Artie Mackeson loved college. He had been officially graduated for almost 4 years now, but he kept attending classes. He loves to learn new things. He loves to keep his intellect sharp. He has taken some of the most obscure classes just so he won't become bored. His newest endeavor is a class called 'The History of Furniture'.

Artie is walking down Newbury Street in Boston, MA. He loves his city. 'This is my place', he thinks. Boston is the place where Artie feels the safest. Whenever Artie has any kind of a problem that needs to be worked out, he comes into Boston.

Artie doesn't have a problem that needs to be worked out this time. His purpose in Boston this time, is to implement knowledge from the last class that he took for fun and received an A for his troubles. The class was titled 'Understanding Art'. Artie is looking for the David O'Hare exhibition at the Judi Rotenberg Gallery.

'I've been walking forever, where the hell is this place?' He thinks to himself. He's covered almost a mile on this street and still could not find the gallery. He didn't think to get the address of the building. He is overconfident with his knowledge of the city. That is one of Artie's flaws. Though he is extremely well off, and very smart, and quite attractive, he has some bad qualities too. One of his bad qualities being that his personality is undeniably inconsistent.

When it comes to schoolwork, and other academic achievements, Artie knows he can stand toe to toe with the smartest people in the world. His confidence in himself is unparalleled when it comes to those things. At the same time, however, he has trouble with people. He barely has any confidence in social situations. At his work, some of his coworkers think he's stuck up, and some even think he's retarded because they've never heard him speak.

'There's the damn place!' He thinks to himself. The building itself is gorgeous. It's four stories tall; colored a light brown, almost copper color, with enormous windows that go from the floor to the ceiling on the first floor. Artie walks up the five steps to the large dark green door. The trim of the door is interesting to Artie. The door itself is dark green with fancy designs, and a beautiful brass gargoyle knocker. The trim around the door seems to be painted in gold foil. The trim is so beautiful that Artie almost can't look at the door. Artie rams the knocker into the solid oak door and creates a somewhat muffled sound for the amount of effort he puts into it.

The door opens, and there a man is there. He stands about five foot eight, with an immaculate black suit on. His tie is a reprint of a Leonardo Da Vinci painting. His nearly black skin brings the tie out even more brilliantly.

"Is this the Judi Rotenberg Gallery?" he asks the man.

"It certainly is sir. Are you here to view Mr. O'Hare's work?" asks the man.

"Yes I am."

"Well sir, may I take your jacket?"

"Please." Says Artie. Artie rolls out of his jacket as the man grabs the collar.

"My name is Walter Jalen, and if there is anything I can do for you, just let me know." As Walter speaks, he gives Artie a fantastic smile.

Artie turns away from Mr. Jalen and heads into the first room of the exhibition. He stops to view the first painting he sees. It depicts a mother and a small child sitting in a field embracing each other. The sign next to the painting reads:

"The Final Embrace This is a painting that shows my mother hugging my younger brother just moments before he ran out into the street and was tragically killed by an automobile."

An older woman was staring at the painting with tears in her eyes. Artie didn't feel choked up. He felt quite uncomfortable. Artie moves on to the next painting where a group of men in suits, similar to the one Artie is wearing, are gazing upon a painting titled "The Loss". The painting was mostly dark colors with an image of a human face in the center, and around the face were images of things such as a remote control, a baseball, a basketball, a baby and a haunting image of a figure, maybe a ghost, seeming to run away from the center of the painting toward the edge.

"What was on this nut's mind?" a man asks the rest of the group speaking of the artist.

"Hello sir," one of the men says to Artie. "What do you think of this work?" asks the man with a slight smile on his face, almost in a mocking fashion.

'I see what this dick is pulling. He thinks I don't know shit about painting. I'll show this jackass.' He thinks to himself.

"Well sir, some aspects of this work are easy to decipher and some are not. It's painted in a very stylized manner. The baseball and the basketball are extremely stylized with almost no effort or care as compared to the other images. The remote control appears to be just a box with painted numbers on it. This tells me that while these things were all lost to him, they were not as important as the figure in the center, which is completely naturalistic, and almost makes one think the painting, on first glance is realism. However, we then see the figure in the corner trailing off of the picture plain. It seems to be a ghost carrying something, which appears to be a wooden toy horse. This image, to me, suggests that death has come and taken something from him that isn't concrete. Maybe it's the innocence of his brother who he lost when he was just a young man. I also suspect that the figure in the center would be what his brother would've looked like, had he grown to be a man, which would make this painting surrealistic. So what do I think? I think that just because I wear a hundred dollar suit, and imitation cologne doesn't mean I'm stupid about such intellectually intense things as a painting."

