Coffee Run

If positive energy is what I need to get everything I want in life, then shit, sign me up to become an optimist.

 I couldn't believe I saw Jonah on the late night talk show. I knew he was a comedy writer, he mentioned occasionally doing stand up to de-stress from his job which required daily deadlines, and the couple from the comedy club had mentioned the performers from that night worked with big names in Hollywood. It was all starting to make sense. Of course he worked on a popular late night show! How could I have not pieced the puzzle together sooner?

  “This show tapes in New York, right? You've totally got to go!”

Kadie was excited to put Mission: Find Jonah into play.

 “No, no, no. If I go looking for him, that's going to ruin everything. The whole point was to be brought back together, randomly.”

I buried my face in my hands. Kadie sat up and stared at me.

“Wait, you're telling me that isn't random that we came home at the time that we did and turned on the TV at the exact moment Jonah was on? Lynn if that's not a sign, I don't know what is? You need to stop being nervous and go find him!”

Kadie was right. The night I had with Jonah was perfect. I was nervous of messing things up. The more I thought about Jonah the more I liked him. The fact that he respected my feelings enough to allow me my space. The fact that he didn't complicate things by kissing me that night. The fact that he's a perfect gentleman, funny, AND smart (I mean honestly how often does that happen?!) Ugh, and those eyes. All I could see were those big beautiful hazel eyes. Must.Find.Jonah.

The weekend had flown by quickly. Kadie and I spent most of our time shopping for the apartment. I've asked her to be my roommate since she'll be in the city now, but she has politely declined. And by politely I mean she's been yelling at me to stop asking her because nothing was official yet.

   “I can't! I haven't even gotten the job yet, Lynn! I'm going to jinx it!”

 “Positive energy, K!” I couldn't help but smirk as I shouted from across the bedroom in an enthusiastic tone.

Kadie grabbed a pillow from my bed and threw it at me knocking me onto the floor. She came towards me and picked the pillow up.

 “Well, I guess if I were to live here, I would have to get some bedroom furniture, huh?”

 With that being said we were off shopping. We hit up just about every furniture store in the New York area. We put things on hold here and there. (Kadie was still worried about jinxing her stay so she didn't actually purchase anything.)

But she has a very distinct taste when it comes to design. She likes a modern twist on shabby chic. It was driving me crazy going from place to place to find the perfect pieces but if it meant keeping Kadie in the city, I was all for it.

 
Monday had rolled around and Kadie was off to her meeting before I could even wake up. I hadn't worked out since moving to New York so I decided to put on my cutest yoga leggings and attempt a run.

I couldn't even make it to the end of the street. I'm calling bullshit on all the runners who claim running helps them sort out their thoughts. The only thoughts that my mind is sorting out are, “Why am I doing this too myself?”, "Are my legs suppose to be killing me?” and,“did I stop breathing?” So I decided I'd just walk instead. But, of course, I made myself look winded as if I just finished a long run.

I continued this for a couple of miles. I was so busy exuding the look of a runner that I must have subconsciously lead myself to the building of the late night show that Jonah worked on. When I turned the corner and saw the network's name on a bright neon marquee I gasped and jump back around the corner.

 “How did I end up here?” I thought to myself. “Would Jonah be here? What if I ran into him, I couldn't look like this and bump into him. What if he sees me now peering from around the corner over to the entrance of his work place? He would think I'm such a creep!”

I quickly turned around and began to run. (I guess the key to running is run as if you're scared. Because in this moment it seemed to work.) I just wanted to hurry up and go back to my apartment where I couldn't run into Jonah.

And right then at that very moment I bumped into a man walking out of a Starbucks.

 “Fuck! Shit! That's hot! Jesus Christ, that's hot!!” I yelled while dancing around trying to pull my shirt away from my body.

  “Oh my god, I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't see you! Let me go grab some napkins! Hold on!”

 I think the man was more disturbed by my overly dramatic reaction than the fact that he dropped coffee on me.

I looked up from my drenched shirt to watch him go inside. He pushed past a man who was trying to leave the store. The man looked vaguely familiar. When I squinted to get a better look I realized it was Jonah.

I turned my head up to the sky, threw my arms up in the air, and shouted, “Really, God?! Really?!” I'm sure anyone walking by must have thought I was having a mental breakdown. But since the setting is in the busy streets of New York everyone just walked past me as if I didn't exist.

 
When I looked back down Jonah was standing in front of me. He was staring up at the sky with his breakfast and coffee in hand. He looked back down with a puzzled face.

 “I'd offer you some of my coffee, but it looks like you already had some.” Jonah said while trying to hold back a laugh

“Well, I guess you were right about seeing each other again. I just didn't imagine it to be like this.” I pointed to my shirt.

 “Hey, my apartment's just down the way I can help you clean up. Maybe shower it off?” He winked and handed over some napkins.

 I was completely defeated at this point and quiet frankly irritated that this was how I ended up seeing Jonah. It was nothing like the perfect scenarios I had dreamed of.

