It Only Takes a Minute

Chapter 4

Owen knew he was about to have the best day of his life. It didn't matter how it went, what they did, or even if it rained. He knew it couldn't get better than this; the peculiar sound of her laugh and the way her freckles sparkled in his eyes. He felt he owned it to her to give her that kind of day back.

The only thing he planned out for their day was that he wouldn't plan anything at all. Not only because he didn't have time; the walk out of the subway station up to the streets only took a minute after all, but because he believed himself to be spontaneous and planning things ahead of time was not his thing.

He never thought he would be lucky enough to have it like this, so he had made out of that subway trip the best he could, find every detail on how her ordinary day looked like.

He was going to be the one to let her forget about all that, and have an extraordinary day out with him. They had an entire city to explore and forget about everything else.

Claire was about to step into an extinct world with him, one without cellphones and other distractions. One where there was nothing around them but real and genuine human interaction. He was going to gift her with a day that would break that boring routine she had, Owen knew she was taking a risk and stepping out of her comfort zone for him and he was determined to make it worth it — maybe if he impressed her, even have a second round at it.

He thought back to more simple times, what did people do to have fun and just a good time all around before they got sucked onto spending their time looking at a screen? He had never let himself get imprisoned by all this, he only used his cellphone for the necessary; call or text someone for an emergency, his cellphone plan didn't even include data usage at all. He didn't need it, what for? What was the gain in sitting there iMessaging someone when you could call them, suggest meet up for a cup of coffee or tea and talk face to face instead? Sure life got busy, but that didn't stop previous generations to keep it real.

Owen's mind traveled back to his childhood and the first half of his adolescence; back to the nineties. She sure remembered how it was like to live in that era. Claire had confessed to have a CD of trashy pop music from back then, after all.

He had made up his mind, he was going to imprint his existence, the memory of having met him old-schooled. He hoped he would see her again and even more than once, but if he didn't ...at least he wanted to make sure she would never forget that one guy who had given her the kind of day no one seemed to be able to afford anymore. He didn't have the money for an expensive gem or a luxury dinner, but he had the time to make a lasting impression and he was going to use every second to dig a deep one.

Before he could give her the most precious gift there was, he needed two things from her; the first one was for her to agree turn her cellphone off and keep it in her purse. He had done the same with his and put it in there with hers.

Claire was surprised at how easy it had been for him to be able to convince her to do this, but she figured she was already going to skip work to be with him. She should also disconnect herself from it, if she was going to miss a day of work she should do it properly.

The second thing was those heels she was wearing. He hadn't asked her to get off the subway with him so they could spend the day stuck in traffic while taking a cab or an Uber from one place to the next. Besides, even if he didn't know how the day would turn out, he knew heels just wouldn't do.

That's how they ended up at a small shoe store just around the corner from the subway station. To his relief, she hadn't questioned him and had agreed to get some comfortable shoes for their day out in town.

Owen had learned she was a size nine and a half while insisting to be he who would go search for the perfect pair. He requested for Claire to wait for him sat on a shoe bench nearby.