Sunflowers and Ink

Part 1: Chapter 2

Meara armed the alarm and rushed through the store, flicking the overhead lights off as he left. He locked the door behind him, pushed on it to test it. When it pushed back, he pocketed his key and sighed heavily, leaning against the wall between his shop and the tattoo parlor. The dusty red brick was hard and cold on his shoulders and back, but he needed to get the weight off his feet. He was only open ten hours a day -- nine if he took away the hour he closed for lunch -- but he was still exhausted. The barest of breezes tousled his hair and he closed his green eyes, breathing in through his nose, sighing it back out of his loosely parted lips. The door beside him opened and he turned toward the tattoo parlor when he heard a familiar voice.

"Yes?"

Meara opened his eyes. Josselin was standing there expectantly, waiting.

"... What?" Meara asked.

"I don't know," Josselin laughed. "You rang my doorbell."

Meara stood up straight and turned around to see that his shoulder blade had indeed pressed into a button on the wall that he'd never paused to notice before.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't even realize there was a doorbell there. I was just resting before I had to walk down the street to the bus stop."

Josselin smiled. His eyes darted over the younger man. He hadn't been paying attention before because he was so wrapped up in the flowers, but Meara was cute, tall and wiry with a messy, chin length mop of curly brown hair and bright, bright green eyes behind those silly hipster glasses. His nose was a little too big and his smile was even bigger, with the slightest of gaps between his front teeth.

He hesitated, and, instead of going back inside, Josselin said, "Well, now that you have me out here, do you want to go across the street for coffee?"

Meara looked over at the coffee shop he'd frequented numerous times in the year his shop had been here, then back at Josselin again. He grinned, big and bright and showing all his teeth.

"Sure," he said. "I'd like that."

The coffee shop was dim, as always, with dark walls covered in graffiti painted by local artists. The style belied the owner's background -- he'd been the lead guitarist of a popular local metal band for years before they disbanded and he opened Jussi's Awesome Coffee. Meara appreciated the webcomic reference -- obvious enough to anyone with a passing familiarity, but clear enough that anyone else would just think it was a quirky name. Their sizes came in small, medium, and awesome, but Meara always forgot to order his drinks that way and asked for a large instead. Nobody cared. They knew what he meant.

The barista, a tall, pretty, half Black, half Indian woman about Meara's age named Josephine, waved at the two as they came in.

"Josselin! Meara! I've seen you both a hundred times but I don't think I've ever seen you in together!"

"We officially met today," Josselin said.

"It's about time," Josephine grinned. "Meara moved in a year ago. And you're only just now introducing yourself? Rude, Josselin. Rude."

Both men laughed. Josselin shook his head.

"I'll just take my regular," he said.

"With food or without?"

He paused. "With," he finally said.

She rang him up and then took Meara's order, which was another, "My regular, too, please."

Josephine smirked, but didn't tell them why, and turned away so she could make their drinks.

"I'll bring them out to you," she said over her shoulder.