The Coffee Shop (4 page)

“You’re kidding, right?”

“No. I did say I’d order more.”

“Yes, but I thought you were going to go the restaurant to get them.”

“Why? When we have a perfect setting right here.”

Tilting her head, she thought about what he had just said. “True.”

He grinned at her antics. “Oh, and did I hear you correctly before? Did you call my car a
big ass limo?”

Annie’s eyes went up once again, as if searching her brain for the memory. “Did I?”

“Yes, you did.”

She laughed, her face becoming hot once again. “I guess I have my moments when I’ll let it slip. Just don’t get me drunk, because boy, oh boy.” She realized what she had just said, and looking to see him watching her closely, she bit her lip. “Okay, you did not just hear that. We are going to go back in time, and that will never have happened.”

“I’ll see what I can do. Waiter, have them include a bottle of champagne with that order, if you will please.”

“What?”

Derrick laughed.

The burgers arrived quickly, and she watched Derrick as he ate, insisting he had them both. “You’re not planning on trying to impress me like this every time we go out, are you?”

“Are you saying you wouldn’t mind going out with me again?”

Feeling coy, she smiled. “No, I wouldn’t.”

“Good to know.”

His answer surprised her, and she looked up from the tablecloth to see him smiling at her.

“Figured that would get you to look at me.”

“What?”

“I wanted to look into your eyes, so I said something that I thought would get you to look at me.”

“That wasn’t very proper of you.”

“Well, if I asked you to stare into my eyes, would you have?”

She smiled. “No, I suppose not.”

“Well then.” Resting his elbows on the table, he leaned over his plate.

“Don’t you know it’s rude to put your elbows on the table?” she teased.

“I knew you were going to say that.”

“You did?”

“Uh-huh. You see, I’m already getting to know your little quirks.”

“Quirks?”

“Consider it a term of endearment.”

“Endearment?”

“Okay, if you keep repeating everything I say, then that just feels like high school all over again. And then I’d just have to ask you if you’d like to go steady.”

She giggled, and looked up to see him staring at her. “Oh, you were serious.”

“Well?”

“Oh…uh.”

“Oh, that’s not good.”

“What?”

“I ask you if you’d like to go steady and your answer is: ‘Oh…uh.’”

“No! No, I didn’t mean anything by that. I was just taken by surprise, is all.” He continued to stare at her, and she realized he was still waiting for an answer. “God, but you do make me feel like we are in high school all over again. What is that about you?”

“My boyish charm?”

She smiled and nodded her head. “Yes. I’d like that.”

“So do I need to get you a promise ring or something? How does that work? No, I’m supposed to let you wear my letter jacket. Didn’t they use to pin girls? What does that mean anyway?”

“You didn’t belong to a fraternity, did you?”

“Nope. Never could understand all that need to join and belong.” She watched him carefully as he spoke. “But hey, you could wear my letter jacket.”

“Okay.”

Derrick stared. “What?”

“I’m kidding.” She reached over, patting his hand for reassurance, that little boy lost look bringing out the mother in her.

He looked to her hand on his and didn’t move.

She knew he understood she wasn’t quite ready for that yet.

“So, now that we’re going steady, maybe it would be okay to have your phone number?”

She hesitated, thinking on it, and he looked at her anxiously.

“I don’t have a phone.”

“Excuse me?”

“I know. I always get the same look whenever I tell people.”

“How can you function without one?”

“Well enough, apparently. I manage to get by. I know what my shifts for work are in advance. I don’t have need for one really.”

“You’re not?”

“What?”

“I was going to say a Quaker.”

She laughed. “I had one, once, but I never used the thing. I had no reason to call anyone, and no one called me. Oh, but I did get wrong phone numbers. You know I would get these phone calls for some girl named Kristin on a regular basis. I always knew when Kristin had a new boyfriend, and it was like the changing of the guard, I’ll tell you. One time, a wrong number kept ringing and tried coming on to me. I am busy thinking, ‘Poor Kristin. That she had to hook up with some creep that goes behind her back with a wrong phone number, for God’s sake!’ And when I wouldn’t have any part of it, I was told I was a drag.” He was hanging on every word, and she smiled.

“But that’s another story?”

“Yes, I can say that it was.”

“So, how will I be able to get a hold of you?”

“Well, you’re here now. What is it you wish to say to me?”

“I wish to say, you need to get a phone.”

