Three Means Coffee

74

Krystian felt a great responsibility for Błażej's party. He was happy that Monika decided to involve him in it, despite so many years of separation. He even began to take to Makary, who consulted practically everything with them, instead of admitting that he knew better. He took it as a good sign that he didn't want to keep Błażej to himself and that he willingly cooperated with them.

From the morning he watched as his friend was depressed, as if he had already leaned out of his room. Krystian suspected that he was avoiding him and thus the topic of his birthday. So he pretended that he wasn't going to bother him and that he had no idea that this Saturday was any different from any other. When the hour approached, around which he usually left for work, he went to the kitchen to make himself a coffee.

"Going for work?" he asked, watching Błażej put on his shoes.

"Yeah, afternoon shift," the brown-eyed first-year replied.

"Have a nice day then. I'm going to sit over the books." Krystian pointed to the steaming mug he was holding.

"Good luck with that."

He watched Błażej through the window a moment after he left to make sure that he was really heading toward his place of work. His colleagues from work perfectly understood Krystian's intentions and secretly changed the schedule so that Błażej had a free weekend, pretending that the hanging plan was up to date. They also promised to keep him in the shop for an hour or two and to inform him as soon as he left.

He grabbed his phone and informed the others that the mission had officially begun. Half an hour later, Makary showed up with bags full of food. Krystian looked doubtfully at these quantities.

"You know there will only be four adults and two children, right?" he reminded the cook.

"I might have gotten a little carried away, I admit," Makary nodded, staring at the full table.

Both of them were puzzled over how to fit everything in the small fridge of the student flat when Monika arrived with the children. She immediately told them to stop and demanded priority for the cake. They couldn't disagree with that, Makary with a sigh took up the game of fridge tetris. Krystian went with Monika to bring some more things from the car, the children stayed with the hazel-eyed.

"Hi Tymek," he greeted a younger one with a smile, then turned to the older girl. "You must be Basia, Błażej told me a lot about you."

He offered them his hand, which they both shook uncertainly. The girl asked Tymek a moment later who these people actually were.

"Uncle Krystian is a friend of my mom and uncle Błażej, and..." he stopped and looked uncertainly at Makary, realizing that he himself did not know the answer to this question.

"I'm his friend too," the man replied, though he wanted to say otherwise, but wasn't sure if he should.

Fortunately, they were saved from the awkward situation by the return of adults. Krystian put the box of decorations in his room, the larger of the two in the apartment, and decided that he deserved a moment of rest. Monika, however, herded him back to work, looking anxiously at his watch. She asked the children to help him.

"Everything's all right?" she asked Makary.

"Yes," he replied, but the woman trusted her intuition and saw it wasn't true.

"I'll finish here, and I'll go get the present."

"Yeah, sure," she replied and said she would go check on the progress of decorating the room.

Monika began to worry a bit about the atmosphere at the party, and a very bad feeling hit her. She glanced at her watch once more, now she couldn't back down.