Tennessee

"Who was that guy outside?" Luz asked later that day.

We sat at our desks, across from each other.

I was an intern at a major fashion house in New York City. My boss was Clemence Ulliel. She was crazy, but brilliant. She was brilliantly crazy. Whatever, you get the point. I was slaving away in fashion school and the internship was a once in a lifetime deal. And although a lot of my job consisted of ordering non-fat lattes and steaming expensive dresses, it would look damn fine on my future résumés.

"I don't know. He was just some loon," I muttered as I typed on my computer.

"Some hot loon," she whispered.

I smiled gravely and sipped some of my burnt coffee I had gotten from the staff lounge.

Clemence poked her French head out of her office, "Where eez thee coffee?" she asked. Her black framed glasses made her look more severe than usual.

I gave Luz a frantic look.

"Clemence, you didn't order any coff-" Luz began.

I got up and pulled on my coat quickly, "I'm on my way now," I said, trying to fix things and prevent a fit on Clemence's end.

Clemence gave me a cold look before walking back into her office. Luz shot me an apologetic glance. I walked out of the building. The icy air bit at my face and I dug my skin deeper into my coat collar.

"Ben Sydney, you know. That's my name."

The raspy voice. I turned around quickly.

"Are you following me?" I asked.

"No... Yes. Does it matter?" He said.

His brown eyes glistened with something and I stared at him uneasily.

"I have to go," I muttered.

"Psycho, psycho, psycho," I murmured under my breath and he continued to follow me.

"You know, I work in the building next door to you –graphic design," he said and began to jostle his way beside me.

"Creepy," I sang as I entered the coffee shop across the street.

"I've been watching you for the past few weeks-"

"Really, you're not helping yourself," I murmured and waited in line.

He smiled and shook his head, "I don't know. I just really wanted to talk to you. You know when you see someone and you feel like you would get along?" he said.

I shot him a wary look. "Does that line usually work?" I asked and moved up in line.

"It's not a line."

I scoffed, "Psh, yeah. Okay."

He smiled again and rubbed the back of his neck with a hand. I caught a glimpse of a tattoo behind his left ear.

"C'mon. What do you take me for? Some kind of pervert?" He joked.

'That's exactly what I take you for," I said simply.

His smile was wiped clean off his face.

"Look, I'm sure it takes major balls to talk to a girl," I said, "But really, don't strain yourself."

"So you do want to go to dinner with me?" he said smoothly.

"What? No," I said.

"So you don't want to go?"

"No," I said.

"No, you do or yes, you don't?" he said playfully.

"Wait... what?" I asked.

"Do you want to go or to not go but still go?"

"Stop that," I said with a scrunch of my nose and moved another place in line. He was trying to confuse me.

"Okay. I'll take you out after work," he said and started to walk out of the store.

"What? You don't even know what time I get out!" I called as he continued his way to the door.

"Doesn't matter!" he said back.

My lips tugged up, but they went back to their dismal frown as I reached the counter.

"The usual, Tennessee?" the familiar barista asked.

"The usual," I repeated dolefully.



I hugged my knees to my chest. My words were muffled against my legs and my body began to shake with sobs. Mary got up from her seat. She wrapped a mahogany arm around me and I leaned into her.

"Go on," she murmured.

I shook my head.

"Tomorrow," I croaked.

Mary nodded solemnly.

"Tomorrow," she said sternly.

I got up and went to my bedroom. It was full of pictures, notes, and clothes and smells that reminded me of him. It was a photograph of the way things were. I lay down on my paisley cotton sheets. Sighing, I moved off the bed and decided to sleep on the floor. The bed reminded me of him, too.