First Goodbye Chapter 1: Chance
Note: This is actually chapter one of this series. "" denotes a scene change. What had started out as one long chapter, I broke down into four smaller chapters.
It's been two days since Noah had arrived in the big city. Every morning when he left his hotel in downtown Manhattan, he was amazed with all the busyness and noise the big city had to offer. His months in Atlanta were nothing compared to this and this country boy enjoyed every minute.
Noah looked at the clock. He still had sometime before he was going to meet up with Finn and some of the other guys for dinner. He was in the heart of midtown Manhattan, Times Square. He was impressed by all the giant billboards and all the shops and stores. He stopped at a corner newsstand. The newspaper headlines caught his eye and he picked up to the paper to read what was going on. He skimmed over it briefly; it was the same headlines for months, all having to do with the war. The local clerk yelled out to him about this not being a library. He put the paper down, laughing to himself. It reminded him when he was younger and being yelled out for eating candy at the candy store with out paying for it. He put the paper down and from the corner of his eye, he thought he saw something, someone.
This wasn't the first time he thought he saw Allie, but this time it was different. The last time he talked with Allie, her mother mentioned her going to school in NYC. He half thought about running into her. As he turned around to get a better look, he couldn't believe who he saw. It was her. He stopped and just stared at her.
Allie was finally relieved to finish her last final. The rest of her girlfriends were already done. She was in a terrible rush to go uptown to her apartment, change and head out to celebrate with them. She stopped at the corner and opened up her purse, to see if she had enough cash to just take a taxi. As she looked through her bags, she had the strangest feeling that someone was looking at her.
Sure enough, she looked up and saw Noah Calhoun looking straight at her. Shock was the best word to describe how Allie felt at that very moment. She couldn't believe that standing no more than 5 feet away from her was Noah. She dropped her purse almost instantly. The both of them just stood there and then Noah reached down to pick up the purse and handed it to her.
"I think you dropped this." He said awkwardly. He handed her the purse back. "How.. how are you?" He asked, but she just stood there. "Well… it's nice seeing you." He said as politely as he could and flashed her a smile. He turned around and slowly started to walk away. Allie stood there frozen. A million emotions came crashing into her, paralyzing her. She should just walk away and move on. He was the one who left her broken hearted and waited for months to hear from him, but not a letter or anything. She was furious at him, and also at herself because all she could think about was how handsome he looked in his uniform. It took her a second to realize that he was actually walking away from her. "Thank you!" she yelled out. He turned around and she walked quickly to catch up to him. "Thank you for picking up my purse.. I'm sorry ..it's just that I didn't expect to see you.. I was surprised.."
"Yeah, same here.. you look good."
"You.. you too.. the army? A country boy like you in the military."
"Yeah.. right, Finn also. We enlisted together."
"Oh wow. So Finn is here also."
"Yes, he's here, but not here with me now... I'm just out .. site seeing and all you know." He's been thinking of this moment for almost two years since he last spoken with Allie. And now that he is, he was finding a terrible time figuring out what to say to her.
"Oh I'm sorry.. look at me taking up your time when there is so much to see and do here."
"No, it's ok .. I planned on going up the Empire State building, but the line was terribly long."
"Yeah, if you're not early you have to wait hours to get up there… umm a partner of my daddy has an office there, I can take you there so you don't have to wait in line." Allie cursed herself for offering.
"You sure? You don't have to be anywhere."
"Nope.. (she lied)..unless you had other plans?"
"No I'm not doing anything." He lied.
