Love In a Maze

Discordants

She looked up staring at the face of the clock on the wall. It had all seemed like an eternity until the little hand would creep it's way to the 7. She had tried to take up time by chit chatting with customers as they came in, pulling her gaze away to check the clock every few seconds only deepened her need for the ever lagging time to move quicker. Her soul still and she tried in vain to control her excitement. The Revolution was one of the many bands she had enjoyed over the years. "Be calm...Be Cool." She would repeat to herself, trying to calm herself down while simultaneously amping herself up. Glancing to the clock one last time, "Just 41!" She screamed internally trying her best to maintain a steady voice as she gave a one last customer back their change.

Time had seemed to slow to a crawl and then speed up which made her heart race. "The Kid... the Kid had her journal!", the knot in her stomach tightened. Her most personal and private words were written in that book. She was embarrassed, a little pissed, but also a relieved that it had been found. Too many emotions ran through her body and she wasn't quite sure anymore which ones were genuine or just a reflection from some old attachment to a fond memory. Lost in her thoughts she looked up one last time to the clock as it rang 7:00.

"Shit!" She screamed aloud to the empty store. She combed her hand through her soft ringlets and tried to smooth out the t-shirt and skirt she wore. There wasn't enough time now to change or go upstairs to fix her face. What if she had missed him. Would he come back? She riled herself up with questions that really had no answers. She would play back and forth each scenario so she would be prepared, time had gotten away from her and she was pulled back into reality when the clock chimed 8:00.

"Damn... he had lied." A despair began to wash over her. The book she had held for two years was actually gone. Her life had seemed at a standstill when the book was lost, her work... those pieces of her life vanished.

She rounded the metal and glass display case that held her cash register she peering out into the empty streets hoping. Locking the door she began to close the blinds. As turned over the closed sign she heard a slight muffled tap on the glass. Looking up there he stood in a long trench coat, fedora shading his face. The same mirrored glasses pulled tight around his eyes. Kind of suspicious walking around in sunglasses at 8 at night. "Celebrities." She scoffed to herself.

Looking at him she pursed her lips and tapped on her watch. Refusing to open the door she went about her business closing until with one gloved hand he pressed her journal against the glass. Her eyes widened at the familiar worn blue leather. She threw open the door so fast and furious it could have been ripped off it's hinges, the bells on the top of the door rang furiously.

As he smoothly walked in he mumbled, "Thought that would get you to open the door."

"Well it's why you're here here right?"

"Maybe." He said deeply slipping the book into the breast pocket of his coat. He took it off slowly and hung it on the rack by the door. He heard her give a quick intake of breath as she watched him. He had always relished in that simple sound.

"Wow." She moaned internally, biting her lip quickly so a noise could escape and betray her. He was the perfect specimen of a rock star. Straddling the line between the masculine and the feminine. His white tank hugged every curve of his torso, cut impossibly low so the dark hair trimming his chest peeked deliciously through. The stubble on his face was not from lack of shaving or due to laziness but an artful edge that lined his strong jawline.

"So this is your store?" He took off his sunglasses and cocked his head to the side like a quizzical animal. Those eyes large and round exaggerated further by the perfect application of liner as they had been earlier this afternoon.