Suddenly she caught him watching her. But like a child caught staring, he couldn’t even pretend that he wasn’t. They held each other’s gaze for a moment and then she looked back down at her paper-his paper, his employer in fact. After a while she got up and barely looked his way as she left the Starbucks.

When she was gone, he let out a large sigh, like he had been holding his breath the whole time. What was his problem?

She would be gone now, he thought. If there was destiny involved, surely it had just slapped him in the face and passed him by.

He tossed the paper in a recycling bin and left the shop.

Quinn stared at his desk and for the 15 ^th time this week wondered how he got anything done. The desk was beyond a disaster-it was a crater filled with papers, pads, pens, highlighters and paperclips. Underneath all of it could be the Dead Sea scrolls, but Quinn seriously doubted he would ever know.

It was a pile of rubble that shifted from place to place, exposing bare brown areas of desk. He didn’t think the entire desk would ever be seen again, at least not while he worked there.

Scattered around were various pieces of Tupperware, which he hoped would find their way back to his apartment one day. But considering that every day he forgot they were there, he thought they would have to get up and walk home themselves.

Quinn slung his bag onto an extra chair and flicked on the computer. The computer had no sooner booted up then a little sign appeared in the window.

“How could you perform an illegal function yet, you dumb machine?” Quinn asked it.

Quinn turned off the computer and started again.

He hated computers. Clearly the feeling was mutual. A day that went by without a major computer fault eating one of his stories or just generally going haywire was an event to celebrate. Quinn thought maybe it would help if Ethan actually shelled out some real money for this place, but that was like asking for a miracle.