Always

The Words:

coffee, twilight, rain, purple, fuzzy slippers, owl, city, lights, taxi, walk

**

She sat thinking, almost ridiculing the comfortable arch of her chair with her straight back. Her coffee was cold and the rain pattering on the window was no music to her. She sighed at the clock and dumped the taro cupcakes into the waste basket. Purple cupcakes. Oh, the ridiculous fuss! The utter banality of girls who still gloated over fuzzy slippers and that utterly mundane Twilight. She went to the white board and erased another red task.

This was her life, one grant written after another.

Walking slowly, she counted the reflections of light posts in the water. She thought about getting a taxi, but it occurred to her that sitting all day wasn't healthy. So she walked. A figure was some feet ahead, book bag slung on one shoulder. How attractive, she thought. At the corner, they waited for the light to change.

"You're a night owl too, huh?" He said.

She didn't look at him. She didn't have to. "Always have been, always will be."

He grabbed her suddenly and she felt herself against the wall. She tensed and looked at the face staring into hers. He half smiled, and let her go.

"You could have been dead in a second." He whispered. "And yet you speak of always so confidently..."

She couldn't move. The light changed and he left her, standing. After a few minutes, she went back to her office, slammed herself into the chair and held her head. She looked up and saw the copy of Twilight on the desk, waiting.

She laughed and picked it up.

And didn't put it down till the end.