The man who was initially trying to make fun of Artie is now without a smile. His friend's jaws collectively drop as Artie walks away.

'God I love doing that,' he thinks to himself. He continues to walk through the gallery, unable to focus on any of the works, gloating over his moral victory.

Then he spots the most beautiful piece in the building. It's a woman. She's seems to be tall with long flowing blonde hair. The hair is dirty blonde, and extends down about a quarter of the way down her back. Her face is the most striking thing he has ever seen. Her eyes are stunning, with a very sophisticated look about them. She has very little make-up. She is wearing a well kept, or brand new, long brown trench coat. What a sight.

'Now she should be in a painting', he thinks. 'I should just go over and talk to her. There's no one with her. Why don't I just go say something? If I just say hello, what's the worst that could happen? She could just not say anything back. That would be the best rejection anyway, because if I want to I could just interpret it, as she didn't hear me.

'What's wrong with me? Why can't I just say hello? All right, that's it. I'm going to do it right here, right now.

'Come on just go. Just go and say hi. JESUS I hate this! OK, on the count of three, go over and talk to her. 1.2.3. Oh, for Christ's sake will you just go?'

This is Artie's problem. He can't talk to women. It takes him so long to talk himself into talking to women, that by the time he's ready to go, he turns into a fool.

For some reason, Artie actually starts to walk toward this girl. He stops about three feet from the girl, and gazes at her. She turns and looks back at him. A rush of adrenaline is released throughout his body. He instantly loses all the confidence, he thought he had, and all he can do is muster a nervous smile.

She smiles back at Artie and says, "Hi."

Artie is shocked. He doesn't know what to do. His brain goes into autopilot and he says, ".hello." Artie clears his throat, so that it seems to this goddess, that Artie was trying to say something meaningful, but a blockage in his throat was holding him back. He wishes that were the case.

"You work in my building don't you?" she asks Artie.

".oh. Do I?" Replies the invalid.

"Yeah, you work at Plowright Investments right?"

"Um.I, yes. Yeah, Yeah I do."

"I thought so. I recognized your tie." She says with a playful smile.

"Oh, great." Says Artie as he looks down to see what tie he was wearing. It was his glamorous tie featuring the Road Runner and Wiley Coyote. His embarrassment almost melted him into the spotless red carpet.

"I like it, though I was always more of a Foghorn Leghorn fan."

'Holy shit. Did she just complement my Looney Tunes tie?' He thinks.

"My name is Arya Cole. I'm an analyst." She says.

"I'm Arthur. Artie is what most everyone calls me."

"Oh good. I don't know any Arties. You're the first."

"Well I'm honored." Artie stood silent for a moment, not knowing what to say next. Artie never knew what that next step was supposed to be.

"So what did you want?"

"Huh?" Artie mutters.

"Well you came over here and started looking at me. How come?"

Artie is stumped. What does he say to that? 'What do I say, I just thought you were the most beautiful thing I've ever seen and I wanted to see if I could ask you out sometime? Oh 's waiting for an answer,' he thinks.

"Well I just .well I ." Artie pauses to collect his thoughts and slow his brain down. Arya begins to smile. "I just thought I recognized you from work. That's all."

"Oh." She says disappointed. "I was hoping you were going to ask me out."

"Oh, well that was what I was just about to say."

"Uh-huh. Right." She says smiling and nodding her head up and down.

The two continue to look at some of the paintings in the gallery. Artie can't focus on the work. He can only focus on the beautiful girl standing with him, joking with him, talking to him. This is a new thing for Artie. He's never had a girlfriend. He's never even been on a date. The two discussed some minor points about art. Artie didn't want to overwhelm her with his newfound art knowledge. He didn't want her to think he was one of those artsy, stuck-up bastards. She knew quite a bit too. She impressed him with her explanation of the painting titled "Red". It was a painting similar to "The Loss" only it was almost entirely painted in shades of red.

"Hey, do you want to get a cup of coffee with me?" Artie asks.

"Oh but where will we find a coffee shop in Boston?" she asks sarcastically.

