Openers

• With the pot of fresh earl gray

  rooibos

  ready, Sally took a deep breath and dared to look directly down at the textbook that remained in her workspace. She had placed the other two textbooks under the bed, after a long battle of trying to multitask, finally coming to somehow accept that she would need to take this weekend one subject at a time, no matter how painful that might feel to her. 
• The bustle of young men and scent of cooling pizza saturated the

  coworking space

  . As Jon made his way out he couldn't take more than three steps before hearing

  API

  or

  frontend

  or

  backend

  or

  UX

  . Not the usual crowd but not the usual weekend. The coworking space had organized a startup contest attracting a lot of young folk with starry eyes, the type who still considered spending the night eating

  free pizza

  , workng and sleeping on the carpet of a glorified office something to look forward to. Outside Jon was greeted by light rain. And silence.

Transitions

• Earl Gray Rooibos was the perfect way to enjoy

  bergamot

  flavor in the evenings without wrecking her sleep schedule. Just like she knew she wouldn't get far trying to study three subjects at once, she wouldn't get far sacrificing sleep. Not yet at least. There would come a time next week where she may need to. Sally felt confident that she would be ready by then. She just had to chip away until then. Consistently and sanely. Then a knock came on her apartment door. It frightened her.
• Jon was glad to have finally decided to take the weekend off. He would enjoy himself finally. The waitress asked if he would want anything other than the decaf espresso. Yes, he said. He'll be ordering dinner in fact. Excellent, the waitress replied. Dinner. And even wine, that's what Jon would do. He got his phone out to see if any of his friends would be down to hang out.

Closers

• After his departure, the first thing she checked was the time. How much had passed? Too much. And then she made sure to check the door. Yes it was locked. She would hope for no other distractions. This was a fluke anyhow. Who the hell visits you at your door without letting you know beforehand? This was the 21st century for fuck's sake! Given that it was late enough, Sallie felt like she wanted to sit and work on the bed. It would be nice and warm since he had been laying in it under the covers the entire time he had been visiting while she was busy preparing snacks and tea for the two. But she got the chills, literally and figuratively when she went to grab for the comforter and noticed that it was ice cold. Like no human had been in there at all.
• Jon left the party early. He didn't say goodbyes. He took his umbrella and the cigarette that he had bummed off someone on the porch and headed downtown in the rain. It was quiet because of the weather, quiet until he approached the large building bustling with young folk. Jon thought he could use a pizza just about now. And maybe a nice podcast and a coding session.