The city of New York was cold that day when Nick left the apartment. Not unbearable, but cold enough to wish he brought a coat. It was mid october and already they had had their first snow. Nick couldn't believe how the time went by so fast. It had already been 7 months since Aaron died. The worst seven months of Nick's life...
As the streets got busier by the minute filling with taxis and busy people moving along to work, Nick took the route to the nearest fresh food market with his earphones in. When he got there he saw a variety of fruit and vegetables in loads of different stalls. Nick stood on his toes to get a higher look of the whole place. He could see in the distance the stall he wanted to get to. He weaved in and out through the crowd of hungry people. It was busy that morning for some reason unknown to Nick. When he got to the stand he observed the different food and took out his earphones.
"Can I get 4 tomatoes, 10 oranges and a bag of carrots? Thanks"
As the man behind the table got the specific items Nick put back in his earphones and heard the start of Lana Del Rey's Body Electric. The vendor handed Nick the bag of groceries while he gave him the money. They finally exchanged each other smiles.
When Nick turned his back to the vendor he accidentally walked straight into a man. He instantly felt embarrassed and kneeled down simultaneously with the man to get the food he had dropped.
"I'm so sorry! I'll pay for all of this!" Nick proclaimed.
"It's fine, it's fine. It's happened before." The man said with a deep voice.
Nick was taken aback by it. He had never heard such a masculine voice before. It sounded dominate. When they finally got all the food back they stood up. Nick finally saw how tall the man was. He was at least 5 inches taller than him. He had dark chestnut brown hair that was spiked up diagonally with big black glasses surrounding his eyes. He had that sort of cocky smirk on his face but not overly douchey. Nick wasn't going to lie, this man was hot.
"I'm sorry again" Nick finally replied.
"Don't be too sorry, your food fell as well" the man said with that smirk.
Nick hadn't even noticed that his food had fallen on to the wet concrete. It was probably too late to save it by now.
"Here, have my bag of carrots" the man said handing them over. "I'm probably never going to use them anyways"
"Thanks I appreciate it" Nick replied taking them.
"What's your name?" the man asked.
"Nick"
"Nice name. I'm Ethan. Nice to meet you"
"Nice to meet you too"
"Well...thanks for the carrots"
"You're welcome. Um can I give you my number....maybe?"
Nick froze. It had been the first time since Aaron died that someone asked for his phone number. He couldn't believe it. He didn't know what to do.
"Do I?" he thought.
"Uh sure." Nick finally replied. He couldn't believe himself. He actually said yes. Ethan got out a pen and a rip of a piece if paper out of the back of his pocket and wrote down a few numbers.
"Here you go." Ethan said handing Nick the paper.
"Thanks" Nick said with a smile on his face.
"Be sure to call me now. I don't want to be waiting weeks on end" Ethan said backing away into the crowd again.
"I will"
Nick was astonished. But he was happy. A person actually gave him their phone number. He put back in his earphones and walked away. Nick finally felt happy for once...
