The Untitled Short Story

The page was baron along with the authors state of mind, the keys an utter quagmire of vowels and consonants. Ghost ribbons of smoke arose from the overstuffed ashtray beside the empty bottle of scotch. The cheap seat had tears of age like any good chair, as the author looked around for inspiration nothing hit him. He tried to play some music and yet all he could do is allow his memories to flood back, the levies broke with the first strum of "from the ritz to rubble". All he could do was lean back and think of her, She was a gorgeous 5'4" knock out with the greatest smile and intellect. She live a small drive away but he could have sworn she was in the kingdom by the sea along with Annabelle lee. "a poem, a poem I need a freaking poem!" sighed the lonesome author. A knock came rustling the door that startle the author. The rapping came quick as if it were something important but like always our hero took his time to arise and meet the stranger at the door mumbling little sweet nothings along the way. His socks bore four different colors the predominant one being a dark brown that was gathered through the five days of being without laundry. His hair was a mess but nothing new to the person on the other side of apartment number 9.

"Took you long enough gosh, where's your sancha hiding?" asked the 5'4" bombshell with a grin on her face and a backpack slung over her shoulder. He reached over to take it from her but the utter shock and excitement was fully expressed on his face.
"What the hell are you doing here Chloe?"
"I thought you might need some company with the new manifest you have to write"
"Well yeah I would like some but why didn't you call? Look this looks like shit and let's not even talk about how my apartment" he responded as he led her in to the bat cave, the man club, the main bedroom and office. He tossed her stuff into a corner made a made a b-line to Chloe who made herself comfortable on his bed/couch.
"You know I like surprises when I know they're coming" he said with a smirk and a wink.

"Well I thought the famous Paolo Gabriels was up to...and I got out of class early" the glimmer in her eye was something that Paolo had never seen before in anyone else he had dated it was a mix of mischief and undaunted excitement.
"Well make yourself comfortable cause I still have to finish the manuscript, I've had writers block for 2 days now and tom needed the spring poems yesterday." He made his way to the typewriter, he still used a 1955 Groma Kolibri Mahogany/maroon typewriter. He had at least 120 pages that consisted of three seasons: summer, fall and winter. Most of which was written from the first day he met Chloe to where they were now, the only problem was that spring was still 6 months away but publishing companies don't care about that, they care about making money. She inspired him to be more than what he was to shed his past and move on, maybe that manuscript will be their ticket out of the shit hole where they live. It was something about Chloe that made him just want to prove to her he wasn't a waste of time.

Her voice was soothing and crisp, her laugh was a contagious virus that would never go away and her smile was knee buckling. She has it all and this is why she is Paolo's muse, she knew exactly what to do to pull things he thought he never had from deep within the abyss of his mind. This is what upset him the past few days, he had hit some sort of imaginary border, his mind hit a wall from which he was used to bouncing back after a few days. Today was different though, he couldn't shake it no matter how hard he focused on certain aspects of his love but he's scared he might have exhausted what he thought was a never-ending stream of revenue and bliss. Chloe's phone vibrated and she tapped away at it with a smirk on her face as she replied, he had a second to stare at her and then feel this sudden chill crawl up his spine and neck. He finally understood what winter would be about.

"I fucking got it!" yelled Paolo as he stared incredulously at the coffee stain on his tattered sofa. "I know what the next segment is going to be about I have all of winter already done, I'm so stupid I can't believe that I never saw it yelling at me the whole time it was in front of me." he slowly moved his gaze full of ideas slowly from the dark brown stain to Chloe's dark brown eyes. "I'm writing about love..."
"Okay, I'm sorry am I missing something? You already knew that so what is going to be the difference about winter?" she responded as she texted away on her phone.
"I KNOW! That's the beauty! I was writing about me falling in love with you, see I only wrote about being in love with you all 4 seasons but it just hit me, why not use the seasons as a template to explain how the season actually affect our love and actually make it something tangible instead of something magical"

"I don't get it" she responded with a blank stare
"Look spring is known for revival right? Well our bodies revived from prior relationships that died out the season before, then came summer where our love was fun, enjoyable still young and a little adventurous, then came autumn in which our love got cozy wanted to stay closer to keep our souls warm... are you starting to get the picture?" he asked knowing the hypothetical question would get shot down right away.
"Nope please elaborate and enlighten me"
"Well all I have left is winter, winter is known for death not in a morose way but in a cyclical meaning. Our past relationships have failed right around now after going through the same cycle we're going through now. So I'm going..."

"Wait I think I know what you're going to say and no shut up and don't jinx this! Okay?!" she said with actual fear in her eyes
This was the exact response that Paolo was hoping for, for two reasons: one it proved his point and two he was glad to see she was so in love to think that he might jinx anything in their relationship. "That is what I was looking for, winter is going to be about the fear of rebirth in our love, fear of the end"
Chloe's phone began to ring which caught them both by surprise, Paolo reached over and turned down his MP3 player and also checked out what song was playing, chloe looked at her phone and saw it was no call but an alarm she had set up months ago that she forgot about with a mischievous glimmer in her eye she got up and sat on his lap as she held his face and gave him a long passionate kiss looked into his weathered and battered eyes. "A year ago today you mustered that scrawny little frame of yours to ask me out after our first date after the long night of IM's, remember?"

