xx
Walking through the city wasn’t Jeffrey’s idea of a good time; there were too many people, too many noises, and the overwhelming anxiety that he was going to get lost. He was from a city, of course, but it was nothing compared to New York. He felt a little homesick, at times. Indiana seemed so simple in comparison. But especially when he knew he would be spending his birthday by himself. He was sure his friends would talk him into going out and doing something, but it just wasn’t the same. He had always tended to lean too much on his family, and though he and his sister constantly competed and argued with one another, he missed her the most. Most of the time, it didn’t bother him, he was pretty used to being away, but this was the first year they hadn’t used some form of creative scheduling to make it work so that they could somehow, even if they were on facetime, celebrate together.

Jeffrey had found the music store entirely by accident; he wasn’t super into music (he liked it, sure, but it wasn’t a passion of his), and didn’t typically go into music stores, or even actually buy albums. He’d happened upon the store while he was trying to find a gift for his sister, though the moment he stepped through the doors, he knew he was in way over his head. He’d never heard of even a fraction of the bands he saw on the shelves, and didn’t have a clue where to begin.

He slowly walked through the store, feeling lost and useless for a good thirty minutes before he decided he should ask for help. Did he even know what kind of music his sister was into? He couldn’t ask her, that would be weird. They didn’t even actually text one another, the most communication they regularly had was sending the occasional meme. He tried to think of her general vibe, anything that might help, but ultimately he knew that she just liked her music loud and obnoxious.

With a smile, he walked up to the counter, “Hi, you work here, right?” Stupid question, don’t dwell on it, “I’m looking for something for my sister, our birthday is coming up, and I can’t be there this year. I’m still not really used to not celebrating with her, so it just feels weird knowing that I won’t be there.” He paused, realizing he was oversharing, and attempted to reign his story in, “She just likes music a lot, and I am not an expert. At all. But I thought that maybe getting her something she doesn't already have would be really cool.” He briefly laughed at himself, and shrugged, “Could you help me?” He smiled at her; he was going for charming, but it was perhaps coming off as desperate. “I would really appreciate it.”

xx
Jeffrey nodded when the woman- Evelina- said she’d help him, and told him to follow her. He wondered if she got stuck with an old nametag, or if she just wasn’t the biggest fan of her name, but ultimately he knew it didn’t really matter. He was here to get a gift for his sister, and she’d forget all about him once he left. She was pretty, though, and had a unique style about her, too. Jeff liked that, honestly.

She asked him what kind of music he liked, and Jeffrey sighed to himself before answering, “If I’m being honest, I’m not totally sure. She likes loud music, with singers that wear tight pants.” the fact that that was the only thing he’d ever really noticed about her music was, perhaps, not the best review of him as a brother, but it was true enough. She asked him about him and his sister being twins, and he talked as they went looking through the shelves, “Yeah, we’re twins. We were always together growing up, but I guess that’s normal.” The chuckled to himself, almost nervously, “She’s always been cooler than I am, though.” Yeah, that was exactly the sort of thing you tell a pretty girl, that you’re not cool.

He tried to remember some of the bands or songs he knew she liked, and offered them when they came to him. Jeff offered a polite smile when Eve handed him some cds she thought his sister would like. He turned them over, checking out the cases for a second. He really didn’t know what made for good music, but they looked like bands she might like, so he figured they would be good picks. She pointed out that one was a favorite of hers, and he smiled at that, “Thank you,” He cleared his throat, “I mean, I know it’s your job, but still. I was a little hopeless.”

He followed her back to the counter, so he could check out, and he couldn’t help but want to say something to Evelina. He knew this was where she worked, and he didn’t want to be creepy, but he just kind of liked her. It could go horribly wrong, but worst case scenario, he never had to come back to this particular music store. New York was a big city, so his chances of running into her and seeing her wherever he went were probably pretty low. “I, um,” Keep it cool, Jeffrey, “I really like your hair.” Come on, you can’t think of anything better than that? This girl probably gets that constantly: she’s a cute girl with cool hair, working in a cool music store. “I just mean that, you know, you’ve got this cool and unique vibe going on, and you-” He stopped, and all but laughed at himself, “I’m sorry, that was weird.” He made a mental note that he was bad at flirting, “You’re just very pretty, and I’m a little awkward.”