 “You know what it's fine”

I took the napkins from Jonah's hand and pushed past him while dabbing my shirt.

  “I'm sure you're late for work or something, I don't know I'll see you some other time I guess”

I didn't care that I finally found Jonah again. I just wanted to go home, clean up, and bury myself in my bed for the rest of my life.

 “Hey! Wait! I was just kidding!” Jonah grabbed my arm and pulled me back towards him.

 “Are you okay?” He looked concerned.

I couldn't help but notice his hair. It was much darker and in a perfect mess. His cheeks were flushed pink from the cold morning air. I guess he didn't have time to shave this morning because he had a little bit of facial scruff that made my knees weak.

  “No, yeah, I'm fine. Sorry, just a case of the Mondays, I guess.”

 “Well, let me make it better for you. Let's go out tonight. Let's do something fun.”

  “I don't know, I'm a little busy tonight.”

 I didn't want to immediately jump on the opportunity. I mean I did. I want to jump on the opportunity so hard. Or even Jonah for that matter. I just didn't want him to think that I did.

  “You're lying”

Doh! So much for the poker face. I saw Jonah staring at me from the corner of my eye. We were walking down the street. He turned slightly away from me so I couldn't see his smirk.

   “Your eyes. They twinkled when I asked you. Look, I get it if you still need your space. We can do something another time.”

 “Pick me up at 6. Here's my number.” I grabbed Jonah's phone from his pocket to put my number in since his hands were full. I could tell I caught him off guard.

“Oh, and thanks for the napkins!” I winked as I slowly put his phone back into his pocket without breaking eye contact.

  “Yeah, okay, 6 it is!” Jonah said with a smile. I began to run down the street until I was out of Jonah's sight.

Once I was I had to stop and catch my breathe. Never running again.

I made my way back to the apartment. I threw my clothes in the wash and jumped into the shower. After cleaning up I saw a text from Kadie on my phone,

“Meet me at the fountain in Central Park ASAP!!”

I didn't know what to make of it. I changed my clothes and ran out the door.

After a quick subway ride over I headed into the Park. I saw Kadie sitting quietly on a bench. She looked like she was wiping tears from her eyes.

  “Oh my god, Kadie, are you okay??” I sat next to her and wiped a tear that was rolling down her face.

I've never seen Kadie like this before. Her cheeks were burning red.

She's always such an upbeat, life of the party, type person. She looked like she had been crying for a while. Kadie was emotionally the strongest out of all of our friends. She can always spin any negative into a positive. I couldn't bare to look at her this way. It was killing me to know she was this hurt. I started to confront her before she cut me off

  “I know what this looks like. Like I didn't get the job, but I actually did. I just can't believe it. I've only dreamed of working with Eva” Kadie covered her face with her hands and leaned into her lap.

“You're such a whore! You scared me!” I pushed Kadie over so she fell on the other side of the bench.

She started to laugh and I couldn't help but laugh either.

 “Kadie! That's amazing! I'm so proud of you!”

I was so happy for my best friend. This was everything she had wanted. And not to mention she was going to be living in the City with me! I couldn't help but well up with tears sharing her excitement. I gave her a hug and we started walking back towards the subway.

Turns out Kadie had wanted to meet up so we could go back to all the furniture stores she had held items at. A lot of her furniture has to be delivered but we picked up what we could.

A few hours went by and we finally headed back home. Our apartment has a small rooftop garden so we grabbed a bottle of wine before going up to relax. Kadie went on to tell me the details of her interview and I told her how I bumped into Jonah.

  “Lynn. I don't even believe you right now.” Kadie said as she took her sunglasses off and looked over at me.

 “I swear Kadie. You should have seen his face when I took his phone from his pocket!” I smiled and took a sip from my wine.

  “Wow, I must say, I'm liking his new Lynn. It looks good on you!” She raised her glass to mine.

Since I was going out with Jonah that night Kadie decided to stay home and put her furniture together. I texted Sarah the good news and told her to come out the next night for celebratory drinks. She passed the message along to Jebrone.

   It was only five o’clock and I was already ready and waiting for Jonah. Eager much? I didn't know where Jonah was planning on taking me so I kept it causal with black harem pants, a white v-neck shirt, and a dark floral scarf around my neck. Something told me we'd be walking a lot so I stuck to wearing my Tory Burch flats.

I finally got a text from Jonah close to six o'clock letting me know he had gotten out of work and was on his way over. Fifteen minutes later he was outside my apartment. I came down and gave him a hug.

  “You clean up nice!” He took my hand and twirled me around. “No coffee stains”

 “Oh, shut up!” I playfully said as we started walking down the street. “So, where are we going?”

 “It's a surprise!”

With that being said I followed Jonah down the street and into the subway. I still wasn't sure where we were going but wherever it was it was taking us a while.

We talked for what seemed like an hour until we finally made it to our stop.

 “This is it!” Jonah was excited to be wherever we were. He took my hand and lead me out of the subway.

