Blue was too stubborn for that and still needed to test him a few more times. Because, science.

Gael's ringtone interrupted her analysis, "shit, I have to take this. I think you guys are supposed to go over these super-secret sketches Blue has hidden from me anyway, so I'll leave you guys alone."

Gael waved goodbye at Kiara as he began to walk towards the door. He glanced back at Blue, mostly because he couldn't help himself, and smiled as though he wanted to say something, but didn't.

Based on how desperately she wanted to know what he would have said, she relented to herself it might actually be time to move on to the next step.

————

Kiara and Blue began working right away since the tour of the theater cut into their meeting time a bit. At first, they talked about their work styles and what they had in common versus what they could help the other with. She really liked Kiara, immediately warming up to her no-nonsense mentality and creative thought process. Kiara was a planner: measure twice, cut once. Blue, on the other hand, measured never and cut seven times...she got too antsy and wanted to push forward, to do something instead of waiting around thinking about it.

Well, all except for one particular situation about a particular guy in her life, so it seemed.

Kiara liked to analyze for any potential issues, weed through multiple different solutions, then decide on the best way forward. They would balance each other out nicely, which is lucky since Kiara was technically hired to work with the previous designer before she left the production.

Blue finally brought out her leather-bound notebook with her precious sketches inside. She let Kiara browse them at her own pace and ask questions as she thought of them.

"So what do you think?" Blue asked hesitantly.

Kiara paused, chewing on the inside of her cheek while she thought about the depictions of what they would be creating together in front of her. Finally, she looked up at Blue and began to smile a big genuine smile, flashing her bright white teeth and shocking Blue with her enthusiasm.

"I think we are going to blow everyone's minds and make some amazing shit together."

Blue laughed at that and agreed wholeheartedly. She wanted to let Kiara take full ownership of some of the supporting cast and ensemble's costumes by letting her come up with the sketches for them on her own, so she asked if she was interested in doing it before the first production meeting.

"If you don't feel comfortable with that then it's totally fine, I can work on them between now and then," Blue offered.

Kiara looked uncertain, "you're okay with me doing that? I mean I've done tons of sketches before, but I've never been asked to do the final design for something that will actually be on stage. What if they're terrible? Or don't fit in with the feel of what you've already accomplished? Or what if-"

"Don't worry about it! If you do it, we come together again and go over it all and make whatever changes are needed, like we did today. It's not the end of the world if it doesn't line up exactly at first, we can make it work. Like I said before, I am not afraid to be honest, about more than just baked goods, so I'll let you know what I think and we can work on it together to get it where it needs to be. It's up to you..."

Kiara thought about it and then finally nodded slowly and said she would try, but only if she could take photos of Blue’s sketches to use as a reference to make sure to keep them as similar as possible. She would even sketch the figures in the same style so it would look like one cohesive project.

Blue smiled warmly and told her "whatever makes you step out of your comfort zone and accomplish what you need to. I'm a challenger, I like to push people to see what they can do. But I'm not afraid to help along the way, so don't ever feel bad asking."

"Okay then. I'll try to have them for you in a few days and you can flush them down the toilet if they are terrible. I'll cry for a week if that happens, but the show must go on."

Blue joked, "no way, New York City plumbing can't handle that. I'll just light them on fire and burn them. Get rid of the evidence."

Kiara laughed and agreed, "ah yes that will be so much better, I'll cry for a whole month then instead!"

————

After their meeting was over, Kiara headed straight back to the tiny desk in the corner to start researching what she wanted to do with the sketches. Wanting to give her space and a quiet place to her work, Blue decided to pack up and head home. She needed to make a plan for their visit to the garment district in a couple of days and wanted to make sure she was able to go through her collection of fabrics at home to know what she might already have.

She went down the stairs and waved at Jin as she passed. He was laying completely flat on the ground in a bed of sawdust under a workbench, hammering something into place with his right hand and waving with his left.

As she headed through the doorway into the office hallway, she saw Arjun coming in at the opposite end through the side entrance door at the exact same moment. He smiled when he saw her and did nothing but hold up a plain white grocery bag and wag his eyebrows in her direction as if to say, 'want some?'. Even from the other end of the hall, she could recognize the bag and the shape of the containers inside to know exactly what he meant.

Her eyes got wide and she shook her head to say, 'oh dear God yes!’ and turned immediately left into the break room.

Arjun's mom had cooked for them; it was time to feast.

————

It had been a long time since her belly was full of the most delicious biryani in the existence of all mankind, so Blue sat back in her chair and savored the warm feeling she had after inhaling the food Arjun had spread out all around the break room's table for them.

"She hasn't lost her touch, I see?" Blue mumbled as she stretched her arms above her head.

Arjun snapped a photo quickly on his phone before Blue could catch him and immediately sent it to his mom. "You know her greatest joy in life is seeing how miserably full someone is after eating her food! This will make her entire week!"

Blue rolled her eyes and relented, "only because Rida deserves whatever she wants after sending a meal like that. And here I was wondering what I would have to do for dinner, probably just eat some Twizzlers and go to bed." She was a good cook, pretty phenomenal actually especially with smoked meats or Tex-Mex, but she was just too lazy sometimes to cook for one person. Thinking of the ratio of dirty dishes created versus food eaten is what made her often choose takeout, but she usually preferred real food cooked in a real kitchen.

