Sunset

“Come on, guys! Let's just continue tomorrow.” I slammed the computer mouse on the desk. “It's been eight hours.”

“It's due next friday, Greg.” The tall guy sitting to my left said. “We're not even halfway through this assignment.”

“Tom's right. We need to keep working,” said the other member of our workgroup.

“If you two want to keep working, go ahead. I'm going to take a break.” I grabbed my wallet and car key and walked out of the computer lab. “I'll be back in an hour.”

The final assignment for that summer programming class was a killer. We had to create a Visual Basic application using all the concepts we have learned in the class. It looked simple enough except for one thing: the three of us knew nothing about programming. We took the class because we had nothing to do all summer and thought it would be fun to take a programming class. As I drove my car away from the campus, I started to regret that decision. What kind of idiots took a programming class for fun? The classes were boring and we did not understand completely what the teacher talked about. Anyway, I decided to get some coffee in the Palisades Mall. The open air mall located next to the campus of Summertown College was my favorite place to hang out, shop or just relax. That day, all I wanted was some coffee.

While there were several coffee shops in the mall, my favorite was a cozy cafe located on the side of the mall facing the campus. It's called 'The Lost Java'. The barista on duty that day was Mr. Cooper, a nice old man who had been working there for as long as I remember. He already knew what I wanted since i always had the same thing.

“Hey, Greg! The usual?” He asked rhetorically.

“Yes, please.”

“Coming right up.”

I took my vanilla latte and went outside to the patio. After about 15 seconds, my body protested that decision by shivering wildly. I went back in, grabbed a newspaper from the nearby rack and sat in a table overlooking the counter. Finally, after hours of working, I could rest and relax for a while.

While I was reading the paper, the cafe suddenly went brighter and warmer. I lifted my head and looked around and saw a woman ordering a drink on the counter. She was wearing a yellow t-shirt so bright that I thought the sun had decided to rise right then and there. She was, in one word, stunning. I found my eyes locked onto her for several seconds. I didn't know what it was. Was it her eyes? Her smile? I wondered what she was ordering. Maybe a mocha to match her sweetness. Was it for here or to go? Please have it here. I wished silently as if I was trying to control her mind. She turned towards me. Was the mind control working? No, of course not. She looked at me for one second and walked away. Oh well. Couldn't hurt to try. I dismissed her from my mind and got back to my paper and coffee.

After about thirty minutes, I left the cafe and started to walk around the mall. It was something I usually do when I had nothing to do but didn't feel like going home. I passed by a music store and saw a CD of The Beatles in Jazz. It looked interesting enough for me to check it out. Lucky for me, that CD was a featured item that week and it was available to preview. I put on the headphone on one of the CD players the store had installed for previewing songs. As I was listening to the song 'Here Comes The Sun', I felt someone bumping into me.

“Excuse me. I'm sorry,” said a female voice.

I looked up and took off my headphone. Lo and behold! The sun girl

I went after her. I didn't know what made me do it. Somehow, she beckoned me to follow her. Like a fading flower looking for the sun, I was drawn to her. I had no control. My feet took me to the east side of the mall, where all the restaurants were. Suddenly, I lost her track.

I looked around trying to find her. The only way out of the area was back where she came from. She must have gone into one of the restaurants. Seven restaurants lined up in a semi-circular shape. Which one did she go into?

The first one to my left was a sushi restaurant. A giant circular belt ran around carrying colorful plates of various sushi dishes. At the moment, the only color I cared about was yellow. My eyes scanned every customer looking for that specific color. Red, white, blue. No yellow. She wasn't in there.

Next to the sushi bar, a giant red, white and green flag welcome customers to Del Mare restaurant. Judging from the flag and the name, it had to be an Italian restaurant. For some reason, the manager decided to make his restaurant the brightest among all the restaurants in the area by turning on every single light available. I saw someone wearing yellow inside. It was her, sitting in a table with her bright yellow shirt, brighter than any light the restaurant had on. She was sitting...not alone. She was not alone. A man sat across her. He was holding her hands. Suddenly, she was not so bright anymore. I stood there for several seconds, then turned away.

*

The next morning, I tried to forget she ever existed and went to class as usual. As I was shifting through the textbooks in my locker, I saw her appearing out of the corner at the end of the hallway. I couldn't take my eyes off of her as she moved closer and closer. She was wearing a kinda gloomy red blouse. I didn't realize that she was also staring at me.

“Do I know you?” She asked.

“Oh, I'm sorry.” Startled, I started making up an excuse. “We met in the music store last night.”

“Oh yeah,” she replied. “I'm sorry again for bumping into you. I didn't mean it.”

“It's okay. I saw you later that night in the Italian restaurant.”

“Yes. I love the lasagna there. Did you have dinner there as well?”

“No, I was just passing by. I was, uh...” What would be a better excuse than 'I was staring at you the whole time?' “I was looking at the menu in front of the restaurant and saw you inside. I thought that yellow t-shirt was really nice.”

“Oh. I love that T-shirt. My boyfriend got it for me for my birthday.”

Boyfriend? So that man sitting with her last night was... “Do you have class here?” I tried to change the subject.

“No, I'm not a student here. I'm just waiting for my boyfriend.” She then waved towards someone behind me. “There he is. Hey, Martin!”

I turned around and true enough, it was the same guy I saw with her. He put his arm around her. “Ready to go, Margaret?”

“Yes.” She looked at me and smiled. “Nice talking to you.”

I just smiled back. There was nothing else to say. I watched them slowly disappeared from my sight like a sunset. I turned back to my locker and resumed my daily life as if nothing had happened.