Exhausted&Lost

Chapter Two

After spending the whole morning finalizing paperwork and placing stock orders, Ava felt that she deserved an incredible amount of caffeine. The store didn't open on a Sunday, but she would head in to do a bit of inventory. She decided she would leave a little early today so she could sit and enjoy a coffee before having to do any work.

Elliott had gone to his Granddad's for a sleepover, so Ava was nursing a minor hangover after sitting up with a bottle of red wine and David Bowie's Glastonbury set from 2000 playing on the TV for company.

She pulled her fingers through her red hair and combed out her beachy waves. She had taken the cliche post break up plunge and chopped her long hair off to a chic shoulder length crop and darkened her natural Auburn locks, she pulled on a light pair of skinny jeans, a plain white top and a pair of sunglasses, slipped on her sandals and left her 2 bedroom apartment.

The walk to The Hideout was a pleasant one, her pale skin soaking in the California sun, allowing her time to indulge her semi-secret smoking habit that she'd picked back up since the move to LA. She never smoked while El was around or if she was at home, so when she was working or had a baby free night, she smoked like a train.

She unlocked the door and flicked on the light and took in her surroundings. She was proud of her little space, though it wasn't huge, it let in lots of natural light. It was decorated with band posters and gig tickets, mostly from shows back home in Ireland, collaged in to frames.

Before Elliott was born, even before Stephen had come along, Ava was heavily involved in the local music scene, travelling all around the country, north and south to catch shows. In fact, she was 24 when she met Stephen and he played bass for a local band on the scene. He was fun, cool and passionate but after getting a job in finance, he became obsessed with money and abandoned all of his dreams... and his personality.

She ran her eyes over the dog eared tickets and fading posters that her very first employee and closest friend here in LA, Izzy, had turned in to beautiful art pieces and smiled at the memories they held.  

She and Izzy instantly hit it off, bonding over their shared love for music. They would spend weekends at each others houses listening to the old LP's they had in their collections and talking about shows they had seen. 

When Izzy laid eyes on the huge collection of ticket stubs and posters that Ava had stashed away in her house, she was so excited. A trip to IKEA and a few bottles of wine later, they were transformed in to decor for the Hideouts bare white walls. 

The most worn of the stubs was for a Nirvana show, that she had been lucky enough to see as a child in '92, her uncle had let her stay off school, took her up to Belfast when she was only 10 years old. The band opened with Aneurysm and sufficiently blew her tiny mind, she had never seen any thing like it in her life, throwing her headfirst in to an obsession with live music.

Some 20 years later, she traveled back up north to catch the Foo Fighters with her uncle in the same city, only this time she was old enough to get drunk, so she remembers it a lot less vividly.

Thankfully she had caught them a few times since to fill in her memory, each show being better than the last. Posters for Ash, Stiff Little Fingers, Flogging Molly and Thin Lizzy covered the walls, making Ava feel like she had a bit of Ireland with her all the way in LA.

She sat down at her desk with her coffee and relaxed for a moment before beginning her inventory. She let the caffeine work at erasing any remnants of hangover that lingered as she sipped at her drink.

She heard the door open as she cursed herself for not locking it behind her. She leapt up and started apologizing to the hopeful customer before they had even entered her view.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, we are actually closed on Sun-" she cut herself off as a familiar man stood in front of her framed tickets with his sunglasses pushed up in to his shaggy hair so he could peer closely at them.

He took a step back upon hearing her voice and turned to face her. He was strikingly handsome and so damn familiar... She stared for a beat before realizing where she recognized him from, she had seen him perform twice in the last year, once back home in Dublin and once in Hollywood before Christmas with his project Me First and the Gimme Gimmes.

"Oh shit! Sorry, the door was open and the lights were on and it looked pretty quiet, I thought I could get a coffee in peace!" Chris Shiflett stood before her, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand, looking sheepish.

She looked at him for a moment and weighed up her options, deciding she couldn't turn down a chance to make one of her favorite musicians a coffee she moved to the door and flipped the sign to closed so no one else would make the same mistake.

"Hey, no don't worry about it! Why don't you take a seat and I'll grab you a drink? On the house," Ava smiles brightly at the guitarist.

"No I don't wanna be that guy," Chris laughs uncomfortably, "I'll grab a Starbucks or something." Ava shakes her head at him and let's out a giggle. "No way, I wouldn't subject any one to that, besides, I make a mean coffee. What can I get ya?"

Chris flashes Ava a grin and says, "In that case, I'll take an americano, black. But only if you sit and enjoy a cup with me! I feel like a dick making you work when you're closed!" Ava sets to work, making a black americano for Chris and a second flat white for herself.

She pours them in to take away cups and hands one to Chris. "I like your music," she starts, "but it doesn't mean I wanna wash your dishes." She smiles, explaining the paper cup as Chris takes a long drink. "You're right... that's good coffee." He tells her with a smile.

Ava sits with the man and they fall in to an easy chat despite her nerves. She explains that she caught his Gimme Gimmes show in December and and a Foo's show back home in Ireland before she moved here.

"Ah, how are you finding LA?" he asks, sounding genuinely interested as he picked at the cardboard sleeve around his coffee cup.

"Different," Ava laughed, "Very fuckin' different. Took me about 6 weeks to thaw out when we landed, I distracted myself for the first 6 months trying to get this place off the ground."

Chris cocked an eyebrow, "You own this place?" Ava nods. "You seem young to be running a business," he says making Ava erupt in to a laugh and she nearly choked on her coffee.

"Flattery will get you everywhere, Mr. Shiflett," she jokes, "it must be the freckles... I guess us Irish girls age well. I'm rapidly approaching 40."

A look of surprise passes of the mans face before he recovers and let's out his own chuckle, "Hey, that is young, wait until 50 is breathing down your neck, then you can complain about being old." He jams a thumb in to his chest to drive home the point.

She spends an hour or so chatting to Chris about Ireland, as tells his own stories about her home. He points out various tickets and asks plenty of questions about shows she had attended.

"I think the best gig I have ever been to was Fleetwood Mac in Dublin in 2015, I drank a bottle of champagne before the show and I cried pretty much the whole time!" she giggled, making Chris laugh. "Aw man, that's hilarious," he cries, "The first time I met Stevie, I was too nervous to speak for like 2 hours." 

Eventually he stands and stretches himself out. "Listen..." he pauses, realizing he doesn't know her name. "Ava," she offers, with a smile. "Ava, thanks so much for the coffee, next time I swear I'll pay!"

Ava laughs and shakes her head. "No way! I make it a rule not to charge my favorite musicians, though it's a very new rule as this is the first time one has ever come in to my shop. I'm always here on Sunday's doing inventory, next time you want a quiet coffee, just knock on the side door!"

He grins and sets off toward the door, pausing when he reads the poster in the window. "Hey," he calls, "you host open mics? I know a few dudes who would LOVE it here." Ava nods a response as she finishes her coffee and throws the cups in the trash.

"Huh..." he ponders, "See ya around!" And with that the door closes and Ava rushes to lock it. She now doesn't have much time before she has to go and collect Elliott from her dads, so she hurries along with her inventory list and cant afford any more distractions. Especially not letting her mind wonder what dudes Chris Shiflett wanted to bring to her coffee shop.