Arjun looked horrified, "oh God, I'll leave that out of my text. She would probably be moving into your apartment tomorrow to take care of you and fatten you up. 'Too skinny to find a husband' were her exact words when you came over after finals in freshman year, right?"

"Oh no. I guess she was right! Look at me now," she waved her hands over her body, "still single and with no prospects."

"Uh, I don't know about that...there is one very good looking prospect a few doors down that I think would satisfy Rida's desire to marry you off," Arjun nodded his head in the direction of Gael's office.

Blue rubbed her hand over her face and sighed. Should she tell Arjun about the small moments she'd had with Gael? She knew she could trust him with her life, but he loved to help so much that he might try to...help. She didn't know if she even wanted anything to happen with Gael anyways, it would be so complicated and she still wasn't sure what was going on in his head.

"Yeah right, I literally have no time for anything other than deciding on a cotton blend versus wool right now. By the way, do you have a final budget for me and a spending card? Or should I just put in for reimbursements after I make purchases?" Blue tried to change the subject smoothly. "Kiara and I will be going fabric shopping at some point, we can just get swatches first and wait to buy until after the first production meeting."

"Yeah I am picking up everyone's spending cards by next week, so I'll let you know when I have them. I intended to get them today, but when I tried to go in Gael's office to get the bank account info the she-devil Carrie was in there with him. Based on what I heard it was better for my health to stay away and just try another time."

Blue tried to play it cool, "yeah I accidentally walked right in without realizing she was here and it was super tense. Gael looked like she was draining the life from him and she looked a little resentful about not getting the job. Why would she even be here?"

Arjun started stacking up all the Tupperware containers that were now empty of roti and chutneys and launched into what was apparently going to be a very interesting story, according to the location of his eyebrows arched high as could be on his forehead.

"Well from what I now know, they worked together two shows ago. It was a small off-Broadway show, I think it was a super modern take on all the Henry IV plays combined into one, or something like that. Anyways, he had the lead role and she was the assistant costume designer when they started dating. Like full-on, real relationship, move in together dating. Not just a coworker with benefits."

She gestured for him to hand her the stack of Tupperware so she could start washing it, knowing Rida would expect every single one returned sparkling clean and with its matching lid.

"Everything seemed off from day one, she was controlling and manipulative to basically everyone around her, but with him, she was like a dragon hoarding her rubies. She would create drama just for the sake of it. Constantly trying to make life around her fit her idealized self-image, she acted like she could do no wrong and made sure everyone knew it. Well, that gets old right?"

Blue nods attentively while she rinsed the last container and started to dry them all off, the disgust for this girl growing with each sentence Arjun uttered about her.

"So the entire crew and even the cast start getting really tired of her shit and the drama she brought with her, but Gael glossed over it every time she caused an incident. He would just try to make peace with everyone involved. Hell, he even flat out ignored her multiple times. Whatever happened towards the end almost cost him the role, but no one really talks about it so I don't know exactly what happened. Well, finally, they break up - it's very sudden and no one knows what the last straw was that made it actually end. They have to live through the rest of the show still working 'together' on opposite ends of the theater."

"Wow. She sounds like a real sweetheart,” Blue sneered. "How in the world did she even get considered for this show then if they have such a bad history?"

"Well, that's the weird thing, when I heard all this I asked Julian the same thing. Apparently she's great at what she does so the team thought it might be worth at least talking to her since it had been years and hopefully water under the bridge. Blue, her interview wasso embarrassing. Like Fergie singing the national anthem embarrassing. She was obviously trying to immediately manipulate Gael, in front of everyone, to give her the job. I have to say he did a good job of not being fooled twice and finished the interview as a professional courtesy, but damn if I wouldn't have paid money to see him call her out right then and there," Arjun look wistful at the prospect of the amount of gossip he would have had just from that one incident.

This entire story was proof enough she couldn't tell anyone, not even Arjun, about her moments with Gael. It sounded eerily similar to her situation and put her off a little. It was probably best to just wait it out, keep her distance, and everything would all go away soon. Production was starting and everyone would be so busy there would be no time for such romantic notions anyways.

Blue said, "well luckily for everyone I'm so amazing that I defeated the she-devil before she could get her claws into this show...and also that poor guy Bobby or Billy or whatever, I defeated him too, fair and square," then she added a cheeky hair flip at the end just to reiterate how grateful Arjun should be for her gracious reign as champion.

He rolled his eyes and laughed at her, "oh yes, thank you our most benevolent Queen Bluebonnet of the Costume Department." He mockingly bowed at her, "where would we be without you?"

"Probably trying to gossip with Billy instead?" Blue said as she tossed the last clean lid into the same grocery bag they arrived in and tied the handles together.

Arjun took the bag from her, agreeing she was a lot more fun to gossip with than Billy what's-his-name probably would be.

Blue was headed home with a full belly, while Arjun planned to stay and keep working on the production schedule he'd been putting together to hand out to everyone at the first production meeting coming up soon.

"Thanks for dinner. I feel like I haven't seen you since we started working together, so it was nice to just sit and chat," Blue said as she gave him a hug goodbye and headed left out of the break room.

Arjun agreed, "let's make a plan to have a meal together at least once a week so we don't get stuck in business mode only!" He got louder as she got further away. "That way we can still have some normal gossip in our life!"

Blue was walking backwards down the hall and yelled to him, "deal!" before turning around and heading home to start planning her trip to the garment district of New York City.