Everything I've Needed (A Jacob Black Love Story)

The heavy winds blew against my body, making it harder to make my way through the overcrowded New York City streets. I tied my white wool coat tighter around my body, nuzzling my face into the collar, away from the cold. My hair flew behind me like a mahogany curtain as I rushed to get to the side of the road to hail a taxi. There was no way I was going to walk five more blocks in these ridiculous hurricane like winds. Apparently many others had the same idea for beside me, there had to be like ten other people with their hands raised, waiting for a cab to stop. I groaned at this, but put my hand up nevertheless. After a few short minutes, three cabs rounded the corner of Fifth Street, my own yellow rescuers. I waved my hand in desperation, wanting more than anything to get out of the cold- even if it was just to be in the awkward, confined space of a New York City cab. Unfortunately, two of them had already stopped to pick up some pedestrians a ways down from me. However, there was one left! I watched in hope as it got closer and closer to me…. And zoomed right past, splashing some of the left over rain from yesterday onto my black BCBG shoes. My lips formed a perfect O as I looked down at my now distressed feet. Perfect. Now I really needed a cab, before I got hypothermia from my frozen shoes. Minutes and minutes past until finally I was able to get myself into a cab and get the hell home.

After I paid my fare, I exited the cab, shoes in hand and walked into my apartment building. The slapping sound of my bare feet against the shiny black linoleum floor of my lobby echoed as I made my way over to the mailboxes. Just as I expected, there were a lot of letters seeing as I was too tired last night to even think straight and check. I grabbed my mail and sauntered over to the elevator. The Ding sounded followed by the brass doors opening, revealing a tall man in the classic business suit. I recognized him as the man from four doors down, he was president of some company or other, and greeted him with a soft smile. Once in the elevator, I pressed number 24 and leaned against the metallic wall, closing my eyes- it’ll take a while before I arrive.

“Long day, huh?” My eyes snapped open to see Benjamin, the musician who lived on the 25th floor in the elevator with me. I guess he must have snuck in right after me.

“Oh yeah.” I nodded, lifting my hair off of my neck and holding it in place as I continued to lean back on the wall.

“I hear ya.” He shifted in his spot, moving his guitar case from his left hand to his right.

I guess he was talking about another one of this shows that he held at the Moon café across the street. I’ve been there plenty of times—not for him, just because I had a rather strong liking for coffee and little cafes of that sort. But I do admit, he was pretty good as what he does. I saw his eyes travel over my bare feet and then to my shoes, his eyebrows furrowed. But thankfully he didn’t ask. In fact, we didn’t really talk after that tiny exchange, and I didn’t really mind. I was far too worn-out to engage in banter. Once the elevatordinged again, I left Benjamin with a quick goodbye and walked down the hall until I reached Unit 23- my apartment. I felt the rush of cinnamon apple waft through my nose as I entered. I always had candles in my home- they were like a collector’s item for me. I left my shoes at the door, not really knowing what to do with them and walked into the living room. My apartment was one of the smaller ones in the building, only consisting of a bedroom, kitchen, living room and bathroom. There was also a little balcony leading out from my bedroom. That was my favorite part. I dropped my bag, which nearly overflowed with paperwork, onto the coffee table and turned on the television. A random sitcom was playing, so I let it make background noise as I did what I needed to do. Yeah, that was something that was slightly weird about me. I could never stay alone in just silence. My paranoid mind would turn any shuffle or creak into a crazed murderer out to get me. So with the background noise, I didn’t have to deal with hearing anything I didn’t want to. Yes, I’m very… unique I guess. I padded across my white carpet and to my little bedroom, already beginning to take off my coat. I passed my full length mirror and double took. God I looked a mess. My hair was in a messy tangle, some loose strands sticking at random angles while my bangs were parted in a strange way. My eye makeup was smudged under my eyes, giving me bags that looked like hell against my naturally and always pale skin, while my lipstick has already faded. Twenty four hour last my ass. Ugh this is totally not how I looked when I left this morning.

After my nightly shower, I put on my red flannel pajama pants along with a black long sleeved shirt and tied my hair up in a high ponytail to let it dry. This was my favorite part of the day- just winding down with my hot cup of tea in the armchair by the window. Sometimes I would just watch tv or read a book, but tonight, unfortunately I had massive amounts of paper work to fill out. I headed for the kitchen to begin my nightly ritual. I put the water to boil and as I waited, I looked through the envelopes. As I rifled through, I expected to see the proposals from work, credit card bills that were for sure “the final notice for payment”, and advertisements from stores. However, I did not expect to see the square little slightly wrinkled envelope in the bunch. It had my name messily scrawled out in the middle and three stamps in the top corner. This made me smile—he never knew how much to put and no matter how many times I told him in my letters that only one would suffice, he still put more just to ensure its arrival to me.

I quickly flipped over the envelope and ripped it open, not even bothering with the letter opener that I kept on the counter. Swiftly, I pulled out the letter and began to read it, my heart already doing jumps in my chest.