The Art of Being You

Chapter III.

• The NYC Skyline & Epic Love Novels •
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9:30 AM
Phoenix, Arizona

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The short layover in Arizona provided exactly no time for me to do anything besides sit in the waiting room and think about the stranger that I had just had the oddest encounter with.

This, however, was the exact opposite of what I should be to be doing. I should be looking for a solution to my current homelessness problem.

Focus Talon.

Once I tracked down the listing for Loft 03A on Central and 29th that I was researching previous, I retyped a message to the current tenants exactly twelve times before I thought it was okay to send.

Subject: New to New York & Hoping to Call 03A Home

Hi,

My name is Talon Mitchell and I am currently in the midst of moving my entire life from the western most coast of Oregon to NYC. I am 21, female - even though my name would tell you differently- and a recent college grad. I am looking for a place to call home in the Big City and I hope you're still looking for a roommate.

I will be arriving in New York later in the evening, and would very much love to meet because, quite frankly, I've never moved across the county and I am doing so on a whim.

Tal

The message sounded crazy in my head and even crazier each time I typed it out, so I was gonna roll with it. Plus, the sooner I sent them a message, the sooner I had time to casually scan for a curly headed stranger who goes by Harry.

I pressed send and sent my odd message out into the universe to be judged by two girls who will most likely reject me and let me be homeless.

On the plus side, twenty minutes into our lay over, I spotted a vending machine with starbucks frappuccinos so I made my way towards the glorious machine that would soon give me my version of sweet heaven.

Sweet heaven did not come in the form of an iced starbucks drink, however. Twenty seconds after I entrusted the machine with my dollar bills to exchange for caffeine and sugar, it betrayed me; taking my dollar bills and not exchanged it for jack shit.

To say I was infuriated would have been an understatement.

There, in the Phenoix, Arizona airport, I, Talon Rose Mitchell, kicked the vending machine repeatedly thinking it would give me my Starbucks Iced Vanilla frappuccino.

"Whoa whoa whoa! What do you reckon you're doing, love?!" I hear as my foot came up for the forth time to make contact with the stupid Starbucks machine.

Of corse it was Harry who saw me in the Phenoix, Arizona airport, kicking the vending machine repeatedly thinking it would give me my Starbucks Iced Vanilla frappuccino.

I groaned internally, all hopes of playing a cool, calm and collected character that Harry might take interest in had gone down the same hole that swallowed my dollars in the vending machine.

"Oh, hey! Harry was it?" I asked, trying to salvage any shred of dignity I might have left.

Harry's response was to simply smile at me and quirk an eyebrow. I returned a sheepish smile back at him, hoping the discussion about how crazy I really am, could be avoided.

"Would you like to go get a coffee with me?" He chuckled, pointing towards the coffee shop directly infront of us.

"Uh, yeah, let me just grab my bag" I scooped up my belongings and hurried behind Harry as he entered the coffee shop in the Phoenix, Arizona airport.