All articles filed in Short Stories

Rushing, he pushes forward to grab his cup of coffee off of the barista bar. He realizes he is late and begins to walk briskly to the subway entry. He grabs his card and scans, it lights up red; not enough credit to take this train. His coffee in his hands is hot, his bag is heavy and now, he heads to the machine to add credit to his card. After 5 minutes, he rushes back to the gate to scan again, this time it goes green and he rushes to the Broadway Line tunnel.

The train is delayed, he is standing in the subway tunnel starting to panic, as it was his big presentation day at work. This was that rare opportunity where he would be seen by the big boss and finally standout in the office. The only thing is now, he is running behind schedule, 15 minutes to be exact. He gets to his stop and again rushes out, a man truly against time. The coffee in his hand is half way full and is lukewarm at this point. He now heads up the stairs and bumps into the most beautiful young lady, he had ever seen.

As they collided, coffee spilled on notebook pages filled with color and pencils rolled around them making a scene for other morning rushers to see. They both got up and locked eyes, smiled and the apologies from both ends began. As they helped each other gather their belongings from the ground, they both smiled and tried to explain why they were in a hurry. The young lady stated she was on her way to an art studio in hopes she could showcase her work there, but the coffee damaged a few of her pieces. Feeling guilt, the young man stated he would do anything he could to help her, but she insisted that he forget about it and she walked away in a hurry.

As she faded into the crowd, he looked down and noticed one of her pages got stuck in his bag. It was a beautiful painting of the park full of lush green color and a bench featuring an older couple sitting, enjoying the outdoors. It was also damp due to coffee spots from his morning cup of coffee. He smiled, but heard the clock bell outside go off, it was the top of the hour, which means he was undoubtedly late for this meeting. He rushes back to his normal route to the office and misses all six of the elevators, he contemplated the hike up 30 floors, however decided to wait.

10 minutes past and finally the elevator was available, except now 10 other people needed to use it as well. All of them going to stops before the 30th floor and another 5 minutes later, he finally reaches his desk. Pulling out his laptop from his bag, he logged into his work emails and receives a notice that meeting was pushed back 1 hour. With a sigh of relief, he pulls out the painting and noticed a tiny initial to the bottom right, D.L.; smiling, as those were his initials.

With his extra time, he was able to tidy himself up and get a bit more prepared for this big meeting. The hour was up, so he took his seat in the conference room and the boss sat right next to him. Nervous, he turned to introduce himself and the boss seemed taken back by his assertiveness. He was announced to present the new findings for the company and everyone appeared to be pleased by his presentation. He took his seat and the boss invited him to dinner at an exclusive place, only top employees were invited to. He politely accepted, thinking to himself, “it’s happening.”

At precisely 5:00 PM, he heard his name called out across the office and got up immediately. Rushing to pack up his bag and leave for the day. He then got on the elevator with top executives, his immediate manager and of coarse, the big boss man himself. The cab moved a few blocks to a restaurant located in one of the largest skyscrapers in the city, a normal dinner for him is $1 pizza or noodles in a cup, so to be at this place was a very special occasion. They go up to the door of the 50th floor, and there she was, the girl who he had collided with earlier that day. She was the hostess, who checked them into their reservations.

As they locked eyes, they exchanged smiles and he felt warmth realizing this was a rare occasion where fate was in charge. He sat, listening to executives at the table try to impress their boss with more talk about the business and found himself a bit out of place for a few seconds. He noticed her again, a warm feeling within began to stir curiosity, so he got up, excused himself and walked towards her. He pulled her near the bar area and asked if he could take her out on a date. She reminded him there was no need to take interest in her, as she was okay after this morning spill. He didn’t take no for an answer, with his new found confidence, he was taking charge. She said they could meet up, this Sunday and so, they had a date.

He walked back to the conversations about work and his boss leaned over to tell him, this is how every dinner goes before cocktails. He giggled and realized, he was at the table full of top personnel at his company, while the boss is having a side conversation with him. He was feeling pretty good, more like on top of the world, literally sitting 50 floors above sea level. Dinner was wrapping up and he gave that girl another smile, there was certainty something special happening, there was no denying it.

Dinner came to an end and his boss politely thanked him for joining them. The boss also asked him to come to his office Monday to discuss his ideas further and also, complimented on a job well done. After working at this company for 5 years, you can imagine that he felt extremely proud of this invitation and compliment.

He finally got home to his studio apartment, which was 2 subway rides and 45 minutes away from that skyscraper. Pulling out his belonging from his bag, he noticed that beautiful painting and remembered the date he had made, which forced him to realize that this would be the first date in over 4 years! Nervous, he began to look up ideas on what to do on a first date and what he should expect, eventually drifts to sleep after reading a few articles on current dating tactics.

He woke up and realizes it is Saturday, which means he had one day to prepare for his date. There was so much weight on this moment, he was becoming extremely nervous again. He decided he would walk in the park to take his mind off of this. He stopped by his local the coffee shop to grab a cup of his favorite drink, along with a scone. He then heads to the park, it was one of those lovely spring mornings where you need a light jacket and the leaves are lush green, even a little gold. He walks over the pond via a small bridge, which leads to a path of beautiful trees and notices someone on a bench in the distance.

As he got closer he realized it was her, sitting on the bench and drawing in her notebook. He felt that warmth again and immediately approached her. Smiling, he said “Hello,” and with a surprised look on her face she greeted him back. He asked if he could sit down, which she said, was okay for him to do. He pulled out his scone and asked if she wanted any, to which she politely accepted. The conversation quickly progressed into getting to know each other and how they got to this point. The young lady was there to recreate a painting she could not find, it was of a couple on a bench in a park. She mentioned, it was one of her pieces she wanted to feature in her art show. He smiled, stating that he had the painting, as it was mixed into his things during their collision. She smiled and said, he could keep it, the coffee stains ruined it and she was already working on recreating another version for her show. He asked her if she knew the couple in her painting and she said, no.

They spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and walking around the park, eventually going to a near by shop for a slice of the cities best pizza. They were having an ultra rare encounter, one of those moments in life where everything happens effortlessly. The end of the night approached and they said their goodbyes. She gave him an invitation to her art show and he said he looked forward to seeing her again.

Sunday came and brought the official date, this time the formal attire came out. The young girl was so beautiful in her blue dress, that he could hardly take his eyes off of her. For him, this was the first time he was interested in anyone for so long, that he had forgotten what it feels like to be interested in someone. The evening together, only emphasized the fact that these two were quickly becoming inseparable.  

The work week went fantastically, everything seemed to be going great for him. He was excited, the art show was happening in a few hours and so, he rushed to put his blazer on. He then grabbed his keys and noticed her painting, now hanging on his wall, even with small coffee stains it was beautiful to him.

One subway ride later, he arrived at the show and there she was in another fantastic dress, looking stunning as ever. She noticed him and escorted him to her wall, he quickly spotted the recreated piece of the bench in the park, except now it featured a young couple, that he felt resembled them. He smiled at her and she smiled back, as they knew they were destined love.