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Buck Stars

Posted on June 19, 2007
Filed Under The Stories |

They found themselves at the same coffee shop at around the same time four days in a row, Monday through Thursday. By Wednesday she had a favourite table and by Thursday he had one of his own, just coincidentally situated at an angle that allowed him to sneak periodic glances in her direction. They had registered each other on the very first day and by Wednesday they were playing a semi-clandestine game of peek-a-boo. Both of them were well-dressed and both of them were accessing the Internet from 15-inch MacBook Pros. But then so were so many other people who looked like students or design professionals on a coffee break. Somehow they managed to have eyes only for each other, but never at the same time.

On Friday he wasn’t around and she was surprised at herself for being disappointed. She opened up the literary website she sometimes visited and was well into the story about the ‘bad girl’ when she heard a male voice say, “Excuse me…”

It was him. She wondered whether he had heard her heart thud explosively when she saw it was him. She could form the appropriate response to his attempt to get her attention which turned out to be a smile (and she hoped it wasn’t a stupid or alarming one).

“Would it be okay if I joined you? There…don’t seem to be any other tables free.”

She shrugged and with a sweep of her arm she indicated that he could take the seat opposite her. They exchanged smiles and after a moment’s indecision they focused on their respective computer screens. She had self-consciously resumed reading the story when he said, “My name is Marc.”

She smiled again, “Sadie.”

“New to town?”

“Yes. One week tomorrow.”

“How do you like it so far?”

“It’s…interesting.”

“It’s okay. You can say you’re bored. We’re so busy keeping the tourists happy we don’t know what to do with the citizens.”

“Are you with the government?”

“Me? No.”

“You said ‘we’ so I thought…”

“I’ve lived here all my life so I’m somewhat complicit in what the city does…being a taxpayer and all that…but not no, not in the government. They wouldn’t have me.”

“Really? Why not?”

He leaned in, conspiratorially, “Don’t be fooled by the shirt and trousers. Underneath I’m not quite what you would call standard government issue attire.”

“Tattoos?”

“Some.”

“They shouldn’t care if they can’t see them.”

“I guess so but it’s such a pain to go through the metal detectors with my piercings and all…”

She searched his face, “I don’t see any.”

He smirked, “But a metal detector does.”

Her eyebrows shot up as she got the meaning of what he said. He wiggled his own eyebrows at her and took a satisfied sip of his coffee.

“Hey Marc. Long time.”

His brow furrowed even before he looked at the woman greeting him. When he saw who it was his face seemed to power down, “Hey Melody, what’s up?”

“Nothing much. You come here a lot?”

“No…not a lot.”

“Yeah me neither, I’m just meeting a group of friends I haven’t seen in a while…”

She pointed vaguely and Marc nodded without really registering the table or the friends.

Melody was sneaking glances at Sadie but Marc didn’t exhibit any desire to make introductions so she returned to reading her online fiction. Of course she couldn’t concentrate on the words because her ears kept drawing her back to the uncomfortable conversation in the real world.

“So listen, my friends are leaving but, we should catch up.”

“Yeah, yeah, for sure.”

“Your number is still the same right?”

“Yes.”

“Great, I’ll call you. Maybe we can hang out over the weekend or something.”

“Of course. Call me.”

“It was good seeing you again Marc.”

She leaned in and hugged him. It looked uncomfortable because he kept his hands all the way off her. Like a surgeon who didn’t want to touch anything with his freshly scrubbed hands until he got gloves on. Marc and Sadie’s eyes met over Melody’s awkward hug and then she was gone.

Sadie smiled, “Wow.”

“What?”

“That was spectacular coffee-time theatre.”

“Yeah Melody is…quite a performer.”

“They say you can tell a lot about a guy from how he treats his ex-girlfriends.”

He looked at her for a moment, “I say you can tell a lot about a woman from the way she looks at herself in the mirror.”

She laughed, “Touché!”

He smiled and pointed at her, “Cliché.”

She frowned, “Are you making fun of me?”

“Teasing would be a better word.”

“You don’t even know me.”

“But you think you do.”

“That was extremely awkward.”

“Melody is not an ex.”

“Not how it looked from where I was sitting.”

“So come sit here. Melody was a mistake I didn’t make. But she thinks I did-we did. It’s…complicated.”

She shrugged, “It’s sweet that you’re trying to explain but it’s not necessary.”

“I know.”

He put his laptop away and took one final sip of his coffee and got to his feet. She looked surprised, “Wait, that’s it?”

“We could have had fun Sadie. I know a lot of nice places and some really bad ones too. But you’re always going to be thinking of Melody and how badly I treated her, which I didn’t by the way, but explanations are not going to change what you saw. I think first impressions are everything and mine wasn’t a good one.”

She sighed, “So I guess I won’t be seeing you again.”

He looked around, the place was a beehive of activity, “Are you kidding? I’ll be back Monday. Oh, you’ll see me every day at the same time. You just won’t know me. And then one day, one of us won’t walk in alone and the other will feel something that feels remarkably like jealousy.”

He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek, “It was really nice to have met you.”

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