She woke up with a debilitating headache from the previous night's partying and staggered out into the living room. She blinked as the sun, which was *way* too high and bright for this time of day, seared into her eyes.

She had broken one of her own personal rules - get out before the hangover hits.

Her roommate sat on the couch, fully dressed and made up as though Saturday was just a regular day, watching television. Hannah Gadsby's voice could be heard saying, "Stop. Who do you want to be?"

Despite her hangover, she smiled. That was always the question, wasn't it?

She sat down on the couch next to her roommate and tried to put together some coherent speech. "Hey, do I feel as bad as I look?"

Her roommate didn't take her eye of the television, but scooted away. "Ugh, probably. You're in the 'find out' phase this morning; I told you to take it easier."

She rolled her eyes. If she'd known her roommate would be like this, she'd have definitely made different choices about who she wanted to be yesterday. "Could you just look and tell me? How bad are the bags under my eyes?"

Her roommate sighed heavily. "I'm not your fucking mirror." But she took the bait and looked away from the comedy show, into her eyes, for just long enough.

-------------------------------------------------

She paused the show and set down the remote control. Her roommate looked around groggily, and with slurred speech, asked what was going on.

"Don't worry, you just had a bit too much to drink last night and blacked out. You're through the worst of it. I'll get you a glass of water, and then you can rest while I go out."

Her roommate's eyes shot open. "Ohmygod I hopeIdinntsex."

She sighed. "You did not." It was her biggest regret from last night - she'd gotten too much alcohol in her system, too quickly, to be able to spend the night with anyone. It was sometimes the price of being someone you didn't actually want to be.

Her answer seemed to satisfy her roommate's concerns. "Oh good, I'd wanna rememberthat." She smiled and lost consciousness on the couch.

She checked her hair and makeup in the mirror, then got the promised glass of water and set it on the table next to the couch. Her roommate would want it when she woke up, and she had places to go and people to be.

-------------------------------------------------

He regretfully pulled his gaze away from the eyes of the gorgeous woman at the coffee shop. She seemed like she'd be fun, but lingering carried risks, and sometimes moving on was necessary. He looked at the receipt for his drink, then decided to get one more for the road. As he pulled out his wallet, he checked for the usual details - name, address, photos, things like that - and did more of the same with his phone as he waited. He noticed the cute barista staring at him, and looked her up and down, considering the possibilities. In the end, though, he shook his head - he didn't want to be someone at work. Besides, he was pretty sure he was too old for her right now.

As he left, he called his younger brother. It looked like they hadn't talked in a while, and maybe it was a good time to catch up.

-------------------------------------------------

It had definitely been a good time to catch up, he thought, as he got ready to go out with his friends for the evening. His older brother hadn't had any plans except for some boring-ass reading, and who would want to be someone who spent a Saturday night doing *that*? He checked his outfit, made sure he had some condoms in his wallet in case things went well, and texted the group chat to tell them he was ready to go.

The club was packed. This provided a chaos that normally suited his purposes very well, but he liked who he was tonight. He looked around trying to meet someone else's eyes for a different reason than normal.

Then, across the dance floor, he saw her, dressed in a flimsy dress that left little to the imagination. She moved with a confidence and abandon that suggested, contrary to his knowledge, she hadn’t been passing out with a hangover not twelve hours earlier. The glass of water must have really done the trick.

He approached her. It was a delicious coincidence that last night, she was who he wanted to be, and tonight, she was who he wanted to be with.