Chapter Three:Reluctant
I'm sitting at the window in the coffee house and there's a family outside, walking in a line, each staring intently at their own iPhone, brows furrowed just a bit against the surprise of a sunny day.
I know Noah wants me to hate them for being so disconnected, but I can't get over the fact that they all four got out of the same car: that even though they're distracted, they know intuitively to keep within each others' orbits on the sidewalk on a Saturday morning.
Last month I unfriended Tim Lake on Facebook for making one too many comparisons between the Obama administration and the Nazi party. I guess what I'm saying is that I'd take what I could get.The fallen leaves were gathered and put into garbage bags. It was scarcely five and, already, the sun, as though it were a testicle, had retreated from the cold.
We sat in the warmly lit cafe, in the chairs-his green, mine red with lower armrests-and we ate,full of silence-him nibbling at a novel; me devouring the view outside the shop's window.
The feeling was neutral. What was there to say? I had been coming here for the last few days to talk to him and it always went about the same. "Would you like some tea?"
I hated tea.He asked of course. He had been asking everyday."Sure."
He shifted up.I watched him pick up a small canteen and pour what was in it inside the mug.He brought it over to me a coy smile pulling on his lips. I smiled; took it and sipped very slowly. The taste was bitter,and earthy.I had never liked tea.I sipped it again refraining from scrunching.
The smell of it wafted in my nose. The smell of leaves,and other grounded up nutrients. I could feel the steam come up and invite me in for another sip.I did,because I thought that the more I sipped the better chances of it growing on me. Sad to say it didn't, it still had that bland taste I dreaded.
I sipped it every now and then."Isn't this your break?" He looked up from the book."Yea,but I ate earlier so..."
"Isn't the party today?" I asked a little smugly.The fact that Delaney couldn't make it worried me.I had no right to go to this party. Let along any intentions but how could I just back out? I had already said yes. Never mind the fact that I'd be an intruder. What would his girlfriend think? I was a random woman crashing her birthday party for Pete's sake. What was more crazy then that?
He placed a black bookmark inside the book,closing it."It is. You wanna ride with me? I was just about to go and get the gifts."
I kept wondering why tea guy was so nice. Speaking off I didn't even know his name. Which brings me to the fact that I was already to close to him. I could sit by him without thinking twice about it. I barley knew this man,let a long who he could be. And there I was dying to know more about him. Perhaps he was a killer- a syco,or even a rapist. I would never know,and how could I even report him if I didn't know his name?
"What's your name?"
"Joey," he said. "Joey Ballard."
His name sorta fit him.He looked more like a Chad or maybe a Bryan. But,Joey could work.
"And you? What's yours?"
"Faith. Faith Williams."
"Nice to finally meet you," he said.He reached his hand out to me.His hand bigger then my whole head.
I smiled and shook."Touché."
"I thought I sacred you off," he said truthfully."I have a terrible habit of doing that ya know?"
