I have for you today an excerpt of my newest story, The Midnight busker, Which is a story of a musician in Richmond VA, who wanders about playing songs to the city as they sleep. It stems from a really bad situation I myself have recently began to recover from. A Broken Heart, but in this story the man meets an unexpected stranger in a cafe, and she changes his life forever. In short its a love story. Here is and Excerpt. The story will be released on Amazon for 99Cents on 11/21/2014. My birthday.
I hope you enjoy.
Billy shook his head in
an unsatisfied manner, and slung his guitar back onto his back once more, and
then began walking down the cracked sidewalk towards his favorite café. As he
strolled down the cobbled walk, he was hit by a wave of unwanted thoughts and
feelings. The woman he had long since lost came rushing into his mind, making
him stop in his tracks. He put a hand on the wall of a building to brace
himself for the flood of sadness that was sweeping through him. He stood there
for nearly five minutes, experiencing the regret and the sorrow of his actions.
He could hear himself arguing as if it was yesterday, about the most meaningless
things. He could hear her voice as clear and vibrant as if a bell was ringing
heavily in the silence. He could see him
embraced in her arms, and his lips meeting hers and locking in like a deadbolt.
His eyes swelled up and he could not prevent the flood of tears that ran down
his face and hit the ground with a splash that seemed to reverberate from
within his very bones. He took a deep breath and moved his feet almost
automatically and continued his trek to the café. A few minutes later he had arrived
in front of the small café, which even at this time of night, was packed with
people.
He pulled on the door,
which gave a soft ding as he opened
it. He decided to sit in a booth situated in a corner today. Billy normally sat
at the counter, but thought otherwise this time. He felt that he needed that
well deserved solitude that the corner could offer him. He nodded to the host,
who smiled at him warmly as she always did when she saw him and walked over to
the booth in the far right corner and situated himself comfortably, staring out
the window into the street, admiring as he always did, the old historic
district of Richmond.
“Can I get you anything
to drink Mr. Morta? “
Billy looked away from
the window, and his heart did the smallest of backflips as he sat looked at the
waitress who had silently wandered over to him. She was the most beautiful
woman he had ever laid his eyes on. Everything about her was breathtaking, from
the dazzle and twinkle of her gorgeous green eyes, the shine of her brunette hair
that gleamed in the light, the faint smell of perfume emanating from her, her
appealing curves, all the way down to the way that she smiled at him patiently
as he ogled at her silently. He suddenly found himself overwhelmed by her, and
at a complete loss for words. He had also become aware that he was staring at
her without speaking. Mentally preparing himself, he uttered a response,
stammering awkwardly as he did so.
“I-I’m sorry….Could you
repeat what you just said p-please. I was m-miles aw-away.”
He couldn’t ever
remember acting like this in his life. He was normally very confident when he
spoke to anyone, especially women. But this woman was much different. She
seemed to have wiped all thought from his mind, leaving just her beautiful
self, standing silent and patient. He couldn’t even recall why he had come into
the café at all.
“Can I get you anything
to drink Mr. Morta?” she repeated, her cheeks flushed slightly.
Billy did not know it,
but he was having the exact same effect on her as she was on him, she just had
a better way of hiding it than him.
“Er…A C-Coffee would be
brilliant dear,” he replied back, still overwhelmed by this woman.
“Cream and Sugar?”
“N-no thanks.”
“Anything else?” she
asked him curiously.
“N-no, that’s all f-for
the m-moment.”
She smiled and nodded, turned
on her heel and strode over to the counter. Billy watched her go, admiring the
way the she seemed to glide through the crowded café, as if she were walking on
air. It suddenly dawned on him that he always
drank his coffee with cream and sugar, and he was not looking forward to
his black and bitter coffee that he had asked for. But on the other hand,
anything was worth it for even just a small conversation with this mysterious
woman.
The waitress returned
within a few minutes with his coffee. She looked at him as he sipped it and
made a face due to the bitterness of the coffee. She reached into her apron
pocket and withdrew several packets of sugar, and two small creamers. Smiling
she set them down on the table in front of him. In response to his quizzical
look, she smiled, her cheeks reddening even more.
“The hostess told me
that you always take cream and sugar
in your coffee,” she replied simply, still smiling, “So I thought you’d like
those. My name is Cassandra Elmore, but everyone calls me Cassie.”
Cassie held out a hand,
and Billy took it. He noticed that her palms were soft as he shook her hand.
“I-I’m Billy, Billy
Morta,” he said awkwardly.
“Yes I know,” Cassandra
replied, grinning at him, “I’ve seen you in here before. You usually sit at the
counter. But I am quite happy that you chose to sit here this time if I must
say.”
“Really? Why is that?”
Cassie smiled and
turned away, and checked on her other tables. Billy watched her wander around
the café, completely unaware that she was aware of him watching her. As Billy watched her stroll about, he watched
Cassie stop abruptly and pull from within her apron, a notepad. She opened it
up and scribbled something hastily in it. She tore the sheet of paper from the
pad and crumpled it up, stashing it in her pocket. And to Billy’s surprise,
Cassie turned around and headed straight for him, her face reddening furiously.
