Kristen sat down at the small table in the mobile office while her coffee was heating. As there was not much to feast her eyes on in the cramped space except for blueprints and schematics and alike, she picked up yesterday’s paper, which was sprawled on top of a pile of flyers and brochures advertising everything from skin care to boil removal. She figured some of the guys could probably use both.
Flipping through the Greenport Gazette, yet another flyer slid onto the table, freed from the crevices of the paper. It was brightly colored and piqued her interest, so she set the Gazette down and picked up the advertisement instead.
Autumn Fest in Greenport! It read in bold letters. Splashed across the image of a brightly colored tree and a stack of pumpkins were the words ‘hayride’, ‘cider’ and ‘pie eating contest’. There were smaller pictures to illustrate each event, as well. Someone clearly had gotten their hands on Photoshop or Publisher and just gone wild.
She had to admit it looked fun, though. It looked… rural. Like something you only saw on television, the romanticized view of small-town USA. She’d never come close to anything like it.
Sure, she’d been to Oktoberfest in Munich, Fête des Vendanges in Montmartre, Spring Break in… never mind. But every event she’d gone to had been packed with people from all over the world – not a couple of hundred townspeople crammed into one place just to spend time together. Kristen put the flyer back down. Now look who was romanticizing…
She could hear boots pressing down on gravel just outside and a light rattle told her someone was about to step through the door. She folded up the paper and checked on her coffee.
“We’re winding down for the day,” Ford’s voice sounded close by – not a lot of space in the trailer.
“Already? It’s like five o’clock,” Kristen frowned, turning around.
“Most office people leave around this time,” he said and took off his hat, putting it on the table next to hers.
“Only the lazy ones,” she mumbled and returned to focus on her coffee.
“It’s called having a life outside of work,” he said and was suddenly beside her, reaching into a cupboard over her head. “You should try it some time.”
“Funny.”
“I’m serious. You work twelve hours a day and what do you get? Not gratitude, that’s for sure.”
“You get a steady paycheck and a lot of benefits. Like insurance, and a pension plan.”
“Great. But when your body decides it can’t take the stress anymore and develops a terminal illness, what good is your pension plan, then? Are your last words going to be ‘damn, I wish I’d worked harder at my job’?”
“Why are you all bleak and contemplative all of a sudden?” Kristen frowned.
He shrugged, the motion disturbing the very air around her. Not to mention it made the coffee she’d poured shake like the water in Jurassic Park. “Sometimes I think you people over there miss out on a lot of the good things in life, that’s all. Not a lot of time to stop and smell the roses in all the smog, right?”
“Us people?” Kristen raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. “We’re a different species now, are we?”
“Oh, come on. California people are different than East Coast people, you have to agree with that.”
“Yeah. We’re way more tanned.”
“Look who’s being funny now,” he grinned and bumped her hip. Kristen almost lost her marbles. Or, you know, balance. And maybe her mind was blown just a little bit. Like with a fire cracker.
YOU ARE READING
Build Me Up (NaNoWriMo)
RomanceKristen Barnes has become successful as an architect catering to the rich. Hired to design yet another millionaire's dream home in a small but wealthy town in Massachusetts, she runs into trouble. Trouble in the man-shape of a construction company o...
