The Path Not Taken

Chapter 3 : 2004

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!"

Confetti is thrown and noise makers are blown as the twenty five or so people crammed into Kate's small apartment wish each other a happy 2004.

She and two of her best friends had been renting the apartment - the upstairs of a 75 year old two family home in a residential part of Albany - for the past six months. Fresh out of college but only functioning adults from the hours of 9 to 5, the nights and weekends still belonged to the nightlife.

The party had been Kate's roommate Jessie's idea. They'd never entertained and were excited to have friends - some from college, some from their respective hometowns and high school days, and some from their now professional lives - over to celebrate (read: get drunk) with.

There was music, food, and - of course - drinking games. The majority of the furniture in the apartment had been handed down or thrifted. The beautiful dining room
table was one of the only brand new pieces of furniture that the three friends had pooled their money to purchase (a splurge at that!) - and it was now covered in a sticky film; some from people clumsily setting their drinks down without a coaster, but primarily from the games of Flip Cup and Beer Pong being played on it.

Kate turned the corner into the kitchen and left almost as soon as she entered it when she saw what a massive disaster it was.

"That's tomorrow's problem." She said to herself. Or so she thought.

"But just think how nice it'll be to wake up to a nice clean kitchen where you'll make your first cup of coffee of the new year."

Startled, Kate turned to see a man about her age sitting at the kitchen table peeling the label from a bottle of beer. When their eyes met, he grinned. There was a hint of a shy mischievousness in his eyes as he briefly looked away and then back up.

"Unless," he started, "you're more of a Starbucks kinda girl." There was that smile again.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize anyone was in here. I actually came in here to take a breather from the chaos of the other room. Do I... do I know you?"

At this he stood.

"Probably not unless we've bumped into each other in the last hour. I'm Brandon. I work with your roommates boyfriend."

"Which one?" She laughed. Both of Kate's roommates - Jessie and Rachel - had boyfriends, making Kate the only single occupant of the apartment, and the perpetual fifth wheel on movie nights or nights out at the bar.

"Rachel's boyfriend Jeff."

"So you're also a bartender at Houlihan's?" Rachel met her boyfriend Jeff shortly after the girls had moved into their apartment when they'd gone out for drinks one night. The night had started with free drinks and ended with Jeff slipping Rachel his number on a cocktail napkin. What had seemed cheesy at first was actually pretty cute when the two actually started dating and Jessie and Kate saw how sweet Jeff was and how genuinely smitten he was with their friend. When they weren't working, the two were inseparable.

"Yes. But only to put myself through grad school. I'm working towards my MBA. Student by day, Houlihan's bartender by night. Didn't they make a Lifetime movie about that?" He chuckles as he winks at Kate.

While she wonders if it's part of the Houlihan's job description to be corny she can't seem to look away from his charming smile, noting a small dimple in the corner of his left cheek.

"Have a drink with me...? I'm sorry, I haven't caught your name." He asks, pulling out the chair next to him.

"It's Kate." She says as she opens the fridge and grabs a Mike's Hard Lemonade before joining him at the table.