By the book

Elisa had a schedule. 

Everyday after work she would go to the library for an hour or two to write. She's nothing if not dedicated. 

If you haven't already guessed Elisa is an aspiring author. She has been since she was 8 years old. She hasn't published anything yet, and if we're going to get technical: she hasn't finished anything yet. But she keeps her regular dates with the library, even though recently she seems to spend more time reading than writing. She says it's for inspiration, but the growing pile of library books in the corner of her bedroom might indicate otherwise. 

Outside of diligently working on her writing, she spends the days as an Executive Assistant to Marjorie James - Marketing Assistant at Glaze Magazine. So you can imagine it was fun telling her family that she moved to a new city to be the assistant to an assistant. 

You should know that Elisa is from a high-achieving family. Both her siblings were chess prodigies in their childhood and completed PhDs at 25 and 27. So, right after Theresa Smith revealed to her husband - John - that she was pregnant with their third child she went to dust off her grandfather's chess set: the family heirloom she used to teach Elisa's brother and sister. 

This is to say that, from before the day of her birth Elisa was expected to excel. 

By the time Elisa turned 13, Theresa and John had long packed away the chess set and tried to make peace that their last child was... a little different. It is to be noted here that the Smiths set the bar quite high. So high that Elisa's consistently good grades looked and felt like Cs. Throughout elementary, middle and high school Elisa maintained a spot between #3 and #5 on her class list. But being in the top 5 didn't carry the same weight or recognition for her parents unless you were #1. 

As Elisa faded into the background, overshadowed and outnumbered by her siblings' achievements, so did her interest in anything but writing. It sounds cliché to say she found refuge in writing, but who doesn't? When the world was incapable of listening and when her parents just didn't want to - Elisa wrote. She spent all her allowance on books and journals, pens and stickers...and kept the most elaborate diaries. 

You can always create the life you want on paper. So, that's what Elisa kept doing until she turned 18. Because at 18 you could choose a University so far away that you would only be expected to return home twice a year. She had wanted to go to Hawaii or France but her parents insisted those were too far away, so they settled on Florida. 

"It's less than 3 hours away so we can get there in case of an emergency and it's warm enough to feel like a vacation!" her father had said, as a frown etched across her face. She looked at the crooked smile on both their faces and decided it wasn't worth the fight. Elisa had only known Florida as the place her grandfather's friends went to retire.

"For a place old people go to die, it's not too bad" said Selena. Elisa laughed. Selena and Elisa had been friends as long as they could remember, and if we're being honest she was Elisa's only friend for a long time. Selena opted to stay in New York for school and had even rented a little shoe box apartment in Manhattan. On their definitely weekly, but sometimes daily, video calls Elisa always felt like they were playing house. She was 20 now, but still felt like 13 years old, especially when her mother just started showing up at the apartment she rented off-campus. The perks of having parents who could afford spacious off-campus housing, meant that she was subjected to these unannounced visits. 

Her parents expected her to go straight to grad school, because that's what a Smith child does - you do what will set you apart. So, imagine their shock when Elisa came home from Florida and announced she got a job...in Canada. As you can imagine it was a long conversation, because both Theresa and John had compiled lists of friends they could contact about an entry-level position, "...because what will you do with a degree in Sociology anyway?"

"..and a minor in Media Studies" Elisa mumbled. 

As she waved goodbye from the airport escalator, she thought she saw a tear roll down her mother's cheek...but she wasn't sure. She hurriedly looked away - almost as if he mother's gaze had the power to make her stay instead. She had turned down their offers and accepted the job to be the assistant to an assistant in Vancouver. She saw this as her big break, her opportunity to really grow up. But, what she wanted more than anything was independence. 

And now all she did with that independence was mamey schedules - for herself, for her boss, for her boss' boss. She had hated her mother's detailed activity calendar that she kept taped to the fridge when they were children. Now she had a miniature version on the kitchen counter - a list of all the things she needed to get done today. 

