My Missing Tune

Part 1

Rosie
    He's back. Sitting on his usual bench. Purple, metal, East side of the park. He has a pencil behind his ear, but as I come to think of it, I don't think I have seen him pluck it out of his brown hair once before. Just like clockwork, he shows up to sit on that purple bench at 8:20 every morning to type away some mysterious thing on his orange laptop.

He's ruffled around the edges, but has this picture of poise about him, with his tan coat, and cuffed faded jeans. Today he has on one of his many pairs of shoes, the fancy type sneaker in green, and his hair is blowing in the wind, looking so-

    "Excuse me?" A voice snaps me back into focus. I wipe my hands on my apron and finally look up at the lady standing in front of me, looking annoyed.

"I'm sorry. Umm, what can I get this morning?" Trying to pep up my voice so I don't look even more like an idiot. The lady sighs, orders, and moves to the side as I start on her latte.

Carmen nudges me with her elbow, eyebrows raising.

    "He took off his jacket." She says, smirking. I quickly glance out the window, only to see him sitting, typing away, in the same position as a minute ago. Still wearing his jacket. Oh, she's good. Carmen's laugh fills the quiet cafe. My glare only makes her laugh harder until I crack a smile.

    She stops smirking, "Dude, come on. I have never seen you look at something so fast."
    "Shut up," I say, nudging her back. Glancing back at him, he looks so calm, surrounded by the faded leaves.

    "Why don't you just go say hello?" She says it like it is the most obvious thing one could possibly do, then takes the mug of the customer's order out of my hands and finishes adding the cream.

    Carmen opened up Little Songbird five years ago. And I started working at it three years ago, right when I got out of college. I needed a job, but Carmen was by far the most welcoming compared to any other manager I had talked with. After my first day, we became very close, and now to this day I am her left hand, and she is my right. She also was the first one to watch me become obsessed with the brown-haired, laptop guy, about three months ago. Though now she won't shut up about going to go talk to him.

I mean I love her, but I can't just go and "talk to him."

    "'Why don't you just go say hello?'" I mimic her teasing tone, "You know it isn't that easy. I have been watching him for months, and what I have now is just magical thought "now is the time to go make my mark?'" She walks over to the pickup station and hands the lady, patiently waiting, her latte, muttering something at her. the lady glances at me, visibly relaxing, then she walks out of the cafe.

Thank God.

    "Carmen? What did you just say to her?" She turns around, smiling. "I said, 'sorry about her. It is her first time on the job." I gasp, clearly pretending to be offended, "You're mean."

    "I know." She winks, walking past me to greet the next customer. God, I love her.

    I decide to take out the remainder of yesterday's trash. Grabbing the trash bag, I drag it out the back door. The crisp, fall air hits me like a wave. Fall always seemed like the perfect time to fall in love. With the air cold, the smell of pumpkin spice, and all the romance books you could read.

    As I turn the corner, I get the non-window-fogged version of him. He's scratching his head, clearly bothered by something on his screen. His body exhales, then he looks up, glancing around the park. He keeps looking as if he is searching for someone. Maybe a girl? Or, maybe he is the one. Then, he meets my gaze.

Grayson
     She's back. Though she isn't strolling around the park like she usually does around this time for what I assume is her break. Instead, she just brought out the trash and is currently staring at me.

    I smile to myself. She was looking for me too. Today, she has on light-colored straight jeans and a bright salmon sweatshirt under her black apron. Based on the usual distance between us, I can't quite figure out which shade her eyes are, though I can tell they hold a warmness. My hand raises instinctively to wave at her.

What are you doing?

Right.

If she hasn't made any indication that she is interested so far, why would she start now?

I quickly start to put my hand down, right when she snaps out of her daze, then swiftly walks back into the cafe.

    Well, it was worth a shot. I glance back down at my laptop, I had stopped mid sentence; the text line blinking back at me.

Uhh. Time to get back to it, I guess.

    I started this novel months ago, but it wasn't really giving my vision; that was until she showed up at this park. I had been coming here every morning to get inspiration, because the pre-winter air always helped me focus, until a certain light brown haired girl started walking around my bench. After that I couldn't stop typing, like whenever I saw her I just got more inspired. God, she probably thinks that I am some crazed author, who sits out here every morning like a madman.

    When I first started this book, I had a very specific plan for the plot line, none of which included the guy falling for the girl, that was until she walked into the picture a couple months ago. I wanted there to be some romance involved in my novel, but not the major storyline, but I couldn't help. I started picturing her and me, and my mind just took over the words.

I am starting to wonder if she's the one. My matching tune.

    "Stop and stare. I think I'm moving but I go nowhere. Yeah, I know that everyone gets scared. But I've become what I can't be. Oh, can you see what I see?"

The song is like an infinite loop, known by heart now, just waiting to be echoed.

Could she be?

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Hola Mia amigos!

I hope you have enjoyed this story so far! I am definitely not sure that each chapter is going to stay the same, so if you come back another day and it's changed, it's cause I'm indecisive. 😁

Btw Rosie and Grayson are probably my favorite couple...but we will see.

Thank you again for supporting me!