Frozen Blossoms

Chapter 5: 3,685th dinner

8:13 pm: "Pizza," states a younger woman voice.

Knock. No answer. Knock, knock, and before the third knock she greets Cindy's face. The woman is holding steaming pizza, warm breadsticks, and a bottle of freezing coke. A sight Cindy is happily drooling over.

The woman short black curls are in a yellow tassel and her pink lips are smacking bubblegum. Her eye lashes are mindlessly batting away waiting for Cindy to accept the pizza. Cindy returns the woman stares with a half hearted smile as she holds the door.

"Do you want me to put this inside?" The woman asks frowning at Cindy's disillusions.

"Yes," Cindy replies only to be distraught at recalling her new place had no furniture. The woman steps inside to be amaze at the size of the residence. She admires the two stories high room, white walls, and great windows is greeting you.

"Nice place," the woman states as her eyes grazes the windows. Cindy blushes at the woman remarks knowing her place is empty.

8:14 PM: "What's your name?" Cindy asks. The woman lays the breadsticks on the pizza and the soda on the chair.

"The names Kesha Coleman," she sticks out her hand towards Cindy.

"Cindy Hu," she grasp Kesha hands.

"How long did you move here?" Kesha asks taking a second look at her apartment.

"Earlier today," Cindy answered.

"You look like a city chick, what are you doing here?" Kesha asks curiously gazing at her. Cindy finds offense but understands the question. The neighborhood is still in development stages and it still has its dangers lurking around ever corner.

8:15 PM: Cindy did not want to share the reason why she chose here of all places to be her living space as applied to her luxurious lifestyle she once enjoyed. She did not want to share her unemployment. She did not want to share what her ex did to her after two years of being in a committed relationship. She did not want to share the devastating letter that caused all this to happen. She did not want to share her perfect calculated world is beginning to crumble. She just did not want to share.

"I wanted a change of scenery," Cindy states quietly shrugging her shoulders. It's enough to satisfy her mind and anyone else who asks, after all it is part of the truth.

"Sort of like Madonna!" exclaims Kesha with her brows raising.

"The singer?" retorts Cindy.

"Yea, she changes herself every week by changing her environment," explains Kesha.

"I guess I am," echoes Cindy thinking of Madonna and herself are alike. Her brows frowns and her lips perks, Cindy thought of the comparison. Madonna is a very extrinsic person and is known to be a social butterfly. She is powerful and the world knows it. Cindy's lips perk further. Cindy is an intrinsic person and she is no social butterfly. The world would not even know if she is gone or if she even existed.

8:16 PM: "Order anytime, we're open 24/7 and I do know other eateries in the neighborhood. Maybe we could hang out sometime," Kesha says by the door breaking Cindy out of her trance.

A thought occurs to Cindy, all her life has been filled with work. She had no time to be social. All her free time was either spent with her boyfriend or getting a head start on the next day.

"I'll take you up on that," Cindy states to the woman down the hall.

8:17 PM: She returns to her pizza on the desk. She open the box of pizza and the bag containing the breadsticks. She stares at the pizza remembering what she had for dinner every day in her past.

Thirteen peas. Two baked drumsticks. One slice of bread. Three mini carrots. She has eaten nothing else. Over ten years, hundreds of days, and thousands of dinners she happily ate that meal to ironically improve her health.

This meal is nothing close to that.

There is a certain strangeness to her eating at this hour. Every night she hunger for her schedule timing to be at 7:00 PM. Is she wrong to break her schedule? The letter soon arises in her mind and that question is soon dissolves with no answer.

8:18 PM: Overly greasy, thin, brick oven crust, with extra cheese pipping hot pizza is a new breed of eating for Cindy. Her hands trembles and her mouth quivers as she picks up a slice of cheese stretching pizza. She closes her eyes and exhales and inhales the warm pizza. A smile forms on her lips. She opens her mouth and takes a quick bite.

8:19 PM: Her untimely eating causes laughing to escape her lips, never in years has she done this. Her legs spread apart and her elbows are sticking out. There is no longer subtext holding her to a certain way and time of eating. For the first time in a very long time, she feels wonderful- she feels alive for the first time and she will do anything to savor this moment.