Another unfinished beginning...
~~
Lisa Gray slammed an empty glass
down on the bar counter next to a thickly bound book with a glossy black
cover. She shelled out some change
and placed it on the counter.
“Only one today?” said a sturdy man
with black hair and a budding beard behind the counter.
She smiled at the bartender, “I
still have a chapter to edit tonight.
Give my regards to your wife.”
He nodded, “Will do. Good luck!”
Lisa walked out of the bar and the
heavy wooden door swung squeakily closed behind her. She didn’t drink every day, just on occasion. The dirty New York sidewalks were piled
high with trash bags, keeping small colonies of rats hidden from the human
eye. It had been nearly four
months since she had moved from her huge apartment in Santa Fe. It had definitely been an adjustment to
say the least. At the first
mention of moving to New York City, her fiancé smiled and said that he could
live without her after all. So much
for being an editor of romance novels.
The street glowed an unnatural
yellow under the street lamps, illuminating nearby buildings. It was late, but people stood outside
doorways in groups, talking, smoking, and drinking. Her heels ground a broken bottle into the gray concrete. The
sidewalks were littered with mountains of gum that had long since melded with
the concrete. After passing an
upscale restaurant that she only wished she could afford, she arrived at her
apartment. She pressed a code to
release the door which led to a row of mailboxes. She then opened the second security door with a key. She was immediately greeted by a small
marble hallway. A leafy plant was
located dead center. Walking up a
flight of stairs, she walked a few more steps down another hallway and put
another key into a solid black wood door.
The lock clicked and she walked inside, locking the door again as soon
as she was inside. Almost
instantly, her jacket got tossed on the couch and her keys were thrown onto a
dresser across the room. They slid
across the waxy surface and hit the floor.
Lisa stared at them for a second
before sighing and grabbing her laptop off her desk. She lifted the screen and it shown back at her
brightly. With a single click of
the refresh button she could see that she had a new e-mail. The name “Matt Glen” was in the sender
information. She leaned back in
her chair with a smile. So he had
gotten it done on time after all. She
had been planning to edit a different author’s work tonight, but his story had
taken a very interesting turn lately.
She had actually been really looking forward to his next group of chapters. It couldn’t hurt to just peak, right?
