After I graduated, I decided to work on a doctorate while working for a local police department in Boston. It wasn't exactly Washington D.C., but it was close enough.
I lived in a small little apartment that was built in the forties with dark wood trim and accents everywhere and built-in bookshelves. It was very cool. I loved living in it.
The mail ran at the same time everyday, always - unless there was a holiday or severe natural disaster.
I walked slowly down the hallway to the elevator to go to the main level so I could check my mail.
"Hey there, Miss Tayah," one of my neighbors, Chad greeted me as he also checked his mail. He was really cute, with dark curly hair and blue eyes. He reminded me so much of Ted. "So have you thought about that little suggestion I offered the other day?" He said flirtily.
"Like I said before, Chad." I said to him as I playfully hit his arm. "I have really busy weeks. During the day I'm in school, and then at night I'm working, and I come home from work and do my homework and then today is my only day off, for me. Where I can just do whatever I want, ya know?"
"What about tomorrow?" He persisted.
I thought about it for a minute. "I kind of have a big paper due..."
"Ok." He threw his hands up understandingly. "Just let me know if you, ya know.. change your mind, k?" I nodded as he waved goodbye.
I opened the small gold locker-like cubby hole and pulled out several pieces of junk mail, a magazine I subscribed to and a letter without a return address.
I eyed it carefully as I made my way back up to my place, where I put the magazine down on my glass and wrought-iron coffee table and sat down on my big fluffy black couch.
I propped my legs up on the table and stared down at the letter. The handwriting was so familiar, but I just couldn't place it. I opedened it slowly and sat the envelope to the side.
Tayah:
I've been looking for you for a wile now, and I've finally found you. I miss you so much. So I'm on the road again and I have a small little concert - unless you count the tons of thirteen year olds that will still be there even after all these years.. ha.. So anyways, I just wanted to send you a ticket and a backstage pass. I would really like to see you again. There's still a few weeks left before the concert, so if you decide to come, - that is if you're not, like, married off and stuff already - just call me and let me know. You know the number. I hope to see you later.
Love - Ted
I was shocked that he had found me. I hadn't told anyone where I was going, except for Lea and my family, and Jaimie, but they swore they wouldn't tell. I was kind of glad he had found me, I did miss him.
I called up Jaimie to tell her what just happened.
"He sent you a letter?" I heard the sound of a baby crying in the background. They had had two kids already - a boy and a girl. They were so cute.
"Yeah. And he sent me a backstage pass to a concert he's having here." I told her. "I wonder how he found out."
"Tay, you don't see him everyday." She told me. "Since Ashton and the kids and me have moved here, we've invited him over every nigh to eat when he's here because we're both afraid he won't eat. When we first moved here, he looked like he hadn't slept or eaten anything in four years."
He did sound pretty bad.
"He was working on that cd he just released. It's really good. You should definately go check it out. I can't remember what it's called, but you can just look it up under his name, I guess." She told me. "Seriously. He was so bad before we started force-feeding him. And when he asked about you, I couldn't hold back. I had to tell him. I thought it would be better. But, I made him swear that all he would do was write a letter. I didn't give him your phone number and he said he wouldn't go there unless you asked him to. Or his tour brings him there."
"It's ok." I laughed. "You can get off the soap box now, I'm not mad."
"Ok." She said as I heard something fall and one of the kids began to wail. "I have to go. I'll talk to you later, ok?"
"Ok. Bye."
I hung up the phone and layed back on the couch, staring at the tickets. I decided to go get his cd.
- - - - - - - - - - -
I entered the small cd store at the corner of my street and noticed a few guys checking out the rap cds and on older man looking at an old Johnny Cash record. I walked to the G section to see if I could find it. There were two teenage girls standing there looking at the back of a cd. I heard them start whispering and I rolled my eyes.
I picked up his cd. The cover was amazing. It was a picture of the tree outside my window in my old dorm room in California. It was from the view outside the window, looking up through the tree towards the window. I flipped it over to look at the track listing. It listed all fifteen songs on top of a small collage of pictures.
"Umm." One of the girls said to me. "Excuse me..."
I looked at both of them as the other one connected.
"You look just like the girl in one of these pictures on the back of Teddy Geiger's cd." She told me as she pointed it out on the back. It was me.
"Hmm." I said.
"Do you know him?"
I felt my cheeks getting warm and I nodded. "Yeah. I went to college with him."
"Oh my gosh." The blonde, shy one said excitedly. "Have you ever dated him."
I shook my head. "No. But he is a very nice guy." I told them as I told them goodbye and paid for my cd and left.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
I sat on my bed and put the cd in my stereo as I flipped through the booklet inside the cd case.
I noticed that the whole thing was like a photo album of him and his friends from college. There was one where Teddy and I were sitting on a blanket in that field outside my window and we were both laughing about something Jaimie had just said. I remembered that moment like it was yesterday. It was a really cool picture. He even had the picture I had taken of Lea, Auburn, and Maydin in there.
I closed the case as I fell asleep to the sounds of him singing the hidden bonus track, the cover of Brand New Colony he had put on my iPod five years ago. I really did miss him.