When I Met You

chapter three

The moment the elevator made a ding sound and then opening infront of me, I immediately walk my way out of it and made my way to my apartment room. I was casually walking when a door swung open. My neighbor Nelly walked out of the room, holding a big box wrapped in a Manila Paper. She seemed to be struggling for a short while but soon kept her posture when she was able to lock her door.

"Oh hey, Gwen." She greeted. "Hey." I greeted back. Nelly was the only neighbor that I talk to. She looked really young compare to her age, which is around mid 40s. She has this thick blonde hair and pale blue eyes and everytime I would see her, she would give me a smile, small wrinkles forming beside her eyes. And sometimes, when her work at a downtown hospital isn't too hectic, she would bake some cupcakes and would give out to anyone around the same floor as hers which means I get to have a few. And in return, I'd bake her a banana bread—which she said was the most delicious bread that she ever ate. That was basically how we got along, she was into baking like I was.

"Do you need help with those?" I offered but she shook her head no, grinning at me.

"Actually I was ringing your doorbell awhile ago but you weren't home. I'm gonna be throwing a Christmas party here next week. I was hoping if you can come?" she asked. It kind of became Nelly's tradition ever since she moved here. She would always host a Christmas party a few weeks before the actual Christmas and ever since I helped her carry one of her boxes that she had when she first moved in, around the month of December last 3 years ago—a few months before I moved in, she  would always invite me to her party.  It was also the first time we met. I didn't know anyone in my area and she didn't either that's quite close enough. So that night, she asked me to eat dinner with her at her apartment and in return, I helped her unpack a few stuff. That was also the night I found out that she's a Pediatrician. She used to live in Texas but she got a better job offer here, that was why she moved in. Back in Texas, she and her few co workers would celebrate Christmas party at her place and when she moved out, she continued the tradition and soon, a bunch of her old classmates during her college days found out that she now lives in New York. She invited them to the party as a get together as well, until it just became a new part of the tradition.

"I'll see if things at work won't be hectic at that time. I'll let you know though." She accepted, nodding and giving me a light hug. When we soon went our separate ways, I fumbled the keys to my apartment then grabbed the knob, twisting it. And when I came inside, I was immediately greeted by Chase. I pet him for a while before throwing my bag on the couch, turning my coffee machine on and removing my shoes then jumping in to my bed.

This was my favorite thing to do after going home from work, to lay down on my bed. I stared at the ceiling for a while until I realized that I only have 2 hours left until 11 PM, which was the deadline of my response. I decided to take a bath first before getting in to the email part. I took out a pair of gray sweatpants and my worn out Yale University sweater. When I was done from taking a bath and putting my warm clothes on, I took out my knitted socks and slipped them on before walking back to the living room and taking my laptop out. I sat down on the couch, put the laptop on my left lap as Chase ran towards me, resting his head on the other side of my lap.

I tried to compose a few sentences as my response but I couldn't seem to form the words that I really want to say. Actually, I have no idea what I want to say. I was still having doubts at the back of my mind but somehow, surprisingly to me, what Luke said to me kept ringing inside my head, "Consider that an offer like this doesn't come very often.". I know what he said wasn't related to this but somehow, it felt like it was something that I could apply to in certain situations like this.

I tried to mentally list down the things that I can gain from this possible experience. Maybe it was all up to me if I really want this offer and I knew that for a fact, I really do. I've been waiting for this moment almost half of my life, and suddenly, it grew onto me that this dream was too special that it scared me to mess it up.

I decided to stand up from the couch as I slowly made my way to the window. Unlike the view from my bedroom where there's mostly just cars and streetlights, the view from here has more buildings and lights coming from the Central Park or near it. It's one of the things that I love about living in a building, you can see almost everything if you're at a higher floor. A few miles from where I was standing, I look infront of me and saw a really tall building. Its windows were tainted black as lights somehow reflected on it, standing out from the rest of the buildings around it. Somehow, it was the only building that caught my attention.

It always has been.

And even if the building's probably closed for the night, its sign was still fully lit up, Pedant Publishing Co.

Without realizing that I was biting my lower lip to control myself from smiling, only one thing came to my mind that time and I guess it was the reason why I went back to the couch without having those doubts that I once had a few seconds ago. I typed in my respond without having any second thoughts because as I thought of things that I could gain from this, I have thought of the things that I could also lose. One question remained inside my mind and I couldn't seem to find any answers to it—and it would probably remain that way for a period of time.

And if I go through it, what more could I lose?