Bildungsroman

Cafe Terrace at Night (1888)

Vivian and Ben had met at a lounge on the Upper East Side that offered up and rising classical musicians a chance to perform in front of the big wigs. Both of them were horribly under dressed. Her sweater from Target might as well have been a trash bag compared to the posh business men and women that flaunted neck ties from Gucci and hand bags from Balenciaga. They noticed each other immediately.  

"Who are you here for?" He asked her.  

"My roommate, Leah. She plays the cello. You?" 

"My friend, Justin. I wouldn't have come but the dumb shit forgot to bring his cuff links and insisted that he needed them because they gave him a certain 'je ne sais quoi,'" He rolled his eyes at that.  

Next, his voice took on a suggestive tone, "But, that doesn't matter because I get to spend the rest of the night with a pretty girl like you."  

And that's how it began. 

Vivian had laughed. "Well I wouldn't mind a handsome guy like you keeping me company," she had flirted back. "What's your name?"  

"Benjamin Park. And you?"

"Vivian Lee." 

And that's how it all began.  

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She hadn't gotten far before a voice shouted from behind her, "Wait!"  

She didn't.  

The rushed pitter-patter of feet slamming on concrete echoed from her turned back. "Wait," the voice huffed, now right beside her.  

Her eyes traveled side ways and met the body of the stranger. He was carrying two big bags filled with take out containers in either of his hands. There were enough for seven, she noted.  

She raised an eyebrow in question. 

"Look," he said, standing directly in front of her, "I'm sorry about what happened earlier in the cafe. It was wrong of me to try to look at your stuff."  

She could have steered herself around him.  

She could have kept walking.  

She could have run.  

But, instead, she found herself stupidly staring into those eyes again. She saw the sincerity in them, an urgent pleading that called out for her, something that she never saw in Ben's eyes. Her vengeance dissolved ever so little and she found herself longing for answers, from Ben or from her stranger, she couldn't tell, so her lips moved on their own accord.