Ty was on his lunch break sitting on the steps of the fountain in Dupont Circle, Washington DC. He is starring at the Metro station escalator entrance watching the sea of people exit and enter the Metro. The Metro lies below the city connecting the concrete jungle and transports people from all parts of the city to the trendy melting pot village of Dupont Circle. Dupont Circle, with its cosmopolitan neighborhood personality engulfs him in the moment.
Ty is enjoying the hot summer day siting among streets filled Washington, DC’s finest museums, historic homes, ethnic restaurants, bookstores, and private art galleries. He is sweating with the hot sun on his back during a break from a morning of roofing row-houses with bold colored facades. His green khaki cargo shorts and grey tank saturated with the mornings work perfectly outlined his muscular firm ebony dark-skinned body. Short in stature, his mass of muscles danced as a result of the work he does everyday. Wrapped up in his thoughts, tears streaming down his chiseled onyx jaw perfectly marking his round shaved head.
As I approached the top of the Dupont Circle Metro elevator, my eyes were drawn to his dark silhouette against the marble of the aged fountain. The sun beat against his etched ebony body highlighted by shimmering sweat. My eyes were stuck on him. My heart raced as I watch him tearful in the distance. I sat pretending to rest on the park bench but really I was only there to watch him. I wondered why this strong sensual black man sat on the marble steps in tears. Was he robbed, did his mother die, was he just fired from his job? I had no way to know but was obsessed with the thought of helping him. It was hard for me to see any person in emotional pain.
Abriana, is a single italian woman who recently graduated as doctoral student and is practicing as a psychotherapist. She lives in an little college apartment in Georgetown. She rented an office in Dupont Circle while building her therapy practice. Her Dupont Circle office resides in a perfect thoroughfare with the Metro connecting Connecticut, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
Abriana lives alone, she studied hard at Georgetown University to obtain her doctorate in psychology. The long-awaited day to be Dr. Maggiano Ph.D. She grew up in a small town in the midwest in a large italian Catholic family fixed with all of its customs and expectations. Sunday morning church followed by a feast which caused her to gain 10 pounds simply by looking at the table.
Year after year she loses the same 25-30 pounds from her pear-shaped, short stature body. Abriana’s beautiful complexion and Mediterranean olive skin topped her angelic face with chalkboard black tussles of curly dark long ringlets of hair that seamed to travel for miles. Today, she was dressed in a long full flowing print dress, snappy red shoes carrying a Loui Vuitton tote that stored her matching portfolio and cell phone case. She loved to wear dresses, always a sweetheart bodice perfectly defining her waist and breasts, while hiding her voluptuous figure.
I could sit here all day, thought Abriana as she stared dreamingly toward the heart melting black man. Her thoughts wandered and she imagined cuddling with him. Waking up in the morning skin on skin, impressions of day and night entangled their bodies against the crisp white sheets. Her heart racing as she began to feel the heat build up under her skin. Abriana imagined wrapping her arms around his thin waist and hard body, feeling him against her.
She shook her head quickly all flustered when the chime sounded on her cell phone reminding her of the hour. She stood up and ran off to the office where she would spend the rest of her day seeing patients, listening and helping them problem solve their jack-up emotions. As she walked to her high-rise office in the trendy neighborhood she turned back one last time to look at the fountain and he was gone.
This neighborhood is the heart of Washington, DC’s happening scene. The Dupont Circle community is home to many recent college graduates and is also popular with gays and lesbians. There are lots of high-rise apartment buildings and many row houses that have been converted into apartments. The Circle is a gathering place with park benches, grass and a unique fountain in the center.
TEMENOS CIRCLE 