Life (As We Know It)

Annaliese glanced over the checklist through her rectangular-framed readers, her black ink pen hovering over each square. A hand moved towards the loose strand of blonde hair in her peripheral vision, smoothly tucking it behind her ear.

“Annie, can you break away from work for two seconds? The whole purpose of this lunch was to help you take your mind off work, but here you are, planning again.”

Green eyes gazed over the notepad in her hands, met head-on by a blue-eyed stare from across the table, and she gave in with a sigh. He couldn’t have been more right.

“I’m sorry, John,” she confessed as her hand shifted towards the coffee cup. “You’re right. It’s just that I’ve invested so much time into organizing this wedding lately that it’s kind of taken up all the space in my mind, if that makes any sense.”

He took a sip of his tea before replying with a smirk. “There’s more to life than planning other people’s lives.”

“I’m aware,” she shot back playfully.

Annaliese Parker was one of the top event planners at her firm, and along with that title came a multitude of responsibility and chaos. At times, it felt like her own life got kicked to the wayside, but she didn’t mind so much. It wasn’t like she had much going on in her personal life to begin with. That is, until John crashed into her life like a hurricane.

And though he prodded her a lot and gave her hell at times, she had to admit that he was the breath of fresh air she needed.

With his stylishly tousled hair and crisp white button-down, John wasn’t exactly the picture of spontaneity, but if she looked closer, she could catch that wistful, Sinatra-esque twinkle in his eyes.

“So loosen up a bit, tell me about your day.” He leaned forward, his forearms propped on the table.

“Well…” she started and began to recount her day for him. Nothing eventful. There had been a coffee mix-up in the break room that morning, and afterwards, Annaliese had holed herself up in her office in order to narrow down a selection of linens for the reception.

The weather was almost perfect. A little too muggy for her taste, but at least the sun was shining brightly above the pair as they sat at their usual table just outside the café. People passed by their table, and John’s eyes seemed to soak in each one of them, flashing them each a brilliant smile.

A caramel-skinned, slightly balding man rushed by, his head buried in his cell phone as he quickly wove through another group of pedestrians.

John shot the man a sideways glance as he watched him disappear into the crowd. “I wonder what his story is.”

His words weren’t hinged by their usual sarcasm. Instead, Annaliese swore she heard wonderment seep through his voice.

She followed his gaze, catching a glimpse of the stranger in question before he vanished from view.

“I’m guessing he has a stressful job, from the way his eyes were glued to that smartphone. I can definitely relate.”

John nodded. “Probably has a large family as well, has to be the ‘breadwinner.’ That could put some weight on your shoulders.”

Silence lapsed between the two for a moment: John taking a bite from his grilled chicken sandwich while Annaliese picked at her cobb salad.

“Annie, let me see your notepad for a sec,” he asked suddenly, enthusiasm sending sparks through his every feature.

She handed over the spiral-bound notebook, no questions asked, and watched as he began to scribble words on a blank page.

“What are you doing?” she laughed as she tried to decipher his chicken-scratch.

“Annie, we are going to write a story,” he said as a lopsided grin formed across his lips.

“About what?” She didn’t ask why; John rarely needed a reason.

“Jerry,” he stated, pointing to the word at the top of the page.

Annaliese thought back to the stranger on the street. “You named him Jerry?”

“What’s wrong with Jerry? That’s a perfectly respectable name.”

“Sounds a little bland to me,” she joked as she held her coffee cup to her lips.

“His name is Jerry, and that’s that,” he said pointedly. “Now, where do you think Jerry was born?”

Annaliese sighed, her gaze shifting to the fluffy clouds above as thoughts floated through her mind.

“Jerry was raised on a farm, so he had to learn the value of hard work at a young age,” she offered. She felt a little awkward at how cheesy the explanation sounded.

“Alright,” John said as he penciled her response down.

By the end of their lunch hour, they’d gotten up to Jerry’s awkward freshman year of college. Though it was definitely an odd way to pass time, Annaliese found that John’s tactics did manage to take her mind off of work, if only for an hour, and she was grateful for that.

“So you’re coming over for dinner around eight?” he asked as the two began to rise from their black iron chairs.

Annaliese nodded, a faint smile tugging at the corners of her lips. “Maybe we’ll actually get a chance to finish Jerry’s life story.”

John chuckled slightly to himself as he reached for her hand. They walked down the street without a word, fingers intertwined softly.

Though they hadn’t finished Jerry’s story, they were unknowingly making slow and steady progress on a story of their own.