January and snow

Just a window view

After the incident, the waitress took my coat and hanged it in the back room to let it dry. Christopher took me far far away from that outlet so another incident wouldn't happen. This was the first time since I started talking to Christopher that it felt awkward.

"Christopher, do you read books?" I asked. He looked at me and his bright brown eyes sparkled.

"Of course I do! I read like uncountable books." My smile reached my cheek and I put my hands on them.

"That's great because I do too. What genre do you read?" His mouth opened but no words came out.

"Um, don't tease me about it though," he blushed and looked away.

"I would not. I don't tease people like some body." That seemed to lighten his mood because he smiled and nodded.

He exhaled and answered, "I read fantasy and romance."

I blinked once, twice even. "Are you joking?" His face fell and he looked disappointed. "That was it?! I thought you would say you read murder crimes or crimes all together or some creepy fetish stuff. We are romance-fantasy buddies bae!" I cheered. He laughed and did a high five with me.

"I thought you would judge."

"I would never," I took in a breath and exhaled. I looked through the window in our booth, watching the snow fall to the ground. "What is your favorite part of living in the city?"

"Um, probably the fun fair and the places you could visit," he answered. I averted my gaze to him and listened. "I really love when the tall buildings would shield me from the scorching rays of the sun." I smiled when he said that because I do love that feeling.

"What else?" I asked.

"There's soo much that if I say more, you would end up bored." I agreed and thought about something else to ask.

"Okay, what don't you like about the city?"

"Oh, I can go on and on and on for hours. Firstly, the noise. I just can't. The pollution, crowd and dirt. It's just icky." We both cringed at the same time and then burst out laughing.

"I can totally relate to your discomfort."

"So we are on the same page?" He asked.

"We are on the same page," I agreed.

"What do you work as?" He asked and I remained silent for awhile. I felt like if I should tell him this then then would be no reason for me not to tell him where I was going to. "You shouldn't tell me if you don't want to." But I wanted to tell him.

"Don't worry. I work as an office assistant for a tech company. It's not some famous tech company, just like a start-up but not a start-up."

"I work at a pharmacy in a front of the busiest hospital in town so just imagine how that is for me." I chuckled and smiled.

"I can't, I usually don't even have customers at my office place."

"I wish we could exchange lives," we laughed and talked about more random things. It was impossible for us to run out of things to talk about. We were like a river, flowing into a vast ocean. The water always regulates back to the source. It was impossible to run out.

"Chris—can I call you that?" I asked.

"Of course you can."

"Cool. Chris, I need quick advice. There's someone I know who isn't... close to their family. They had like a falling out a year ago and the person fell out soo much that they didn't go to visit he—their family during Christmas." I turned to look at him if he was still listening and luckily, all his attention was still on me.

"You can continue," he said. I nodded and proceeded with my narration.

"So they received a text some days ago from their family asking if they could come back home to celebrate New Years together but they didn't agree. But later on, they did agree on visiting them but now they are having second thoughts. Should they go to visit their parents?"

"May I know what caused their fall out to determine my decision?" I paused and thought about it. If I should tell him, would he put two and two together and figure out it is me I'm talking about? I took in a breath and sighed.

It wouldn't hurt trying, I thought to myself.

"Well after they had graduated, they always had a dream job and wanted to pursue it but since the dream job was a town away, their parents couldn't just let them go," I took in a shaky breath and exhaled. "They got really pissed and had the biggest argument they had ever had with their parents and after that they left without looking back. Later on, they didn't get their dream job and they couldn't possibly go back home—her ego couldn't allow her.

"Luckily, she found a substitute job that could help her in the mean time but unluckily again, her parents found out," by this time, I was on the verge of tears. I felt Christopher's warm hand give mine a reassuring squeeze.

"You shouldn't say this if you aren't comfortable talking about it."

"No, I will. I have to say it to someone, even if the person is a stranger." I smiled at him and continued, "we had another argument and they were forcing me to come back home. I refused because my ego and pride was still passing through the roof. I couldn't just come back and see the judging look on my parents face and Calvin's—my brother—annoying face.

"I wanted to be successful before I came back so I could rub it in their face that moving towns wasn't a bad thing. So I settled it, I could come back and lie to them that I had it all figured out and finally got my dream job. Brag about it for awhile then come back home. That was my plan but then I got a call from my brother this morning.

"He was informing me about how much he and my parents misses me and that he wants me to come back real soon. Then he started mentioning how he was going to propose to his girlfriend of two years, tell mum about the million dollars contract his boss just signed that would make him to get a raise—all together, his life was perfect.

"He definitely didn't say it to belittle me but that's how I felt," I let out a dry laugh and wiped my moist nose. "I decided not to attend again, because if I could miss Christmas, I could also do that for the New Years. A bottle of champagne and a window view was all I needed.

"But as I was driving home, a stupid advert was what convinced me to do otherwise." To be honest, I really loved the advert. "So the question, should they go and meet their parents?"