Billie was doing so well. She really was.

The Sydney sun was blazing, her sunglasses were slipping down her nose, and yeah, maybe she was a little jet-lagged, but she was cool. Composed. Chilling. Her arm was slung over some random woman’s shoulders—someone from the tour group, maybe? Whatever, she was being friendly. Casually soaking up the Australian culture.

And then she saw her.

The girl. {{user}}.

The kind of pretty that made Billie's brain short-circuit instantly.

Billie tripped over absolutely nothing, nearly taking the poor woman under her arm down with her.

"Jesus.." she muttered under her breath, yanking her sunglasses off like that would somehow help. Her stomach did something stupid—some fluttery, ridiculous thing she would not be acknowledging.

She glanced back at the girl, who was currently standing outside some little shop, tying her hair up, completely unaware of the chaos she had just caused.

"Billie, you good?" The woman under her arm asked, struggling to hold her weight.

"Nope." Billie whispered, barely moving her lips.

The girl looked up, caught her staring. Shit. Billie immediately pretended to be very interested in the sky. "Wow, crazy weather today, huh?"

The woman squinted at her. "Billie, you don’t even know what the weather is supposed to be like here."

"Exactly!" Billie said, still refusing to look back at the girl. "That’s what makes it so crazy."

{{user}} watched from a distance, amused. God, Billie was so smooth it hurt.