Alex to Piper (6)
Monday, May 26
Hey Pipes,
I hope you're doing okay. I haven't received anything from you since your scribbled note on the order form and I guess you're too stretched to write at the moment. Either that or I've fallen by the wayside like your Swedish pen pal!
Don't worry, this isn't a letter to nag or guilt you into writing back to me. I just figured that even though you're too busy to write at the moment, that doesn't necessarily mean you're too busy to read and maybe I can provide a little distraction for you at the end of your shift.
I don't really have anything to tell you, so I'll just ramble a while. That okay with you? My people watching continues unabated and there's been an exciting development in the neighbourhood. The coffee shop opposite my store has invested in three outdoor tables with chairs. This means that I can now sit at my desk and check out not only the passing foot traffic, but the people sitting outside with their coffee too. Oh, the drama and opportunity!
The store is doing okay and things are ticking over. We've been busy this past week preparing for a new exhibition that opens tomorrow for three weeks. This one is by a kid called Millie Krantz, she's only twenty-two, but she's a real talent. She's studying at NYAA and she's been getting increasingly flustered as the opening approaches. Her work is mainly oil on canvas, but she dabbles in mixed media too and I don't think she realises just how good she is. Hopefully she'll get some positive feedback from the exhibition and it'll give her the boost she needs to go on to bigger and better things. She's a nice kid, a petite little redhead with a cute smile and impossibly short skirts. You're missing out, Pipes!
I was thinking of sending you another book to keep you going, but I'm not sure what you like. Any preferences? I'm tempted to just stick with the classics, I figure I'm pretty safe there. There's an incredible little second-hand bookstore just around the corner from here, it's tiny and it's crammed from floor to ceiling with every type of book you can imagine, from Shakespeare to chick-lit and everything in between. It's the kind of place where there's no order to anything and you can lose yourself inside for hours. I'll have to take you there when you're back, I have a feeling you'd like it.
I went out with some friends on Saturday night, we ventured into Backbar, in Chelsea. You ever been? It's a nice place, artsy vibe, the kind of place that looks way outta my league. :) It's meant to be a secret spot, no signage, but then Lindsay Lohan was spotted there last year and all of a sudden it's gotten popular. It's a great spot for people watching and exorbitantly priced cocktails. We only stayed there for a couple of hours, then headed back to the Village where we did a tour of the kind of bars your mother warned you about before I rolled back home somewhere around 4am. I dragged myself out of bed at ten and found two half-naked women on my couch. I swear they weren't there when I went to bed! One of them was Janae, one of the friends I'd been out with, I still have no idea who the other chick was. I'm guessing Janae got lucky. ON MY COUCH! I don't know whether I should be mad or envious. Possibly both.
Ugh. Sudden thought. Should I be talking about going out, drinking cocktails, seeing friends, picking up women, having fun? Is that like really bad form? Like, see how great my life is and how much fun I'm having while you're half a world away serving your country and fighting the bad guys to ensure I can keep living this kind of life? Shit. Sorry, Pipes. I'm an insensitive asshole sometimes.
Let me tell you what I've started doing since I met you, though. I've started buying a newspaper and occasionally watching the news on TV. Only occasionally watching TV, like once a week, but they're two things I've avoided for quite a few years now. Not because I want to live in ignorance, I don't do that, but because sometimes when I see what a sorry state the world is in it makes me want to crawl into bed and hide. Since I met you though, I've been buying a newspaper every morning when I pick up my coffee and I spend the first half hour of my day reading what's happening in the world. Or in one specific part of the world anyway. Specifically, a place that's the opposite point on a compass to the Midwest. I have to admit that it's not exactly making me sleep any easier. I hope you're okay, Piper. I really do. I'm in awe of you, you know that? Genuinely. I've never met anyone who can make feel so entirely inadequate in all my life – and I was bullied at school, so that's saying something!
I better go. I can hear Millie having some kind of a breakdown out back. She may be in need of my shoulder to cry on. ;)
Stay safe, pretty lady.
Alex
x