He paused, realization dawning on his face, “Oh, I know you’re at work, I’m not… I mean I know that you’re being nice because you have to I just…” He shook his head, “Sorry. Thanks for your help.”

xx
She laughed at him, which would have been more devastating if not for the fact that Jeffrey knew his attempt at flirting was pathetic. She apologised for laughing, and complimented him, herself, but Jeffrey just shook it off. She was probably just trying to be nice. At this point, he honestly just wanted to move on, maybe get something to eat. He never flirted with people, and this was why, he tended to get frazzled and make himself look stupid.

Evelina mentioned that there was a download code for the music. Jeff didn’t really buy cds, he did most of his music listening through streaming services, so that struck him as a little odd, but as it had literally been years since he’d bought a physical copy of an album, but his sister had mentioned that amazon gave you a digital copy of music you purchased, so a part of him just figured that it had become a common practice now. But then she said the place closed in an hour. Which was weird. Then the thought occurred to him that she probably just wanted him to leave so she could start cleaning up or whatever she had to do. So he smiled, thanked her again, and then he left.

As he walked away, he started to run over the interaction in his head. It felt a little weird, he’d probably made her uncomfortable, which wasn’t his intention. He decided to stop kicking himself over the whole thing: he couldn’t change the past. He’d have to ask his sister or one of his female friends for an opinion on how that had gone later. He was actually sitting on the subway when he got curious about the download codes for the music. He figured that maybe he could give them to his sister. She might like to have a digital copy in case anything happened to the cds. He fished out the receipt to look at it, and it took him a moment to understand what he was looking at. Not a download code, a phone number. Wait, he thought, working out what that meant at all but a snail’s pace. She’d been flirting with him. He spent longer than he would like to admit trying to decide what to do, but eventually (after consulting his roommate), he settled on the idea that she gave him his number because she wanted him to contact her in some way. He decided on a text message.

Music Store Girl
Hey, it’s Jeffrey. The awkward nerd from the music store.

He sent the message just like that, but he quickly realized what a terrible opening that was, and quickly sent another message.

Music Store Girl
If you haven’t eaten yet, we could grab a bite to eat? If you’re interested? :)

He had deleted and re-typed the smiley face a total of four times before he decided to leave it in and send the message and a part of him felt like he was being presumptuous, but she had told him the store was closing soon, so that had to mean something.

After a little back-and-forth, it was set, and Jeff was going to meet her outside the store. It was a little after closing time when he’d managed to make it back to the store, and he hoped that he hadn’t made her wait too long, and that she understood that getting around in the city wasn’t always the easiest thing to accomplish. When he saw Eve, he smiled, hoped his nerves weren’t too obvious, and said, “Hey!” He paused for a moment before continuing on, “Thanks for,” What was he even thanking her for? Giving him her number? Agreeing to go out with him? That was weird. So instead of finishing that thought, he cleared his throat and half-gestured for her to lead the way, “What kind of food do you like?” Personally, moving to New York had opened Jeff up to an entirely different world of foods, and he still ran into things he’d never tried before on occasion. He didn’t like it all, but he was always willing to try something new, so he figured that they would probably just go with whatever it was Evelina liked.

xx
Evelina said what kind of food she liked, and Jeffrey just nodded, “Well, then that’s what we’ll have.” As they walked and talked, Jeff noticed how easy it seemed to be to talk to her. He often felt like he had trouble holding conversations with people, especially right after meeting them. He didn’t know if this was what people meant when they talked about meeting someone and having a connection that “clicks,” or if Evelina was just particularly patient and good at conversation. Either way, he didn’t mind it.

They’d been walking for a while when she stopped. By her word choice, Jeff guessed something was wrong, so he asked, “What’s wrong?” Her explanation brought two possibilities to mind. She hadn’t cashed her check and was genuinely short on cash, or she had changed her mind and was trying to come up with an excuse to get out of going to dinner with him. If he were being honest, he could accept either one, but he did want to know which was the case.

“I’ll pay for yours.” He didn’t even have to think about offering to pay, of course he would. When she agreed, he smiled, and quickly shook his head when she said she didn’t like owing people, “Don’t worry about it. I asked you, I’ll pick up the check. You won’t owe me anything.”

It wasn’t much longer before they got to the place Eve recommended. Jeffrey didn’t know what to order, so he just went with whatever she suggested.

