Safely tucked away inside my favourite purse is a Dior lipstick that I never meant to buy. Upon realizing (after having paid for it) that it was over $40, I swore I would never lose it and so it has carefully been moved from zippered purse pocket to zippered purse pocket for more than a year.

I wear it on a special occasions: dates, important meetings and interviews. In fact, I’ve worn it to every interview I’ve had in the last year. I got every job I interviewed for. Its nude-y pink, while probably not the secret to my interviewing success, makes me feel ladylike and classic and even a little glamorous.

The story behind The Lipstick, however, makes me laugh.

I met Mr Hockey Coach just over two years ago and after our first date we were both convinced the other wasn’t interested. So, even though he followed up with a nice message I completely ignored him because I’m a real bitch I guess?

Imagine my surprise (and now, admittedly, happiness) when I texted him to say “hi!” six months later and we decided to go out for a drink on a Sunday night in August. That Friday, I bought myself a pretty new dress and we hit up Obladee for a “second” (but really actually our third) date. We sat outside. It was lovely. I was so nervous, I still can’t believe I managed to not throw up (from nerves, not the wine) on either one of us.

For our next date, he suggested we hang out at his place and gave me his address. I’m pretty sure I had hives as a result of my nervousness. (Mom, you should probably stop reading now.) I was all “OH MY GOD, are we going to have sex?!” so I actually went to the mall and bought new underwear (this is no exaggeration) and then I went to Sephora because clearly I needed new makeup if there was a chance we were knocking boots.

I shit you not when I tell you I went to a washroom AT THE MALL and put on the new underwear.

I wandered around Sephora and had settled on a Fresh balm when the sneaky salesgirl showed me this beautiful Greige lip colour – it was perfect. And I was like “Sure, I’ll take it.” and handed her my credit card and left, still wondering what would go down when I arrived at Chez Hockey Coach. (No pun intended, I swear.)

I won’t tell you how the evening went, but I will tell you that I’m fairly confident he didn’t notice The Lipstick.