Saros (Work in Progress)

Chapter 1

Another overcast day in Seattle—I thought to myself as I drove past the tall buildings in downtown Seattle. I could see the Space Needle between a break in the skyscrapers looking as if it would poke the clouds above it and release the ever-so-typical drizzly rain that Western Washington was known for. I drove to grab some Starbucks on my way to the office and as I did the rain started to drizzle down—of course. I didn't mind the rain, as few of us Washingtonians did; the issue was the constant overcast sky that would annoy us after months of it without a break. At least we had good, albeit overpriced, coffee here in Seattle—the birth place of Starbucks. Sure, people say Starbucks isn't that good compared to other coffee that they've had but that's because they usually have it somewhere other than Seattle. Seattle is the only place to really get an authentic Starbucks cup of joe. I pulled my car over on the street side parking a few feet from the Starbucks store and got out. I didn't even bother paying the meter, I wouldn't be here long enough to warrant the hassle of digging around for some change. As I walked toward Starbucks, it was easy to pick out the tourists here as you only needed to look for one thing: an umbrella. You'll never catch someone from Seattle with an umbrella, we have natural raincoats, or so that is the joke because we could care less about a little bit of rain getting on us.

"Good morning, Mark!" A voice called out to me from behind the barista counter as I pushed opened the doors to the coffee shop.

"Morning, Linda," I said with a smile. She was my favorite barista and she knew that I always picked up coffee for my office every Monday at the same time—I was never late to work.

There was a long line at the counter, but four coffees were already sitting in a cardboard take-out tray. I walked over to them and Linda held out her hand from behind the counter. A watch was wrapped around her wrist with the display reading $25. I held my own watch near hers and my watch vibrated, letting me know the purchase was completed. When ProxPay first came to the market, there was a scare that thieves could just walk by and steal your money, but that wasn't ever the case because only trusted companies could automatically use ProxPay with clients. Individuals paying each other had a slightly more extensive route to take to use ProxPay.

"Have a great day now, and don't work too hard!" She said to me with a smile as I turned to walk out.

"No promises," I called back to her, returning the smile.

"See you tonight," I said as I turned my back towards the door and pushed it open.

Yes, that's right; after a year of getting coffee from her I finally managed to ask her out on a date, and that date was tonight. She eventually figured out I wasn't coming into Starbucks to just get coffee, after she found out that this Starbucks was out of my way on my commute to work and back. She was very straightforward with everyone, and that's what I liked about her most.

"I know you are coming here to see me, Mark," I remember her saying. "You know you can just ask me out on a date instead of driving halfway across town to get coffee."

I wasn't expecting that, it took me a few moments to get over my slight embarrassment.

"Okay then, I don't have time this weekend but how does Monday night sound?" I replied.

"Sound for what exactly?" Linda replied.

"Dinner and a movie."

"I don't like movie theaters, they are too impersonal."

"Oh okay, umm, would you want to walk around the city?" I asked tentatively.

"No," She replied. "I've seen Seattle. Let's just see where the night takes us after dinner."