“So, um,” Jeff didn’t want things to suddenly get awkward, so he felt the need to keep the conversation moving, “What do you like to do? Like. For fun.” The thought that she had known what he meant before he clarified crossed his mind. Because, of course she knew. He felt like he looked like a kid on his first date. His roommate and friends had been telling him he needed to get out there more, but if he were being honest, he didn’t give himself a whole lot of time to do so. He spent a lot of his free time studying, which, if he were being honest, was probably what he should have been doing. Typically, when he wasn’t studying, he was just doing whatever his roommate felt like doing. That was potentially dangerous, but she wasn’t all that bad.

xx
Jeffrey couldn’t help but smile at the way the people who worked at the place were acting. He figured Eve must come here pretty often for them to be so familiar with her.

When she asked if she could call him Jeff, he nodded, and she went on talking before he could even get the words “yeah, everyone does” out of his mouth. He was a little surprised that she was letting him see her sketchbook just like that. She either didn’t mind who saw her art, or he was just used to particularly shy artists. He looked at the cover for a minute, a little conflicted at the eves don’t open directive; but he figured that since she handed it to him, she likely didn’t mind if he flipped through it. “I like your drawings… Or, uh, art?” He never knew how to properly refer to the things creative people made. It was always either “these aren’t drawings, Jeff,” or “man, these are just doodles,” but the truth was that he loved seeing the things other people made. He wasn’t the most creative person out there, so it blew him away to see how people could do things like that.

When a man brought out their food, he handed the sketchbook back to Eve. There was a little more teasing about them being on a date, but Jeff just smiled and thanked the man before he walked away. Then he turned to Eve, “Not to pry, but I’m a little curious about the whole Lida thing. You know, these guys are calling you Lida, it was on your sketchbook,” He pointed out the name tag still pinned to her shirt, “And the name tag.” He looked at his food, trying to decide on the best first bite to try as Eve removed her name tag and put it away. He nodded at her explanation, “No, don’t apologise. I was just curious.” He thought Lida was a nice name, but she didn’t seem to like it, so he didn’t say anything. She’d probably think he was just trying to be nice, anyway.

When Eve asked Jeffrey about himself, a look of panic crossed his face for a split second. How was he supposed to talk about himself without making himself look like the most boring person on the planet? In the end, he figured that there was no use trying to act like he was more exciting than he really was. “I, uh, I’m in college right now. Studying physics. So I spend most of my free time studying. I don’t mind it though, I like math and science. And all that... Stuff.” He shrugged, “Though, I really love stargazing. Back home, I used to make star charts. You know, map them out and everything.” He gestured up towards the sky, “New York’s not always the best for that, though.” He smiled, “My grandparents live way out in the middle of nowhere, back in Indiana, the stars are so beautiful there. I fell in love with space then. I used to want to be an astronaut, but,” He paused to laugh, “Now I think that’s a little unrealistic.”

He cleared his throat, he’d talked too much about space. “I like bikes, too. Always wear a helmet.” That was worse, somehow. He quickly took a bite of his food as a way to force himself to shut up. When he finished the food in his mouth, he said, “I like this,” Pointing down to the remainder of his food, “Good choice.”

As Eve spoke, Jeffrey realized that he’d never even had to think about giving up his dreams, there was always enough money that he could at least entertain it all. Sure, his life wasn’t perfect, but he could afford to follow his dreams. He’d never thought about the fact that not everyone could.

But when Evelina said she’d never seen the stars, he felt a little sad for her. It wasn’t as if seeing the stars were necessary for a happy life, but he loved them so much, and he couldn’t imagine not being able to see them clearly. There were a few places in New York for stargazing, but they were only any good at certain times of the year, and they all still suffered from being in one of the biggest cities in the world. He understood never really seeing the stars if someone had lived in the city their entire life. Hell, most people who lived somewhere they could clearly see the stars didn’t ever pay them much attention.

Jeffrey wasn’t normally particularly impulsive, but he’d already asked out and gone to dinner with a pretty girl the day he met her, and there she was, wistfully talking about seeing the stars. What was one more impulsive decision? He pulled out his phone to check the time, if they left right away, they could probably catch the next train out of the city. “Would you like to go right now?” He stood up and shrugged, struggling to keep up the level of confidence he’d just asked with, “We can catch the train if we hurry.” He remembered then that she’d forgotten about her paycheck, and she might object because she wouldn’t want him to pay for her, “The weather’s nice, and it’s not too cloudy, it’ll be perfect.” He smiled, “So long as you’re comfortable with it, I’d love to go stargazing with you. I could probably point out some constellations for you.”

There was always the chance she might think he was a serial killer or something, so he wouldn’t blame her if she said no because she didn’t feel safe, but otherwise he really did think he might have to insist.