I

She went back to the day her boss called her up to his office. It had only been close to three months that she had been transferred from the Switzerland architecture studio in Lugano to the US one in New York, but she was quick to adjust herself to all kinds of new environments, it was never easy for her to stay put in one place for more than 2 years, and this time hadn’t been the exception. At 28, she was already a consummate professional and had by way of efficiency and diligence, quickly gained both her design team and her bosses’ trust.

“Frédérique, I have a friend that recommended us to a potential client”, the man sitting in front of her across the desk started saying. He continued: “I know you are still adjusting to the US regulations and codes, but I think you’re ready to take the lead of the design team yourself, and I’ll be available if you need any help, which I’m sure you won’t”. 

She sat silently, she liked taking on a challenge: if it came out right it would be a huge breakthrough for her. Her mind started working, expanding.

“OK, great, can you brief me on it?”

“Unfortunately I don’t have much information other than it’s a small-scale project in Pennsylvannia. For starters we have scheduled a meeting with the client tomorrow at 1 pm on location so you can gather as much information as you can to get started.  Julia is preparing a map with directions and a file with the client’s contact info”.

“Ok, that’s not a problem. I can handle this”, she replied.

These last months had been so hectic that she hadn’t even had time to visit the surroundings of New York so she decided to plan ahead in order to make good use of the day. She knew that Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, the house that had inspired her to take on a formal Architecture education, was in Pennsylvannia so she decided to leave early in order to take the guided tour around the house.

Frédérique sat on her desk, preparing everything she needed to carry with herself from the office so she wouldn’t need to drop by to pick anything up. As she was doing so, Julia came through the door and handed her a folder with the information on the next day’s meeting.

She first took a look at the map in order to have a clear idea of how to get there, this was her first time driving outside of Manhattan and specially, on a highway. She was glad to find that the site was just a few miles from Fallingwater.

She then turned to look at the client’s file. The name sounded familiar.

The rest of the afternoon Frédérique felt her brain struggling to find the connection to that name. She had an excellent memory and it bothered her tremendously when she couldn’t remember something, worst of all when she KNEW she had it somewhere in there.

She forgot about it for a couple hours but while she was driving on her way home it hit her. No, it can’t be HIM. Well, actually it COULD. It wasn’t as if it was impossible that it WAS him. She was in New York after all, the capital of the universe, right?.

As soon as she arrived home she went straight to her CD collection, one of her “survival kit” items she always carried with her (the others would be her camera, then her laptop, and last but not least, her guitar). She found the one she was looking for and opened the booklet inside it. Of course the band bared the name of the lead singer, but that was not the one she was looking for. She followed the letters with her fingers; well, the initials matched and she was relieved that she had found were she had seen that name before, but the States’ are a huge country, hundreds of people may be sharing that same surname. Yes, it must be a coincidence.

However, she couldn’t stop from looking at the men in the booklet. It had been years since she had last played that CD. She had bought it the first time she had arrived in New York with her father for a wine exhibition, she wanted to take something “All American” back home to Bordeaux and the attendant in the store had recommended that one because it was “hot” back then in 1994.

By the end of the 90’s she had lost track of them, up until a few years ago when she rolled her eyes to reading they had produced a “Nashville inspired” record. They were very handsome men, she wondered how they looked like 15 years later.

After that first visit to the States she started listening to more and more traditional American music and had fallen hard for it. In 15 years she had gathered quite a CD collection that included anything from Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson to Tom Petty to …Keith Urban – that was her latest country crush and she was completely smitten with him. She put the “Crossroads” CD back in the shelves and pulled out “Days go by”.

She smiled at the crisp sounds of the banjo of the title track coming from the speakers as she undressed herself before entering the bathroom to have a shower.