She sighed. “All right, I’ll get one, if only to end this conversation about getting one.” He smiled as if he’d won some sort of award, and she wondered why he thought it so important.

“Here is my phone number.” He handed her a card, and she took it.

“You go around with cards with your name on them?”

“Why sure, doesn’t everyone?”

“Yes, but don’t you like have your lawyers do all the negotiating or something?”

“Negotiating?”

“Well, yeah. Okay, I admit I don’t have any idea what I am talking about when it comes to things like this.” She stopped. “I just realized how that sounds. You’re probably wondering if I know anything about anything, at this point, aren’t you?”

“I never said that.”

“No, but you’re probably thinking it.” Looking over, the waiter was pretending not to be listening, but she knew he’d heard every word. “I best let you get back to whatever it is that you do.”

“What is it you think that I do all day?”

She studied him closely, trying to see into his very soul. “You sit on this huge pile of money, throwing it in the air, and go, ‘Wee!’”

He looked serious. “How did you know?” But then he laughed. “I tell you what. When you get a phone, you give me a call. How does that sound?”

“I think I can manage that one.”

He stood and held her chair for her. “Where shall I tell Lawrence to drop you off?”

“The mall, just up the road here.”

“The mall?”

“Yes, I need to…why, what’s wrong with the mall?”

“Nothing.”

“Oh, you thought I was going to have him take me home. That way you’d know where I live. So if I don’t call you back, you know where to stalk me.”

A look of concern crossed his face.

“You’re not planning on calling me back.”

She laughed. “I notice how you glossed over the whole stalking you comment. Yes, I will call you.”

Lawrence dropped her at the mall, Derrick watching as she strolled in its open doors, and he was so tempted to join her. But then her comment about the stalking came to mind, and he didn’t want to appear too anxious, even if he was. He waited, wondering if he’d see her come out, but realized he better leave. It wasn’t as if he could easily hide a limousine, not one the size of his anyway. “Take me home, Lawrence.”

“Yes, Mr. Sloane.”

His cell phone rang, and he answered it.

“Is this soon enough?”

“Annie?”

There was a pause. “Were you expecting some other girl to call?”

“No. No, it’s just that I only just left you. I wasn’t expecting a call so soon.”

“Well, I bought a cell phone.”

Chapter Four

“Oh, God! You’re here already.”

Derrick was holding his hand up, about to knock upon Annie’s apartment door, when she came bursting out of the elevator practically knocking him flat. “And you’re not, apparently.”

A look of disappointment crossed her otherwise carefree expression, and she slumped her shoulders and shrugged. “Oh, and it was going to be so perfect too. Well, in my mind it was.” Turning the key in the lock, she gave the door a push to get it open. “Sticks a little. I’m so used to it I don’t even think about it anymore. But the look on your face just now reminded me.”

“Look? I had a look?”

“Yes, like what the…is she doing?”

He grinned at her leaving out the word.

He followed her in, and she rushed forward, turning on the light and gathering up the papers spread all over the table. Piling them quickly together, she slipped them into a folder and set them aside. “The place is such a mess. Here I was going to clean it up, and then go out shopping and pick up everything I needed, and then be leisurely cooking the meal when you stepped in the door.” He stared at her as she rambled. “Oh.” And she laughed. “I guess I should explain. Angela called to see if I could cover Amber’s shift. She’s sick, and…so, of course I said yes.” She shrugged. “Guess I thought I was superwoman or something.”

“Superwoman?”

“You know, I can do it all. Thought I could have the groceries bought, tidy the place, and then be cooking before you got here.” She glanced around the apartment. “What was I thinking?” She looked at the bottle of red wine in his hand. “Think that would go well with pizza?”

Derrick just smiled. “Pizza sounds good to me.”

“Thank God. Because without take-out just now, I’d be lost.” She threw her purse onto the kitchen chair. “Oh, I am such a horrible hostess. Here, let me take that wine. Now was that the ten minute rule, or was it twenty?”

“Depends on who you ask, but I put red in the fridge for ten minutes before I drink it.”

“Ten it is then.” She pointed at the take-out menus piled on the counter. “You choose.”

Derrick picked up the rather worn menus. “Just curious about something.”

“Hmm?”

“These menus…they look well-used.”

“I use them all the time. I know I shouldn’t, not exactly healthy eating, I know.”

“But you don’t have a phone? Well, you do now. But you only just got that. So…how do you?”

“Call my orders in?” Surely she had to be hiding a phone somewhere around here and had only made up the story of not having one. “Well, I go across the hall and ask to use Mrs. Fleming’s.”

