Us: The Novel Of Friends

Love at the Market

Adalyn Pt.2

The chilly air in Seattle, the snow was almost amongst us, I always loved having a real life white Christmas.

Working in New York during the holidays was amazing, I got to go to central park, and then ice skate, and also design winter coats, and see winter fashion shows, and be able to go to big winter galas, and at that time I was only 22 and had always dreamt of going to big vogue galas, and meeting incredible designers, it was honestly a dream come true. After a year of being an intern, I had the choice to continue living in New York, and work my way up the ladder at Interview Magazine, or head to Oregon, and open my own personal Event Planner business.

That ended up being the best decision, I ran into Peter at the downtown market, and we talked and caught up for a few hours, and then the next day he gave me a call in hopes of going to dinner, and well the rest was history.

At 25, I was proud of my life. I came out of college at 22, and immediately got an internship, and then got a job, well I ran my own business.

It was crazy how my job came to be, I moved back to Oregon two years ago in July, and moved into a crappy apartment, with bad utilities, and a sketchy landlord. I was walking down the street one day on my morning run, and stumbled upon a building, it was a burgundy building, with cute graffiti on the side, that actually wasn't just random letters. It was abandoned, so I did trespass, I went inside, and the inside was dusty, it was a granite countertop, and had hard wood, and was beautiful. Then had a spiral staircase to a studio apartment. That had a nice kitchen, a small bedroom, but with a beautiful book nook, and the majority of the room was window. It had a cute bathroom, with a beautiful shower, the whole thing was wooded. I had no idea what the story behind this place was.

Outside there was a for sale sign attached near the door, and I knew this was my sign. That moving back was a good decision. I ended up contacting the landlord, and got a outstanding deal on it. I spent a lot of my savings on this place. But It was gorgeous.

I immediately moved in, by immediately I mean I bought it that same day, and it was ready for me that week.

I decorated, and eventually started up by event planning business upstairs mainly, I didn't have a purpose for the downstairs yet.

Then in about December, two years ago, I was a fresh market down the street, and I was picking up some fruit or something, I saw a familiar face. He was kind of tall, with blonde hair, a nicely cut beard, and blue-ish hazel eyes. I knew it was Peter. I didn't really know how to approach him, or if he would even remember me. So I made my way by him, he was getting some fresh vegetables, and the guy who was the cashier was right by him. I handed him my bag.

"Is this it for you?" The man asked, and Peter looked up at me.

"Yep" I said, and looked like I didn't even see him there.

"Adalyn?" He asked

"Peter?" I said, acting completely oblivious (He does know about this now)

"Wow, it's been so long" He said.

"It'll be $7.55, " The man said.

"Here you go, keep the change", I handed him a 10 dollar bill.

"Here you go Ma'am, thanks for coming by" He said, handing me my grocery bag.

"It really has" I said

"Want me to help you with that?" He asked.

"Oh no, you continue shopping, I got it"

"I insist" He said taking my bag

"I just live up the hill, I'll be okay" I smiled.

"I am going that way, I don't need anything today, Jacob here knows I come everyday" He said smiling at the guy behind the counter.

"That's true, this man eats a lot" He laughed.

"Alright, well I guess we can head that way"

**

We arrived at my doorstep, and I grabbed my keys to unlock the door.

"You live here? This used to be a sweet couples bakery" He said.

"Really? Why would they give this place up?" I said

"She got pregnant, and they figured they needed a bigger place, which was heartbreaking to us all, it was kind of a hot spot for everyone."

"Oh, well I hope to make it something special, I have no idea what, I've been here about 6 months, It's been hectic, I'm an event planner, so It kind of consumes my life" I said.

"Wow, you really did follow your dreams." He said.

"It seems like you did to, you seem happy" I said,

"Yeah, I've been through kind of a rough spot this past year, but I've made a good life here" He said.

"I'm really glad" and then it got kind of an awkward silence.

"Well I'll let you go" He said,

"You can come in if you'd like" Those words just kind of slipped out.

"I don't want to intrude" He said.

"No its totally fine, it'd be nice to catch up"

**

We spent a couple hours talking, about everything. Everything from his recent disaster of a relationship, with some Lawyer, and then talked about my internship, and talked about how he traveled a lot for work, and then commemorated on our good times "back in the day".

**

As the story goes, we started going on dates, and then after a year, we decided to move in together, and that's when we decided to do our coffee/ music house. It was great. He got to get out of his condo, and help out with the business, and he was super handy to have around, he fixed things for me, and basically did whatever I needed.

That led to the present, I worked a lot. I did about 10-20 events a week, which meant constant phone calls, and texts, and emails, and also meant late nights trying to find a venue, or certain flowers, or decor. Along with events I had the coffee shop, I didn't do a lot, but I was a barista there about 3 maybe 4 times a week, I checked on customers, hosted events there. It was mainly Peter, and Layla who ran the business. Peter and I in the past year had gone on two trips, to do different things. He helped establish hotels in Barcelona, which was an amazing time, and then we went to Ireland, to help a few families in need. We planned to go to Hawaii, to help rehabilitate animals and study about their lives, hopefully this coming summer.

We led a very busy life, but it was thrilling.