It Only Takes a Minute

Chapter 2

An ordinary day for Owen Grady usually started with him getting up at eight in the morning. He was a heavy sleeper. He didn't believe in pajamas and only slept with his boxers on and with one light blanket over him. Otherwise, he would feel like he was suffocating. How did people manage to sleep under the heat of an entire bed set? While wearing socks? People were weird. He was the kind of bachelor who was used to having the bed all for himself; he'd sleep sprawled on his belly, leaving no room for even a small dog or a cat on that mattress. It seemed a good thing he wasn't the type to have a pet. He was also the kind who insisted he didn't need an alarm clock to wake him up, that his 'inner clock' would always do the trick for him, except this was a lie and he was always oversleeping. He relied on a friend from work to call him and drag his ass out of bed.

That's why his cellphone had been buzzing on his night stand for the past few seconds. Owen groaned and pulled his pillow over his head. The first two call intents had gone straight to voice mail, but he knew his friend didn't give up easy. It was a matter of either answering or let that annoying buzzing keep going. He figured he should do the picking up thing.

His head still under the pillow, Owen blindly reached out and started to move his fingers around until he felt the cellphone.

"New phone who's this?" Owen finally picked up the phone after bringing it under the pillow to his ear.

"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty." His friend said enthusiastically for Owen's amusement.

"Bye." He hung up and slowly let one leg slid out of the bed. His foot feeling around for his sandal before he let the rest of his body get out of bed.

From there, he would go straight to the shower, find some fresh clothes, and head out to the subway station. It was on his way when he stopped by this local diner where he always had breakfast. He needed a big meal to function; pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon strips, sausage, hash brown, and a big tall glass of orange juice. He ate fast so it normally took him about half an hour to come in and out. From there, it was over to the subway station and head to the city for work.

For the past couple of weeks, he had adapted a tendency to look closer every time he saw a redhead. It didn't matter how hard he tried, he couldn't erase her face from his mind. The way she smiled was forever graved in his memory, her freckles invading the sweetest of dreams. So he was not going to give up, it didn't cost anything to hope that one of them would be his redhead.

They never were, specially because she wasn't from around. He was very aware that his best bet was the subway, but a man could always hope.

He had sat down to think about it, try come up with a plan so he could see her again. While sitting at his favorite breakfast place, it had occurred to him how everybody followed some sort of routine. He was always at that place at the same time every day, and he knew he had to take the train at a certain time if he wanted to make it by ten to the city for work.

He had taken notice of his surroundings, how he always saw some of the customers at that small diner stop by for some coffee on their way to their whereabouts. He had noticed how on his way to the subway station, he would find the same business men having their shoes shone by the same kid around the same corner, and how right across from them this one old lady would always be buying the day's newspaper from the same magazine stand.

It was a small world, so he figured that the only thing standing between him and the woman of his dreams was the odds to cross paths with her again. He only had one vague detail to work with in order to fulfill his heart's strongest desire; the love of his life had been on that one subway that one night.

He knew she hadn't since then, because he had spent the past ten days making sure he took the same subway back home and on each stop he would move from one subway car to the next looking for her. He was determined to find her, even if so far his heart ached with failure. He didn't let that feeling of defeat kill his determination. Each night, he'd be anxiously waiting at his stop for the subway to open the doors and hopefully revealed that beautiful redhead sitting there.