“And she doesn’t mind you bothering her all the time?”

“Well, when you put it like that.” Crossing her arms across her chest, she frowned at him as she leaned back against the counter. “If you must know, nosy, Mr. Fleming died six months ago, and the poor woman is at a loss as to what to do with herself. Her kids never visit her, and she is all alone over there. I can’t even begin to imagine what that must be like. Having been together for fifty years and then one day, they just aren’t there anymore. Everywhere she looks she sees him, his slippers, his pipe. Everywhere she looks she sees his absence, his empty chair, his side of the bed.” She became quiet for a moment, her gaze falling to the floor. “So from time to time, I go over there and ask to use her phone to order take-out. I ask if she wants to join me. She always says no. I always order extra, and tell her I’ll have them deliver it to her apartment, so I can visit with her while I wait. When it arrives, I always tell her I ordered too much and she is going to have to help me eat it. She always does.”

She smiled.

“It’s this thing we do. So don’t tell her I have a phone, or there will be no reason to go over there. At least in her mind there won’t.”

He stood there watching her without speaking.

“What’s that look for?” she asked him.

“What look?”

“The one on your face.”

“I have a look?” He reached up feeling his face, as if by doing so he could determine what she was talking about.

She shrugged. “Okay, have it your way then.”

He grinned and sorted through the menus. There were menus for just about every kind of food and every restaurant within delivery distance. “You order from all of these?”

She laughed. “Pretty much. When it’s just yourself, cooking a great big meal with several courses just doesn’t seem like something you feel like doing. Well, I guess I should speak for myself, huh. I’m sure there are people out there that love to do that kind of thing, or consider people like me lazy for not doing it. And I have tried it, but then…”

“What?”

“Oh, you’ll think it’s stupid.”

“No, I won’t.” He could see she was hesitant, and he smiled encouragingly.

“Well, I find it’s a reminder that I am alone, and well, I hate it. I mean here I have this table with all these prepared dishes and then one lonely plate set at it. It just looks really sad to see. That’s all. When I think of all those dishes, I visualize a family around a big table all helping themselves and passing them along. Smiling and laughing, talking, and sharing stories. You know.”

“I take it you’ve been alone for a while now?”

“Yes. But I’ve gotten used to it.”

“Does that have anything to do with why you left your home town?”

She looked at him and turned away. “Very astute, Mr. Sloane. Is there something in that from your own life then?”

“You never answered my question.”

Leaning on the kitchen counter, she ran her finger over its worn surface. “It got hard. Everywhere I went, everything I did, it reminded me of them. That and the looks I would get from people in town. You know, that, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry for your loss,’ expression that never seemed to leave their faces.”

She shrugged and then straightened. “It got hard. So I left. Now what about answering my question?”

He laughed at the look on her face. “I didn’t like the small town life. Everyone knows everyone. You can’t sneeze without the guy on the other side of town saying
Gesundheit
. Oh, and God forbid you screw something up, because everybody and their cousin will know. Talk about being under a microscope.” He felt uncomfortable discussing himself. “So, here I am.”

“Yes, and I bet they are all proud of you. The great Derrick Sloane.”

He laughed at her comment.

“You aren’t proud of your accomplishments?” she asked.

“Oh, don’t you know? You’re not supposed to be. Oh no, that’s a mortal sin. Yes, sir. Don’t you dare show pride, God forbid, or say anything to suggest it.”

She was staring up at him.

“Oh…God, I’m sorry, Annie. Here I am unloading my issues on you.”

“No.”

She smiled before turning away, and if he didn’t know better he would have sworn she was wiping a tear away from her eye.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just get that way sometimes. Something I guess I should have warned you about. I’m kind of mushy that way.”

“Mushy is okay. I like mushy.”

She smiled, and reaching over, she ran her hand down his arm.

He liked it, the way it felt, just then, her touching him like that in that moment. And he wondered what it would be like to have her around like that all the time. Comforting him and smiling at him.

“So, did you decide on a restaurant?”

“Do you have a favorite?”

She shrugged. “I’ve tried all of those. I guess…” She reached for the menus, spread out before her like a deck of cards.

“What?”

“Oh, just looking at those, the way you have them fanned out like that, I was expecting you to ask me to pick a card.”

“Ah, another one of my failings, I’m afraid.”

“Failings?”

