Case Reopened

A Visit From An Old Friend

Is it what you want? Probably not.

Is it what you need? Probably not as well but I've written it and here it is.

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Later afternoon light filtered through the glass windows of the Starbucks, landing on the table top Carter drummed her fingers on. She leaned back in her chair, legs crossed, gazing out of the window. From an outsider's point of view, she looked composed and completely at ease. Only the man sitting next to her could track her growing impatience.

The drumming of her fingers kept the same exact pace but there was a growing sharpness to the taps, as if Carter wanted to drive her blunt nails through the wood. Carter let out a breath through her noses and Donovan smiled behind his cup of coffee.

"She'll be here," he said.

Carter flattened her hand on the tabletop. "But she isn't and we have been waiting here for-"

"Five minutes," Donovan said calmly as if to stop Carter's irrational tirade before it could start with a dose of logic.

Carter scowled at the clock behind the cashier, checked her phone, and then her watch. With another breath, she reigned in her irritation since all three clocks proved Donovan right. She returned to drumming her fingers on the table. When three heartbeats passed, she stopped, fingers hovering in mid-air as a thought popped into her head.

"Why are we even here?" she asked.

"I believe it's because this was the easiest place to meet," Donovan said innocently, even though Carter knew he was fully aware of what she'd meant.

"You're deliberate obtuseness irks me," Carter said.

"Obtuseness and irks, you must be playing Scrabble with Sophia again," Donovan said.

"That is beside the point. And since you have decided to be a dense idiot, I'll put my statement in plainer English. Why did we agree to meet her again?"

Donovan leaned on the table, making sure Carter was looking at nothing else but him. This annoyed her since his eyes were soft and warm, forcing her to stop being so hard.

"You know why," Donovan said, his voice gentle, again another reminder her to be as well.

"Yeah, okay."

The moment of softness lasted a full minute before Carter spoke again. "But another five minutes and a no-show and I'm leaving."

Donovan shook his head while smiling. "Naturally."

But Carter's irritation was stalled as the doors to the Starbucks opened and a girl dressed in workout clothes with a duffle bag hanging off one shoulder rushed in. Pieces of her hair fell out of her ponytails as she dashed around the customers and stumbled into the free chair across from Donovan and Carter.

"Hi! I'm late. Sorry about that. Are you mad? You look a little mad. Actually, you look completely in control with no traces of your emotions showing at all but I feel like I can detect low levels of anger, or maybe that's just me projecting. Am I projecting or are you simmering with a low amount of anger?"

Donovan smiled at the girl. "She's simmering a little."

Carter threw him a look but he only winked back at her. The girl relaxed.

"Phew, for a second I thought I was unable to read you at all. I mean I can't really but I'm seven minutes late and knowing you and you're avoidance of most people I figured it would annoy you to have the person you don't want to be waiting for you making you wait. It was a small dedication of mine. Should I feel proud that I was right?" She waves her hand. "Don't answer that, I'm going to feel proud about it. Small victories and all that."