Where: City Hall When: Lunch time With: @b4rredteeth Zakir
City hall felt like a place meant for a different species from herself. It was a place for people who knew their path, had a goal, and had already achieved atleast some measure of it— People whose names were already on some significant list— and at their own accord at that.
Maria found herself pacing at the mouth of the waiting room. It felt too spacious, too empty, too legal to hold her comfortably. The hall wasn't much better for comfort. Above her hung fluorescent lights that hummed quietly in the silence. The walls were a tired beige color. She could imagine how thick they were, how thick they must be to absorb all the whispers of the conversations that took place on the other sides.
She glanced at the clock, not for the first time since she arrived but she swore to herself it would be the last. That was a lie, of course.
It was her own doing. She knew that. She hadn't called, hadn't given any notice to her arrival. In her defense, it had been a last minute decision. She was wondering, hoping, he would be willing to take lunch with her. She was sure she knew the answer. It was a question she knew was pointless before she had even made the decision but at the end of the day, it was an excuse to leave the house.
She had long been use to the silence that was the lack of company. Here though, in the loud and unfamiliar city, she felt it heavier. It weighed down on her shoulders, something that was evident now as she allowed them to sag as she walked. The loneliness had gotten the best of her. It had not announced itself when it took over, rather it crept up silently, slowly taking over the spaces she occupied till there was no ignoring it. She knew few names in this city and loved even less. Franco was always so busy. She missed his attention. She longed to eat a single meal with someone sitting across from her. InRome, she was granted atleast that. If not Franco, anyone would do. But alas, he was her only contact, only friend.
She was walking the waiting room up and down, the heels she was starting to get use to clicking against the floor softly. Not loud enough to be annoying, she was sure to make that the case. Her headphones sat neatly ontop her head, the speakers played oh so gently. She wanted to be able to hear others approach but the steady rhythms helped ease the space in her chest that silently ached for home.
The music was generous, an Italian artist she had heard playing over the speakers of a cafe long ago. If she closed her eyes, she could pretend she was there. a seat where she could see the people passing by on the street, an open window—breeze blowing through, whisking away her napkin.
It was this very action, the choice to close her eyes, that caused the CD player to fracture open the latch breaking loose on the ground in a loud clank. As she turned, too quickly, it had slipped from her hands. Her eyes flew open in a dreaded shock.
"No—" it slipped from her lips before the CD had skidded across the floor— the speed impressive considering.
The quiet that followed felt sudden, almost deafening. She pinched her eyes closed until it came, then, slowly, she followed the path of the CD, freezing when she found it.
After a deep breath she took a step forward, collecting the CD player before moving forward to collect the thing she now would have been happy to abandon. Standing not completely up, she pushed herself forward until she was staring at the feet of the man her CD now sat under. It was caught under the toe of his boot, clearly only having stopped as it hit the surface of it.
"I am sorry," She began, "That property is mine. I did not mean— Her sentence cut off as she searched for words, her accent thickly wrapping around each word despite how low they had left her lips.
