Friday Romance: Dating In The Teleportation Age (Romance/Sci-Fi) (Part 3 of 5)
“Hello?” The voice caught his attention. He looked up to see the person at the edge of the cliff-side looking over at him.
Late to work. Eight hours finding his way into the crevasse of a paycheck. Gone before Dave could stop by. The monotony was relentless in its grip on the world James had created for himself. He loved the stories of road trips and vacations from both his parents and grandparents. The trips became mandatory by the time his parents were reaching their teenage years, giving them both enough time to fathom the world as an endless adventure. He sought refuge in their stories as he fell back on the couch and closed his eyes. He opened his eyes at the sound of Faber’s whimpers for attention.
“I’ll get you some treats,” said James. “Then I need to head out for a moment. I’ll be quick about it.” He checked the cabinets for his dog’s treats, rolling his eyes, as each one was barren aside from a can of chili or a package of noodles. “Here.” He opened the refrigerator and pulled out his dinner from the night before. “You like steak right? There’s a little left from this salad. Don’t worry, I know you don’t care for anything green.”
After he placed the plate on the floor he sighed and teleported. He kept his hands stuffed into his pockets as he walked along the trails of the cliff-side. It was a place he’d visited with his parents as a kid, somewhere they’d go every so often to watch the sunset. It was their own little piece of the world. It’d been a couple years since he’d stopped by to watch the world fall asleep, but as life churned out day after day of the same he found himself yearning for the place where he had his first adventure. As he walked to his usual perch, he noticed someone was already there and hung his head low as he readied himself to vanish.
“Hello?” The voice caught his attention. He looked up to see the person at the edge of the cliff-side looking over at him.
“Uh, hi,” he replied. “Sorry, I didn’t realize someone was already here. I can go.”
“It’s okay. I didn’t think anyone else knew about this spot.”
James walked over, his hands still in his pockets, his head still down.
“I used to come here,” he said, “but it’s been a while. This used to be my special spot.”
“Well, it can still be yours I suppose. I’m Elissa, by the way.” He watched her get to her feet before removing his right hand from his pocket.
“James. How long have you been coming here?”
“About a year now. The Adirondacks are quite beautiful. You know if you sit right here you can see the most wonderful — ”
“Sunset. I know. That’s why I love it here too.” He smiled as he looked up at her. “Mind if I join you? I’ve had a rough week and can really use this.”
“It was your secret spot before mine,” she said, matching his smirk, “I’ll join you.”
Pink and yellow slivers cut through the sky as the sun turned a golden orange and sank into the earth beyond the mountains. James wiped a tear from his eye, and then got to his feet.
“I should be going,” he said. “Work tomorrow.”
“What do you do for work?”
“Customer service at Tele-Delivery.”
“Do you like your job?” she asked, getting to her feet.
“Not at all. I like having a roof over my head, though. So, I guess I don’t have much of a choice. What about you?”
“I’m an artist. Sometimes.”
“Sometimes?”
“If the government didn’t threaten to turn off our chips if we didn’t go to college or work full-time jobs after eighteen I’d probably never work another day in my life. I’d only create, which for me isn’t work, it’s love. My day job,” she turned and looked back to where the sun once was, the freckles on the side of her face visible in the moonlight, “is staring at a screen and watching my life tick away in the right-hand corner.”
“Do you work in the cubicle right beside me? Because that’s sound awfully familiar.”
She turned and cracked a smile before breaking into a fit of laughter.
“Same time tomorrow?” she asked.
“I’d like that.”
How are you liking the story so far? Do you think you’d like being able to teleport? Where would you go?
Next Episode: Is this work day moving faster?
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