We walked down a few blocks until we were at an amusement park. It was dark outside and it looked like the park was shut down.

  “So is this where you're planning on dumping my body after you kill me?” I said with a straight face.

Jonah smiled and put his hands on my shoulders,“Stay right here!”

I watched Jonah as he walked into a dark alley next to the park. A few minutes had went by and he was still missing. I was starting to get concerned until I looked inside the amusement park. From a distance I saw Jonah walking. He had somehow found a way inside. He opened the gate in front of me.

  “Hurry up!” he whispered.

I quickly ran and followed him in. He saw my shocked expression,

 “My friends and I worked here the summer of junior year in high school. We made copies of our keys before we had to give them back. The old fucks that work here never thought of getting new locks.”

   We went to the back of the park where there was a giant trampoline and trapeze set up.

 “Get the hell out. Are you serious?!" I couldn't contain my excitement.

Jonah strapped a harness on both of us and we jumped on the trampoline and swung on the trapeze for hours. After we were tired from swinging around we rode a couple of the kiddie rides and played a few of the carnival games.

   It was almost midnight before we realized we hadn't eaten. Jonah locked up the park and we made our way down the street to find a place to eat.

Luckily there was a pizza place still open but the restaurant didn't have a sitting area. Jonah had an idea to go down to the beach across from the amusement park to eat. We found a place in the sand, took off our shoes, and sat down.

 There were only a few street lights that lit up the area so there wasn't much of an ocean view. Just the sounds of the waves gently crashing on the shore.

  “This was so much fun. Thank you so much for tonight”

We continued to eat our pizza in silence until we finished. We were so hungry. Once Jonah was done he wiped his hands on a napkin and stared straight into the ocean.

 “I've never brought anyone here. To the amusement park. Just so you don't think I do this with everyone.”

I was flattered. But I didn't understand what was so special about me. I wasn't use to this sort of attention.

 I turned my body towards him   “Why do you like me so much?”

 “What do you mean?” Jonah looked confused by the question

  “I mean, you're so nice to me. You pay attention to my habits. You always know what I'm thinking. I don't understand what it is about me that you like so much?”

Jonah laughed and leaned back on his arms. He looked at me and back towards the ocean.

  “That's exactly why I like you. You don't understand how beautiful you are. You're one of the smartest girls I've met and yet you're so down to earth. You're easy to talk to, like I've known you for years, and you're so funny without even trying to be. I have to stop myself from looking at your big beautiful golden eyes because then I forget how to talk. Every one of your habits makes me like you even more...”

 I couldn't help but stare at Jonah as he talked. I guess he picked up on it because he stopped. He leaned back forward and dusted the sand off his hands.

  “Dang, anything else?” I said in my Bon Qui Qui voice.

 Ugh, did I really just say that out loud? I had such a bad habit of making awkward comments during serious moments. But it seemed to make Jonah laugh.

 “Rude” He said in his best Bon Qui Qui impression and we both laughed.

It was refreshing to meet someone who understood my weird sense of humor

  “That's the most flattering thing I've ever heard.”

 I looked down at the sand. Jonah was lightly picking it up and letting it slip through his fingers.

 “Well, it helps that I write for a living.”

  “True”

Jonah looked over at me and I leaned into him pushing both of us onto our back so we were staring up at the stars. I rested my head on his arm and brought my hand around to rest on his chest. I could feel his heart beating a little bit faster than normal and something about that made me smile.

I turned my head towards Jonah so my mouth was just next to his ear. I lightly traced my nose at the tip of his ear and whispered,

 “I haven't been able to stop thinking about you.”

Jonah turned towards me making eye contact. He held my gaze for a few seconds before he leaned over wrapped his hand around my waist and pulled me in closer.

I could feel my breathe getting deeper and deeper. He brought his face close to mine and kissed me.There was a tingling sensation running through my body that I had never felt before. My body sank into the sand ad I grabbed Jonah's arm and pulled him over me. The moment was intensifying when suddenly he stopped.
 

  “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I-” He slowly pushed himself off of me.

He sat back up and I leaned in to kiss him again.

We both smiled at each other. Just as Jonah tugged at my shirt we heard a shouting from the distance.

  “Oh shit!” Jonah whispered.

 “What? What is it?!” I looked around frantically.

  “Police! We're not suppose to be here, it's restricted property”

We grabbed our things and ran. It was an adrenaline rush. I've never ran from the police before. Check that off my list of bad ass things to do.

We made our way through an alley and found a cab to jump into. If I hadn't fallen in love with Jonah back at the beach I definitely did now. I cuddled under his arm and looked out the window as the cab drove away.

Half an hour had passed and we still seemed far from the city. I tried to stay awake but I couldn't. I felt myself doze off.

The next morning I woke up to the sunlight pouring into my room and Kadie standing over me.

“Lucyyy, you got some 'splainin' to do!” She held up a note.

“You were just too beautiful to wake up. Tonight was perfect. - J”