One Fine Day

Destiny Schmestiny

I completely forgot about Ian's business card that lay in my jacket pocket.

That sounded pretty convincing, didn't it? Yeah, I'm a pretty good liar when I want to be. No applause needed.

In reality, I lost count of the times I reached my hand into the pocket and retrieve the small piece of paper and stare at it the next day at work. Apparently I wasn't as inconspicuous as I thought. I looked up to find Lance staring at me. Busted.

"What's that?" He questioned.

"Nothing," I lied. 

"Oh really? Because it looks as if it holds the answer to world peace or something by the way your eyes are glued to it," Lance remarked. He was closer to the truth than he thought.

I sealed my lips and shoved the card in my apron, determined not to let my boss know anything. He's a nice guy, don't get me wrong, but he has a tendancy to worm his way into people's issues in life. I wonder if he's just trying to escape his own.

~~~

I hurried home what reason I did not know. It's not like I was exactly eager to face my roommate, Alyssa. Ever since last Sunday night, she's been bombarding me with questions about my "date." I made the mistake of telling her I had gone out to get coffee with Ian when she noticed "rosy cheeks and glistening eyes." Not that I had any of that, she's sort of a hopeless romantic, that girl.

I simply told her the basics of the night and a speck of our first meeting, but Alyssa immediately turned it into a story of destiny and fairy tales. Now everyday she asks if I've seen him and why I haven't called yet.

I stepped through the door of the old apartment and set my purse and jacket on the coat rack I scored at a yardsale. I seemed to have an eye for old and abandoned items and giving them a home. Which explained most of the apartment. Mismatched antiques and treasures filled the building. 

Well, most of it anyway. Alyssa hates my taste in decorating and even had the audacity to call my 100 year old coffee table "junk." Some people just don't see treasures for what they truly are. 

Peculiar Treasures. 

His phrase ran through my mind again while i yanked off my uniform and hung it up in my closet. I decided I liked it. I didn't have a choice on whether I liked him. I'm afraid my fate was sealed when Ian picked up my favorite bra on 121 Varick St. I sighed and pulled on my favorite University of of California sweatshirt and jeans. Before I realized that the dream of an all paid for scholarship to one of the best colleges in the U.S. was simply that, a dream, I was so sure that I would be a student there, I spent all of my allowance ordering this thing.

I heard Alyssa's door open suddenly and I knew I couldn't escape the interrogation much longer. Without knocking, my roommate burst in the door, sporting a messy ponytail and an oversized t-shirt. Alyssa worked nights at the Safeway a couple blocks down the street, so I rarely saw her awake past four in the afternoon. 

"So?" She said, plopping down on my bed with the silent permission only best friends understand.

"So, what?" I replied reluctantly.

"So did he show up today?" Alyssa questioned, bounching up and down, making her auburn, curly mess of a ponytail fly widely on the top of her head.

I sighed, I felt a pattern forming. "No, Alyssa, he didn't. I told you, he looked rich so he probably has a million places to be rather than a poorly themed diner," I said more to myself than her.

"Well maybe he thinks you don't want to see him because you haven't called him! It's already Friday for heaven's sake!" She exclaimed. I was right, most definitely a pattern forming.