Street Photography

Shot near the corner of 17th and Broadway, New York City 2011

"Oh, Otis showed up at the office today!" Alexis announced.

Marley's eyes widened and she stopped her fork just before it reached her mouth. "Wow! Did you know he was in town?"

"Not exactly, but I knew his and Emily's birthdays were today, so I guess I wasn't really surprised to see him," she said as she shrugged with forced nonchalance.

"Did you talk to him?"

Alexis released a irrepressible smile. "He paused at my desk for a few moments," she explained. "It was actually nice to see him again."

"Of course it was, but that's all that it needs to be," Marley declared. "You just go about your business and never mind him flaunting his new life in your face. You don't need him and you don't need to see him."

Alexis sighed dreamily as she drew zig zags into her ketchup with her French fry, her modest grin unwittingly growing into a Cheshire smile.

"Oh no," Marley grimaced, "you didn't..."

"Well he was going to be meeting clients right across from my block. He would have been right there, and I wasn't going to be good enough to meet him for a drink? Just seems silly, that's all."

Marley shook her head. "Have you forgotten how hard it was to watch him fly away towards his dreams and leave you languishing at the gate?" She paused to allow that feeling to settle around her. "Because I haven't."

Alexis grasped her friend's hand in appreciation. "It's just a drink," she insisted. "We'll just be like old friends catching up." She dropped a twenty onto the table, plucked her bag from the corner of her chair, and kissed Marley's cheek. "I'll call you later."

Marley watched as her friend bounced through the diner and fluttered out the door and onto the street. She pursed her lips and cursed Otis Pretorious for dancing right back into her friend's heart without the slightest concern for the damage he'd already done to it.