Fiction Friday: Girl on the Go

She was a girl on the go, that was for sure. The first time he’d seen her, he was sitting in Starbucks with his laptop open on the tiny table, screen fixed on a blank page. The words were not coming, so he was busying himself by counting the mugs for sale along the wall. Then she appeared.

Swinging the door open with a full body yank, she was at the door, then suddenly at the counter, swiping her card for a bottle of water. She was wearing what looked like a professional cycling suit, the black and hot pink spandex hugging her tight body, littered with logos and phrases. The white block letters across her ass read, “Allstate.” And just as soon as she was there, she was gone.

The second time he saw her, he was trudging up the stairs from the 4th Street station, headed to Joe’s for a slice. And there she was again, running past him in a blur of brunette joy. She wasn’t jogging for exercise. It appeared more as if she was running to tell the man of her dreams that she’d left the stodgy boyfriend that had been in the way and they could finally be together. The spring in her step was undeniable and he felt as if he’d walked into a movie. One in which he was the guy who was meant to chase after her.

But he didn’t. As the moment passed him and hung in the air, he began to feel foolish. He lived in reality, didn’t he? He had a crappy apartment in the worst part of Brooklyn, a part-time job at an accounting firm that sapped the energy out of his life, and a hole in the only winter jacket he owned. He was just another pseudo-artist attempting to write a script while really wasting a lot of time searching for inspiration.

Yet, there was this woman. A lovely, though basically everyday pretty woman who breezed in and out of his field of vision like a fairy, light and swift. A woman on her own trajectory that had intersected twice, but likely wasn’t destined to align with his. He began to think about her, attempting to manifest another sighting. One more opportunity to see her, so he could ask her about herself. Who was she? What did she love? How did she seem so grounded in a city where everyone was a loose leaf in the wind? And where was she going?

Click here to read Girl on the Go, Part 2