"Oh crap, I'm sorry I lost track of time since the whole block thing and yeah oh man I'm so sorry happy anniversary sweetheart"
"I know that's why I came over today I knew you'd be working so hard you'd never give the calendar a glance. Look how about this I'll make us something to eat while you think of things to write about okay?"
"Sounds great to me " he responded with a wide smile and ended it with a kiss on her cheek as he whispered something inaudible.

Chloe was not a great cook she knew the basics to the kitchen enough to feed herself and stay alive, Paolo was different he actually was a culinary drop out so he knew more than the basics. He just thought it was adorable that Chloe was giving it a go in the kitchen, she grabbed an apron and Paolo's Messermiester Santuko. Paolo was just mesmerized with her beauty, hypnotized by cuteness and knocked out by her outstanding sense of humor. She began to make mock poses with the knife so they would both share a chuckle. As she began to prep the ingredients for the late night dinner, he began to type away some on his Kolibri. The rhythmic tapping would increase and decrease with the tempo of the song playing, the ding would echo in the shadows of the small studio he had. His hands flew in a fury of keystrokes and passion of eloquent emotions.

At the same time Chloe worked slowly as it was the only pace she felt comfortable enough to cook food that would end up being edible. Every stanza or so Paolo would look back and just admire the girl who kept him up at night when she wasn't there and help him sleep like a baby when she was there to hold his head in her arms. Once again fear struck his heart when the malicious thought eroded into his head and burrowed itself beneath his over the top emotions. The tapping stopped and his eyes were fixed on one line he wrote without even noticing, "The truth truly terrifies my somber soul". Without hesitation his mind began reeling back at everything he had ever experienced throughout his short-lived romantic life.

The heart-break, the sorrow, the nights of endless reeling of times and memories of forgotten emotions and neglected feelings. the truth truly terrifies my somber heart. The thought went back and forth through his mind, Chloe heard the methodical tapping stop and this caught her a bit off guard, she called for Paolo but he didn't respond. She looked back anxiously and saw he was just burning a hole through the page with this pain stricken face and eyes full of fear and sorrow. She threw her towel on the center island next to the julienne flank steak and salsa. She walked over and called him again, this time all she got was a nod he was lost in his own creation of hell something that she had never seen before. Days of insomnia, chronic smoking and relentless drinking would drive any sane man mad but not a write for they already have crossed that threshold and are well prepared to write eloquently about what hell actually like.

"Hey babe, are you alright? You seem kinda out of it" asked Chloe as she came near Paolo
"Have you ever been so terrified that you flashback on everything that has gone awry in your life?" he asked without even moving an inch
"Uhm, no not that I can think of, why? What got you thinking about this?"
"Here read the last line of the stanza and tell me why I wrote that without even noticing?" he handed her the sheet of paper full of words with deep passionate meanings "It's as if my mind wants me to confront something that I'm too scared to try to even comprehend."

"Paolo I don't know what got you thinking like this I don't even know why you're terrified? Everything is fine do you want to talk about something?"
"I really don't know what I want to talk about Chloe..."
"Look I'm terrified too but for a different reason, and that's something you have to come to grips with and deal with it head on"

Silence filled the room, Paolo just got up walked over to Chloe and leaned in and kissed her forehead. A word was not uttered as he sat on the couch and just laid there with his arms crossed under his head and staring at the ceiling. She followed him and laid down next to him and wrapped her arms around his chest, for the first time in their entire relationship the unknown frightened the hell out of them and yet there was nothing they could do. All that raced through his head were the bad memories of times before and all the heartache that was left. Of course they are terrified they finally have something that is worth too much to lose and they both feel as if the control of their relationship is up in the air which couldn't be further from the truth.

They both knew that they had something more than special and it was just a dramatic overreaction but the feeling still lingered in both their hearts. Maybe this is what drives love to great levels of emotions and passions that few have reached. Paolo, mesmerized with the figures of fear dissipating more and more the longer Chloe laid there hugging him. They both finally got up and headed to the kitchen, slowly the mood in the small dingy studio changed, the resonance boomed with the sound of their laughter and the lighting grew as their smiles lit the room. They cooked together a simple meal of tacos and ate it in front of a candle lit wooden box.

The meal was simple but full of memories that both held dear, Paolo's plans went awry from the start but his improvisational skills led them to a taco stand at the end of a wonderful night full of arcade games and wonderful conversations by the light house. This meal held more importance even more importance to Paolo because if it wasn't for this he never would have gotten the girl of his dreams, she could have changed her mind about this broke writer with meager earnings but no she thought that this was better than what he had planned. This was what they had on their first date. The night continued on into the evening and the smiles couldn't be torn off their faces, they didn't need money to be happy they only needed that one person who could keep their spirits up after a hellish day. They only needed each other to be truly happy and in love.

The End