moving up, moving on

March 2038 - Justus Lim and Pierce Phillips are 30, Phoebe Dai Bui is 29.

Justus and Pierce don't see each other very often, but one day out of the blue Justus calls and asks him to come over. "I need to talk to you," Justus says. "It's important."

They haven't seen each other in a couple of years, but they're still friends, and Pierce can't let him down. "I'll come by before work," he says.

not a con man, a con artist

January 2034 - Justus Lim is 25, Phoebe Dai is 24 (Whitney Riley is 23).

Justus and Phoebe got engaged in college, but after college their relationship hits a snag due to their incompatible careers.

"You're going to get arrested!" Phoebe yells at Justus. "You deserve to get arrested. You're a con man!"

"Con artist," Justus corrects.

heartbreaker

Fall Semester 2028 - Madison Miller-Kim is 20.

Madison knows what other people say about her - maneater, heartbreaker. She's never thought of herself that way. She'll concede that she's had a lot of boyfriends, and she's noticed that she's always the one who walks away. But the truth is a lot more complicated than those epithets imply.

young love

2020 - Madison Miller-Kim is 12, Tom Smith is 14.

Madison is 12 the year she first notices boys. Specifically, she notices Tom Smith. They've been friends for years, but now she sees him in a completely new way. She notices his floppy brown hair and dreamy brown eyes, and her insides feel all gooey. He seems to notice her too.


One fall afternoon they meet at the park. At first they keep it light, joking and laughing just like when they were younger. But then the topic turns to dance. Madison's been a ballet dancer since she was five; Tom's a soccer player and thinks dance is just a silly girl thing.

"I don't dance," he insists.

"You wouldn't even dance with me?"


And he does, and her heart flutters, and it's everything she dreamed it would be - her first kiss, her first love.


But even though she loves Tom, she also loves boys. It isn't long before she's back at that same park, dancing with another boy, Justus Lim.