This morning, I did what I've been doing for months.
Made a coffee.
Opened Seek.
Sent out a few more résumés.
Another accounting role.
Another administration job.
Another "We'll keep your application on file."
After a while, they all started looking the same.
I shut my laptop and walked out to the backyard.
The succulents needed a little attention.
Some had grown through winter without me even noticing.
One tiny leaf had fallen into another pot and somehow started growing there.
I always find that amazing.
Sometimes the strongest things grow without making any noise.
When I came back inside, the white box was still on the dining table.
Exactly where I had left it yesterday.
I picked it up.
Turned it over.
Brand new.
Still sealed.
For a second, I almost put it back.
I don't know why.
Maybe because opening it somehow made yesterday feel... real.
I peeled off the plastic wrapping slowly.
Inside was the LumiSpa.
Simple.
Clean.
Much smaller than I had imagined.
I held it for a minute, then put everything back into the box.
I didn't use it.
Not yet.
I realised something today.
It wasn't the LumiSpa I was curious about.
It was why Ninuo had been so sure I'd like it.
She never used to be someone who recommended anything.
At university, she could hardly decide what to order for lunch.
Yesterday, she handed me that little white box without the slightest hesitation.
That confidence wasn't there twenty years ago.
Somewhere along the way, she'd changed.
And I wanted to know how.
Next Tuesday suddenly felt a long way away.