“Card tricks. Never could get them to work. Wound up embarrassing myself more than anything. But I kept trying. Only it got to be a joke, me that is. So I stopped.” Once more her expression became sad. “Maybe I should just shut up. I seem to be depressing you with all this talk.”

“No. No, I’m okay, don’t mind me.” Looking at the menus, she pulled one out. “Here, try this one. They haven’t let me down yet.”

“Okay. What do you want?”

“Oh anything, I’m pretty much open to whatever you’d like. I’m not choosy that way. Meat, no meat, veggies. It’s all the same to me. I like it all the same.” Derrick looked at her as she stood there talking. “What?”

“You’re not just saying that for my sake are you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, you know, there are those people that will agree with whatever the other person says no matter what it is.”

“If by that you mean I want to please people, and avoid controversy, then yes, I do that. But in this case, I really don’t care.” She looked at him. “Really.”

He stared back at her.

“Okay, I tell you what, we’ll each order something and then that way you don’t have to wonder. How does that sound?” she said.

He nodded, and she took the menu from him. Grabbing her phone from her purse, she dialed. “Yes, I’d like to place an order for delivery. Oh, hi, Mr. Montgomery. Yeah, I know.” She laughed and smiled. “Yep, the usual. Oh, and…” she looked up at Derrick and waited.

“A large pepperoni with extra cheese.”

“Did you hear that Mr. Montgomery?” She laughed again. “Yes.” She looked at Derrick as she listened. “Yes, that’s right. No. No, I won’t.”

Looking away, she grinned, and if he didn’t know any better he could have sworn she blushed slightly just then.

“Okay. Yep. Half an hour. All right then. Bye, Mr. Montgomery.”

“The usual?”

“I’ve been ordering the ham and pineapple lately. Gotten to really like it.”

She was studying him, as though expecting him to comment on it.

“What?”

“You don’t have anything to say about that?”

“No.”

“Really?”

“No, why would I?”

“Oh because I’ve had people tell me they think that’s gross.”

“Well, that’s just bloody rude.”

“Exactly!” Then she grinned. “Well, the rude part that is.” Putting the phone down, she brought her hand to her mouth. “Oh, your wine. I almost forgot.”

“Not to worry. I would have remembered.”

“Oh, alcoholic?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Oh, I don’t know why I just said that. I was trying to be funny, but I guess that wasn’t, was it. That was just — ”

“Annie, relax.” But the look of remorse stayed on her face. “I’m not an alcoholic, so it was kind of funny.”

“Oh no, I would never.” She took a long deep breath. “Well, if you think that’s bad, then you’ll love this.” She went over to the television, and turning it on, she started the DVD player. There on the screen was the image of a fire burning in a fireplace.

“What is that?”

“You’ve never seen one of these before?”

“No.”

“Oh, then you’re in for a real treat. This — ” she motioned to the television “ — is a DVD that consists entirely of a fire.”

“Why?”

“Well, for some I am sure it’s a joke. Others, like me, that don’t have a fire place but love the idea of a fire…” She held out her hand, like one of those women on those game shows showing the prizes to the audience. “Hey I know it’s stupid. But I actually find it comforting on a winter day, when I’m all alone with a hot chocolate and a novel, a comforter drawn up over my legs.”

Derrick looked at her.

“What?” she asked.

“Oh, I was just thinking that sounded nice. All you need now is to have a real fire and a boyfriend to cuddle up to while you’re reading that novel.” He spoke before he even realized what he was suggesting, and he turned to the kitchen pointing at the wine. “I’ll pour us some wine, I mean. Okay, let me start again. Would you care for some wine?”

“That’s okay, but don’t let me stop you.”

“Sorry?”

“Oh, I don’t drink wine. Never acquired a taste for it. But I love to watch other people enjoy it.”

“You enjoy watching other people enjoy it?”

“Something about a nice glass of wine with a meal. It just looks so inviting.” She smiled. “I know, I sound strange. But, hey, I accept that, and have no problem with it. And if people are going to be my friend, then they’ll just have to accept it too.”

“Don’t mind me. I’m fine with it. But is there something else I can bring you next time?”

“Next time?” she asked.

He grinned. “I was kind of hoping there’d be a next time. Is that totally wrong of me to admit that?”

“No. I’d be okay with there being a next time.”

His grin widened, but a look came over Annie’s face. “What?”

“Oh, nothing.”

“No, there’s something you’re not saying.”

“Oh, I was just visualizing you crowing from the roof top.”