It was her first day of work at her first job in New York City. She had feared riding the subway, knowing that she would get lost. Her roommate, however, knew what trains for her to take, and thankfully she did indeed take them correctly. She kept repeating to herself, “A to 42nd. Take the 7 to Grand Central. Then the Downtown 6 to 23rd street.” She finally made it off of her last train and saw there were several exits. She exited the one that was closest to her. To her relief, it was the one she needed.

She made her way down the dirty sidewalk, laughing at the homeless guy on a unicycle, a sign put up begging for some money for food. She knew better. In just a month’s time, she found out what was best for her as far as homeless people were concerned. She rolled her eyes and kept walking, a Hallmark store to her left, a Walgreens to her right on the other side of the street. continued to look around, looking for the sign that would read RadioShack.

There was a pizza place to her left and then she saw it. A little hole in the wall store that she knew no one would ever really be able to notice unless they knew the area. She took one step inside and her heart began to beat rapidly outside of her chest. It was racing. She hated starting completely over. It frightened her. What if they didn’t like her? What if they didn’t want anything to do with her?

She was greeted by a young lady named India. She was a beautiful young african american woman, a smile permanently painted across her face. Her hair was crazy, but she liked it that way. Next to her was a larger man named Jamie. He put on his fake smile and waved, continuing to watch his bootleg movie that he had put on the big screen.

She introduced herself, informed them that she was from Texas, and had just recently moved to New York. It was completely different from the place that she had grown up and so far she had loved it. Then again, she had only been there for a whole few weeks. India’s smile grew even wider, although it didn’t seem that it could.

“We have a man that just works here that’s from Texas. His name is Jason. He’ll be in shortly,” were her words. Her eyes widened. Her heart began to race. A man from Texas in New York? It’s not that uncommon, really. It was just new to her. She began to take a tour of her new store, knowing absolutely nothing about electronics. Cell phones and iPods, yes. However, electronics was a foreign language to her.

All of the sudden a man in a blue button down shirt with a bag in his hand, storming through the store like he owned the place caught her attention. She heard India yell at him, “Meet our new girl! She’s from Texas, too.” She turned to look at the man she was told to meet. He turned and leaned down to see her face. Her shoulder length blonde hair seemed to be as if it was from Rapunzel. She couldn’t get it out of her face quick enough. She turned and looked at him. To be completely honest, he scared the hell out of her. He was sweating profusely, his thick brown curly hair was damp, and his full brown beard were slightly frightening.

“Hello, I’m Jason!” he said, excitedly. “I’m Britany. Absolute pleasure to meet you,” she responded, her smile somehow curving across her lips. For a moment, only for a moment, her heart began to race. There was something about this man that had her, and she had no idea what it was. She was sent to the back room by her manager, Ray, to do computer based trainings. She sat there for hours upon hours until she just couldn’t handle it anymore. She saw this Jason character come into the back room and she smiled at him. He grabbed a cigarette out of his bag and her eyes widened. She hadn’t had a cigarette all day. She smiled widely and he pulled another one out of his pack and handed it to her. She stood up and stretched, making her way with him out to the front of the store, grasping her lighter and flicking it igniting the end of her cancer stick, like she did every day at least five times.

After her cigarette with him, she made her way back to the back room, and he went to the pizza place next door. She continued her training, her stomach rumbling inside of her. She sighed. Being broke had no ups to it. She crossed her legs, tilting her head from side to side, feeling it pop back and forth.

The door opened up behind her and she turned her head, seeing Jason walk in and take a seat behind her. This one test that she had to do had been bothering her. He helped her out, answering the questions that she just couldn’t get figured out. She heard him clear her throat and she turned her chair to look back at him, a smile playing across her lips, causing one to do the same for him.

“So, I bought this extra piece of pizza and this extra Dr. Pepper, thinking that I was hungrier and thirstier than I really was,” he said to her. She shook her head, her eyebrows raising as she knew better. She may have been blonde, but she was not stupid. “Well, do you want it?” he asked. She nodded. “Fat girl’s hungry,”she responded. He just shook his head and handed her the pizza and the soda and made his way back out onto the floor.

Her heart was won.