When she had reached his table she smiled down at him. Billy smiled back.
“Yes,” he asked her
calmly, with a charming smile still etched on his face, “Is there something I
can do for you Cassie?”
She took a deep breath
as she took the crumpled up piece of paper from her pocket and placed it in
front of him. She smiled once more and walked off without a word, continuing to
check on her other tables. Billy watched her go in confusion. What is she
playing at? He took the piece of crumpled paper and carefully flattened it out
on the table. Scribbled upon the paper was a message to him. It read:
I
get off in one hour. Wait for me.
Billy sat there, his
eyes glued upon the scribbled note. He looked over at Cassie, who was now
looking back at him from behind the counter as she restocked glasses. Her
cheeks had now become so flushed with red; she looked as if she was holding her
breath. She was smiling over at him however, and when she made eye contact with
him, she opened her arms out, as if to ask ‘Well?’ Billy Nodded to her with a
silly grin on his own face, uncomfortably aware the he could now feel his
cheeks beginning to flush.
Cassie looked beyond
overjoyed as she continued to work for the next hour, all the while with a
smile on her face. When the hour was up, she clocked out and walked over to
Billy’s booth, and squeezed into the seat opposite him.
“So,” she said with an
air of shyness, but with a hint of confidence. “What would you like to do?”
“Umm…,” replied Billy
hesitantly. “Well I didn’t really plan on leaving with a date, but if that’s the
case then, I guess we could wander around the city a bit. To be honest I’m not
the most fun person in the world, quite contrary actually. I can be rather
dull.”
“Nonsense,” She said
simply. “You are an incredibly talented individual, and you seem kind and
smart. I’ve seen you once or twice before outside my apartment, I live on the
high rises by the canal. You play there every Thursday night, and every time I’m
home on those nights, I leave my window open, and I let you lull me to sleep.
But some nights I just stay up and listen, and think about your words. You seem
like a very lonely and sad individual, and no one with a talent of your
magnitude deserves that. So I mustered up the guts to ask you on a date. To be
honest with you, I don’t care what we do, as long as I can do it with you. You
look like you need the company.”
Billy was blown away.
This woman had just described him to a T. He liked this woman the more and more
she sat there and talked to him. It was a sense of comfortable he had not felt
since she had left him. He was a little
wary of her because he did not want this to turn into some sort of fling they
would both regret, which would lead to him being unable to visit his favorite café
ever again. But at the same time, something told him that this wasn’t the case
however, and he needed to let his guard down and just this once see where it
lead him.
It had started to rain
hard by now. Billy looked out of the window as he spoke.
“It’s raining,” he said
miserably. “That sort of puts a damper on our date.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Cassie
replied, “It makes it more fun! Now let’s go! C’mon!”
And with that, she got
up out of the booth, and before Billy knew what was happening to him, Cassie
had grabbed him by the hand, and pulled him from the booth and had lead him
though the crowd of people and out of the Café, and into the rainy streets that
waited for them.
Once outside, Cassie looked over at Billy, whose
hand she was still grasping. She was smiling at him as she spoke to him through
the plunk of rain. Even already soaked with rain, Billy thought Cassie was
beautiful.
“Your
eyes…,” she said, “They are so sad. It’s written all over them.”
Billy smiled as they
strolled down the cobblestone street through the downpour.
“They
are.” He said. “I am. But I won’t be in time.”
“That’s
good of you to acknowledge that. It means the process has already started.”
There
was silence for a moment.
“Sorry
for bringing up a sore subject,” Cassie muttered apologetically, “I didn’t mean
to…”
But Billy had cut her
off with a wave of his hand, stopping and faced her. He put his hands on her
shoulders, sighed deeply and spoke to her.
“It’s
alright. I understand. It’s a noticeable thing, and it’s sure to come up in
conversation. But long story short, I had my heart broken. It nearly ruined me.
It made me a little bitter towards the world, and less trusting of people. It
tore me apart for a long time. But I am healing. And I must say Cass; you have
been giving it a boost in the right direction since the moment I stepped into
that cafe.”
Cassie
had embraced him in an instant, wrapping her arms around him and squeezing
tight. Billy felt warmth rush through his whole body, and elation growing
throughout him. Before he had even realized it, he had taken her wet face in
his hands and had locked his lips with hers. When he released he looked her
into her eyes, his hands still holding her face. She was beaming from ear to
ear. Her own hands took his face and pulled it back to her. When they were face
to face, their lips so close to touching, Billy whispered to her.
“I
want this moment to last forever.”
“Then
we will make it last forever,” She whispered back. And she pulled his lips to
hers. The rain continued to fall heavier and heavier. But the two strangers
stood in the middle of MAIN ST, wrapped in each others arms, brought together
by some magnetism unknown to the pair of them, but one that was most certainly
welcomed. Billy had even completely forgotten that he had left his guitar back
in the café.
