Max sat alone at a table in the very back of the smoky cafe. Red painted walls, red cushioned seats. Everything else in the place was either made off wood or brass. He liked it a lot, the way the smoke contrasted with the walls, the way the brass shone slightly in the dim light. He liked the way his coffee smelled, mixed with smells of cologne and perfume and tobacco and people.

He watched a girl walk by. Long black hair, long blue velvet dress. She'd look great in a black-and-white movie, Max thought. Black-haired women always looked good in black-and-white movies; there was a sort of mystique that was added along with the beauty.

He'd almost forgotten Alcie by then, losing himself in the steam that rise from his cup as he idly stirred the coffee. That was what he'd come here for, wasn't it? To lose himself. But it was no use. Alcie's hair, god, it was like velvet when you ran your fingers through it. Like the velvet on that black-haired girl's dress. Max felt his heart hit the floor. Wonder why it does that, he was numbly thinking, when your mind is supposed to feel the emotions. No, you feel them with your whole body.

Thinking about the talk they'd had, Max put his head in his hand. Alone, he thought, then brought his cup to his lips with a shaky hand. Oh, the whole thing was still very vivid in his memory.

Max had been sitting in Alcie's apartment, in the armchair he always seemed to gravitate towards every time he walked through her door. Alcie had been doing the usual sorts of things she did when he was around; right then she was fixing them both a bowl of some leftover soup. Max wasn't really hungry, but he took it anyway, liking the idea of having something warm in his hands.

Well, then Alcie turned around and said that sentence that set the whole series of events that was to come in motion:
"I think I need to get away."

By this time Max had started on his soup and realised that he was more hungry than he had thought. He looked up, and through a mouthful of potato managed a garbled "Huh?"
"I said I think I need to get away," Alcie responded, pushing her bowl to one side. "I've been here forever, and I think there's more I need to see. And things have been going so flat for a while, that it's getting kind of...depressing."

Alcie depressed? But no, she couldn't go; she belonged here with him. Max needed her here.

"Oh, Alcie, I...I...well, what were you thinking of?" Max decided it was better to assess the situation before taking it the way he would if...
"I was thinking..." Deep breath here. "Possibly New York."
"New York??" Max almost choked on his soup. "But Alcie, that's all the way across the country, and, god Alcie, I've never admitted it to you, but I depend on you. If you go over there, who knows when I'd get to see you again?"
"I was planning on going for...a month. I could send my articles to the magazine in, and everything'd be fine. Max, I realize how much you need me, but I need to take care of myself before I take care of anyone else. I've been here for an eternity it seems, and I just need to get out for a while. See new things. And...well, I hate to say it, but it could be an experience for you as well. Learn to take care of yourself for a while. It's not as if I'm leaving the planet," Alcie laughed. That laugh had always sounded like little silver bells to Max. She seemed serious about all this, and the laughter hurt his ears for the first time. But Alcie continued: "You can always call me if you need me. But Max, I'm...I'm suffocating here."

Alcie moved over and put her arm around Max, brushing back his long brown hair. He kept his body cold and unyeilding. But at the same time he'd already submitted. Never was much for a fight, Max thought, and let out a dry laugh. He looked down at his feet. Alcie sighed in his ear.

"So," Max said dully, letting out a sigh himself, "when are you leaving?"
"Tomorrow night."

He stood up quickly, hiding his face so that she couldn't see the expression of pain. "I...I've got to go," he said, taking the hat he had worn outside from the chair. Alcie did nothing to stop him, she simply got up and moved to the center of the room. God, she had had the worst expression of sadness on her face, it hurt Max even more to look at it.

As he walked out the door, she said "I know how much you need me, and I'm sorry, sorry for leaving you and sorry for hurting you. But that's all I can be, is sorry. Because I have to go, I have to."

By then, Max was already out the door, moving quickly down the hallway, his hands clenched into fists. Oh, if only...god, how he needed her.

Max let this little piece of life play itself on his mental movie screen for the hundredth time. He looked down, and noticed his mug was empty. As he got the waiter's attention to get some more, he was thinking. Maybe I'll take the night shift at the restauraunt. Anything, just anything to take his mind off all this. The only reason he had decided to work days was so that he could see Alcie during the nights. But that wasn't happening for a while, after all, Alcie was in New York. Yes, he'd work nights, that's what he'd do. Then lose himself in the garlic and the the steam from the pots and the bowls of pasta...

more to come...