"Well, it would normally be tough, but fear not, I know a great place." Artie replies. 'What was that? I just flirted. This is awesome,' he thinks. "Do you like Starbucks?"

"How can I not?" she says.

"Well good. It's a train ride from here, but the Starbucks in Central Square has the best chocolate brownie frappacino in the world."

"Wow. I can't believe that the best frappacino in the world is right here in Boston? I have to see this." She says.

The two of them walk to the Hynes Convention Center subway stop on the Green Line. Boston's subway system is divided up into the colors red, green, blue, orange, and purple. The red line is the main line that runs from a town south of the city called Braintree, and goes north to a stop called Alewife, which is in the northern part of Cambridge. The green line is also a main line in Boston. This train runs east to west throughout the city starting at the east most point, Riverside, which is in Newton, and the west most point, Lechmere, which is in Cambridge. The Blue line runs through the harbor area on the east side of Boston. The trains start at the station called Bowdoin, which is in downtown Boston, and runs to a station called Wonderland which is in Revere right near the Wonderland Dog Track. The orange line runs from the south, a station called Forest Hills in Jamaica Plain, all the way to the city of Malden and a station called Oak Grove. The purple line is the commuter rail. This is a rail that goes deep into the suburbs for people to get into the city without driving. The commuter rail in the south shore comes into Boston at South Station, a stop on the red line, and the commuters from the north shore, come into North Station which is a stop on the green line, and also shares a building with the Fleet Center.

Artie and Arya head from Hynes Convention Center to Park Street where there is a red line changeover. They get on the red line and they head three stops to the north to Central Square.

When they emerge from the underground subway station, they are on the sidewalk on Massachusetts Avenue, directly in front of the Starbucks Café.

The shop is on the corner of a building, so two of the walls are facing a street. Those two sides of the building are completely made up of windows. They enter the cozy coffee shop and are both hit with the intoxicating aroma of gourmet coffee, mocha, and caramel. The smell when he first walks into a Starbucks Café is Artie's favorite smell.

To the right is the bar where the employees prepare the fantastically elegant drinks that Artie enjoys so much. To the left is the window, and in front of that are nine tables with chairs. Three of the tables are against a center island in the middle of the modest café, where there are padded seats attached to the island.

Arya orders a grande chocolate brownie frappacino, and Artie orders a venti chai.

"I thought the chocolate brownie frappacino was the best coffee in the world. Why didn't you get one?" Arya asks.

"Well, you can't get that every time you go into a Starbucks or it'll lose its luster."

"Good point." She says.

The two sit and sip their drinks and talk about themselves. They tell each other stories of their pasts, seemingly meaningless stories to anyone else, but powerfully meaningful to each other. Artie tells her the story about his parents passing away when he was just a small boy, and how he lived, and was raised by his grandparents. He told her of all of the psychological problems that his parents' death caused him. He was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder, which caused him to quickly lapse into highly emotional and depressed states.

'Why is this going so well? This never happens to me. I can't believe I didn't freak her out with that story,' Artie thinks to himself.

"Well, it's getting late in the afternoon," Arya starts. 'Oh great, here it comes.' Artie thinks. " I have to go pick up my brother. He's got no car and I have to get him from work in 45 minutes in Quincy." Arya says.

'Great. I'll never see her again,' he thinks.

"I'd really like to see you again though." She says.

"Well, I'm sure I'll see you at work, but do you think I could have your phone number?" Artie asks.

"Sure." She grabs the heat guard off of Artie's cup, and writes her number down, and hands it back to Artie.

He leads her back to the sidewalk where they go downstairs into the Central Station. He has to head to the north because he lives in Saugus. She has to go south to get to her car. She lives in a town in the south shore called Abington.

Artie realizes that an awkward moment is upon him. 'Do I kiss her? Do I just give her a hug? I don't want to freak her out. Maybe just a handshake,' he thinks. He finally extends his right hand, but as she grabs it he becomes embarrassed because his hand is sweaty due to his nervousness. She doesn't seem to notice.

As she walks away, Artie shouts, "It was nice to meet you, Arya Cole!"

"Artie!"

"Yeah!" he shouts back.

"What's your last name?" she asks, getting further and further away.

"Mackeson."

"Like the beer?"

"Exactly!" Artie waits and watches Arya until she turns the corner and he can't see her any more. Artie then turns and heads up across the street to get on the other side of the tracks. 'I'll never see her again,' he thinks to himself.