After checking the day's to-do list she grabs a pre-packaged lunch and breakfast, then she places both containers carefully in her purse along with her water bottle. Today she walks the 15 minutes to the Sky Train station instead of taking the bus. This is a deviation from her winter schedule, but she decides that today is the day she relaxes the schedule a bit. It's a little sad that Elisa's idea of "living a little" is walking to the train station, but everybody has their thing. 

She arrives at work for another day of scheduling and attending meetings, keeping track of people thoughts and opinions. Executive Assistant was just a fancy title for "you'll do the work nobody else wants to do". She won't admit this to herself but sticking to a schedule helps distract her from how mundane these daily tasks really are. 

As the clock strikes 4, Elisa grabs her things and heads to the library. The library has become her haven now. All day at work it feels like she's holding her breath, and at the library she can finally exhale. As she walks up the steps to the library, she feels her shoulder unclench and a smile rests happily on her lips. 

She took her usual spot by the large windows overlooking the street. She exhales loudly and is about to start writing, when a shadow falls over her. She turns, squints at the sun's glare and tries to make out the figure. 

"Can I help you?" she whispers.

"I was just wondering if..." the voice begins. 

"Hey! No talking in the library", Norma - the librarian - hisses.

"Sorry Norma!" Elisa shouts and then covers her mouth quickly. She chuckles. The figure chuckles too And Norma shakes her head and glares at them over the rim of her glasses. When Elisa looks up again, the figure becomes clearer - it's a man she's seen in the library a few times. 

He sits and whispers: "I've seen you in here a few times and figured you're a writer or at least a book enthusiast. Would you like to join our writers group?" he motioned to a small group of people huddled behind the tinted glass of one of the library's private study rooms. 

"Oh", Elisa didn't know how to respond. Nobody had ever said she looked like a writer or had ever invited her to join a writing group. 

"Uh...how...ahm...how often do you meet" she stammered. 

"Let's go to the café, all this whispering is starting to get creepy" he said. She stifled a laugh and gathered her things. This was messing with the schedule but she'd never been invited to a writing group before! 

They ordered drinks at the library cafe and sat across from each other in a booth. 

"So I should probably come clean. I don't know those people in the study room. I made up the writer's group so you would have a coffee with me"...he paused. "But, I'm also a writer so we could actually start a writer's group, so that technically wasn't lying", he continued, smiling. 

Elisa wasn't sure what to say. She hadn't so much as gone on a date since college. Vancouver was expensive and it never seemed to her like the kind of city where you'd find love. It seemed like the place where you would find yourself, and that's what she had been trying to do for 5 years. 

"Uh. Hello?" he said, jolting her back to the present. 

"Ahm, what's your name?"

"It's Nathan..." 

"Okay Nathan," she said, cutting him off before he could ask for hers. "That was a mildly elaborate scheme. If this little coffee date proves to be worth it, then I'll tell you my name". 

In her head she was screaming at herself. She hadn't been in the dating game so long, she wasn't even sure that people were still playing hard to get. But, Nathan nodded and smiled. 

"Excuse me, we're closing up. Would you like to take that to go?", a teenager in an apron said, as he mopped around the table. When they looked across to the reading hall, half the lights in the library were off - it was closing time. 10 pm. She had been talking to this stranger for 5 hours! That wasn't in the schedule! She hadn't even touched her green tea. 

"Oh crap. I should get going", she said as she picked up her bag - thinking that she should've been in bed at 9. As she hurried out of the cafe, Nathan called after her. 

"Hey, you promised me your name!". She stopped, and he caught up to her. They exchanged contacts and agreed to meet up at a poetry reading on the weekend. 

As Elisa turned to walk away for real this time, she tried hard not to start skipping. A guy - who was actually attractive and liked books - had asked her on a coffee date. The ear-to-ear grin was pasted on her face until she got home. It was there when called Selena to tell her all about the fairytale encounter at the library...and was still there as she wrote in her journal all the things she couldn't say to Selena... and was still there when she edited her weekend schedule to include "poetry reading at 7 pm". 

The smile only began to fade when she realized this was the most excited she had been in 5 years...and if she was being honest...10.