simple moments: a collection

rainy day

    Rain taps at the glass, washing the city in muted shades of gray, with the occasional spark of bright neon interspersed throughout.

    Your coffee sits beside your laptop, untouched for the last ten minutes. Your notes are sprawled all over the tiny table, almost hanging off the edges. The messy handwriting and hastily drawn lines on them illustrate maps of ideas, maps that are currently shifting and twisting in your mind. You've stared at those papers for so long that the marks have begun to blur, and you bring a hand up to rub at your eyes tiredly.

    Resigned, you gather all the various sheets up into something vaguely resembling a pile and shove it all into a folder, placing it off to one side. You know that a binder would probably work better, at least in terms of organizing all your thoughts, but for right now you can't be bothered to think about that.

    You lean back on the metal stool, sighing, and turn to look out the window again.

    The panes stretch almost floor to ceiling along the entire wall of the cafe, providing a wide view of the bustling life outside. People hurrying by, traffic honking in the distance, flashing billboards lining the walls of skyscrapers, all combining into a raw cacophony of city noise. The other customers here are sparse, with only a few people sitting at nearby tables. The person behind the counter looks bored, glancing up every now and then before returning to scrolling through their phone.

    It's never busy when you come here, with only the hushed chatter of others or the quiet clacking of laptop keys accompanied by smooth jazz wafting through the background to fill the silence. Just the way you like it.

    And yet, productivity continues to evade you, just as it has for the past few days.

    The laptop cursor blinks innocently at you, at the top of a blank page. The empty white is taunting, and you close the laptop, frustrated.

    Finally picking up the paper cup, you take a cautious sip, wary of burning your tongue. It's a little cold, actually. Ah, right, it sat there for a pretty long time, didn't it. Plenty of time to cool off.

    Oh well. Coffee is coffee, and you drink more, hoping it'll rejuvenate your creative spark. Somehow.

    The bell over the door jingles softly and you turn to watch as another customer walks in. Nothing new. You return your focus to your own table, slowly finishing off your coffee. You set the half-empty cup back down on the table and drum your fingers on top of your laptop, racking your brain for even just a single idea.

    Thunder cracks somewhere in the distance, and you startle slightly, before relaxing and glancing out the window again. People have begun to walk faster, or taken shelter in various buildings, trying to get to the places they need to be before the rain gets worse. The constant pitter patter on the glass grows louder.

    A light jingle, and then –

    SLAM!

    The door crashes into the wall, and a new person stands there, dripping wet. Every eye in the cafe turns to stare, and the stranger smiles embarrassedly.

    "Sorry 'bout that," they say. "Didn't have an umbrella, and, well..."

    They gesture vaguely to the weather outside.

    Heads nod, disgruntled, before turning back to their respective tasks. The employee at the counter now looks less bored, and the person strides up to the counter before asking for a mocha. They're still trailing water in their wake, and the door swings shut, blocking out the elements.

    A storm, hm? You look out the window again, absorbing the lights, the sounds of city life, the slight chill that had appeared without you noticing.

    Storms... light...

    You can work with that.

    A new idea starts to take shape, and you open up your laptop once more, fingers twitching with a sudden burst of inspiration.

    It's time to get to work.