New York, New York || Timothèe Chalamet

01

"This is so not what I asked you for this bathroom! Just re-do it god damit!"

Joy looks at me with a pleasing look. Her face was telling me to save her from Jack, our boss, who was now yelling at her.

I slowly approach her desk with a cup of Starbucks coffee in one hand and some of my sketches in the other.

"Hey Jack, I brought your caramel macchiato. With extra foam. The way you like it." I say calmly.

"Thanks." he replies without looking at me. His gaze still focused on the sketches on Joy's desk.

"Also Joy, I think you left these sketches for that bathroom you were telling me about on my desk earlier." I keep talking, looking at my friend and winking at her.

Jack takes them roughly from my hands and starts looking through them.

"Ehm.. yeah sorry" says Joy to then mouth me a silent thank you.

Jack looks quickly trough my sketches and then looks at Joy.

"Now this is what I was looking for. Keep working on this idea here Joy, I want it on my desk before lunch." says Jack finally happy, resting the sketches on the table before leaving.

We watch him turn the corner to his office and then I turn to look at Joy.

"You're a life saver Rae. Seriously thank you. I'm going to pay you off I swear." she says looking at me.

"Please don't. After you told me about that bathroom project I had some ideas that I was going to run through you. So really don't worry about it." I reply.

A few weeks ago, just before the end of the semester, I got a summer internship at the JD-Design Studio in New York City. I was so exited when I got the email saying that Johanna Drowly personally chose me for this internship. She's the founder of the studio and also a crazy talented architect and interior designer.

Since I can remember, I've always loved arts. But I didn't think I would ever pursue a career in the design world. Both my parents are surgeons and also my brother Ethan, is a physiotherapist.

I started at UCSF, University of California in San Francisco, two years ago with a medicine major.

It all went fine until I met Joy.

We bumped into each other while I was at the coffee cart and she was walking with this huge cardboard model in her hands. Basically when we crushed the model fell to the floor and I spilled my coffee all over it.

I was so mortified that I insisted in helping her rebuild it and through time we became friends.

When we were halfway through the model, I realized that I had the wrong major. I didn't want to study to be a doctor anymore.

I didn't dropped out, I just changed my major.

"Rae" I hear someone calling my name.

My mind goes back to reality and I find Joy and Adam looking at me with a concerned look.

"We're going to Chicco's for break. You're coming?" Adam says.

Chicco's is our nickname for Chicco di Caffè, a small coffee shop down the block that I love.

It serves the perfect Italian espresso macchiato. Or at least I think is the perfect espresso.

I've been to Italy only once with a long time friend at 16 and I still didn't recognised coffee as god's nectar.

We head out of the studio talking about some projects that Jack assigned us and start walking through the busy New York streets.

The coffee shop was pretty much empty, not many people trusted coffee that wasn't from Starbucks. That's why we liked it, it was our small corner of the world.