The Coffee Shop

by Lauren Hunter

  “This is what you have to offer?”

  “What do you want me to say?”

  “You don’t get it. I asked her where they went, and she looked at me like she had no idea what I was talking about. She told me she has never done that.”

  “Okay, maybe she’s pretending it never happened. Maybe that’s her way of telling you she fixed the problem and she doesn’t want to talk about it anymore.”

  “No, that is not what she is doing. I know her and the look on her face, she wasn’t lying. She has never had a stack of books on the bedside table.”

  “Are you seriously telling me that you called me to talk about a pile of books that may or may not have ever existed?”

  But then Derrick gasped. “I’m dreaming. I’m dreaming of my relationship with Annie five months in the future. Only…I’ve altered the timeline.” There was a long pause on the other end of the line.

  “I know I am going to regret saying this but…What?”

  “This is a dream. I’m dreaming. And this is me and Annie five months in my future.”

  “All right. I’m coming over. You just sit down and take slow, deep breaths, and I’ll be there as soon as possible. How does that sound?”

  “It sounds like you are talking to a one-year-old. Do you mind using your adult voice, please?”

  “There’s the Derrick I know and love.”

  Derrick slipped the phone back into his pocket. Walking into the bedroom, he fell onto the edge of the bed.

  Stepping from the washroom door, Annie was busy slipping her earring into her ear. “Are you ready, honey?”

  “Honey? Since when did you start calling me honey?” She appeared truly hurt by his comment.

  “You don’t…like it?”

  “No, it’s fine, I just don’t recall ever hearing you use it before.”

  “I use it all the time. Derrick, are you all right? You look as pale as a ghost.” Sitting next to him on the bed, she held her hand to his face.

  “Your ears.”

  “What? What’s wrong?” She jumped up and ran into the washroom staring into the mirror. Reappearing in the washroom doorway, she stood looking at him from across the room. “Why did you say that?”

  “They’re pierced. When did you get them pierced?”

  “Okay, now you’re worrying me. I don’t care what you say, I’m going to call Brian.”

  “No need, he’s already on his way over. He thinks I’m as crazy as you do, by the look on your face.”

  “You…called Brian? Now I know it’s serious. I’m going to cancel.” She walked toward the bedroom door, but Derrick jumped up, grabbing her by the arm.

  “Don’t do that. There’s no need for us both to miss out on this. I want you to go ahead. One of us needs to put in a showing. Besides, Brian will be here with me. I couldn’t be in better hands.”

  “Now I know you’re sick. You’d never say that about Brian.”

  “I’m kidding.”

  “Oh…”

  She was staring at him as though studying him.

  “Please, go, have fun. I’m fine, just a little tired, it’s nothing. And as I say, Brian is coming over.”

  “Are you sure?” She knew that Derrick talking to Brian was, in and of itself, monumental. And wanting to give them the privacy she knew they would require, she reluctantly agreed. “All right. But promise me you’ll…”

  “What?”

  “Take it easy?”

  He grinned at her concerned expression. “I will.”

  “Well then.” She reached up, giving him a kiss, and gently stroked his face with her hand. “I won’t be late, I promise.”

  “Okay then.”

  She grabbed her purse and disappeared out the front door. Derrick stared at the door for some time before the phone rang.

  “Mr. Sloane, there’s a Dr. Taylor here requesting to see you. I explained only those persons approved may gain entrance. But he is most insistent.”

  “Thank you, Harold. You may let him up.”

  “See, I told you he was expecting me.”

  Derrick grinned at the sound of Brian’s voice over the phone, and unlocking the front door, he left it open, pouring himself a drink, and one for Brian.

  “God, you’re a sight!”

  “For sore eyes?”

  “What?”

  “The expression…a sight…oh never mind. Good to see you too, Brian.” He thrust out the glass in Brian’s direction.

  “Ah, getting right down to it are we?” He closed the door behind him, and walking the length of room to Derrick, he took the proffered glass of whiskey.

  “So, what was all this on the phone you were trying to tell me?”

  Derrick stared into his glass and took a large gulp. “You have to understand something, Brian. To me it’s as we never stopped speaking. And that’s because as far as I’m concerned, we didn’t.”

  Brian didn’t say anything, and sitting on the couch he let Derrick talk.

  “That dream I told you about…to me that was today, and now I’m dreaming of myself five months in the future. A future that has been altered somehow. Annie…you…” He took another drink. “Last we spoke we were still the best of friends. That fight you mentioned? For me that hasn’t happened yet.” He turned to face Brian head on. “I have no idea why I wouldn’t have talked to you after that. That is not something I would do. I…don’t understand what happened. I don’t understand any of this. And Annie, that…that’s not the Annie I know.”

  “To hear you say it, you make her sound…”

  Brian paused, and Derrick was grateful for that. Derrick knew what he said sounded harsh. But he didn’t mean it to. It was just that he didn’t know what to make of her. She was not the Annie he remembered. Once more he stared into his drink. “I know it sounds crazy, stupid of me even, but the last I saw her, she wasn’t…”

  “What’s different?”

  “That’s just it. It’s just little things. Nothing of any real consequence, just…the books. She loved books. Always had a huge pile of them on the bedside table. Her ears, they’re pierced; they weren’t before. She calls me honey now, and buys me Armani shirts.” He laughed. “God, to hear me say it, you’d think it mattered. These things, they’re so…small. But they’re different nonetheless. Just little things. Suddenly changed.” He moved to the window, looking out onto the street below. “The only thing I can think is there was a comment about her book.”

  “Her book?”

  “We talked about her book.”

  “And you think that changed all those things you mentioned?”

  “Well, that’s just it. I don’t know. Maybe it was a series of things. That’s why I was calling you. I was going to ask you about what had happened over the past five months so I could figure this out. And then to hear that you and I had some sort of argument. But not only that, we haven’t spoken since.” He saw Brian look up. “That I wouldn’t speak to you.” He took another drink. “That’s not like me, Brian. I wouldn’t just do that.” He turned to face him. “There had to be a reason I would do that. But I’ll be damned if I know what that reason was. And I have no one I can ask.”

  He moved over to the chair next to the couch and sat in it, holding his drink in his lap with both hands. “You see, as far as I’m concerned we haven’t had that argument. That day hasn’t happened for me yet.” He sipped at his drink. “What did you say it was about again?”

  “Oh, I was being my usual selfish jerk. You were supposed to have met me for something, can’t even remember what it was now. It was just the idea that you would blow me off for a girl. At the time it just really pissed me off. Now I realize I was just jealous.” He laughed. “You see, I was used to having you all to myself. If ever I needed to go hang out, or play racquetball or something, you were always there. Only, now you weren’t. Your every thought was about her, and I could see that. And, I let it get to me. You tried to appease me, but I just wouldn’t let it go. I wouldn’t drop it.” H
e took a sizeable gulp of the scotch himself, and cupped the glass much as Derrick had. “I did try to call you the next day to apologize, but you wouldn’t take my call. You wouldn’t even see me. I had become persona non grata, as far as you were concerned.”

  “Wait, weren’t you the one that was all gung ho for me to pursue the relationship with Annie?”

  “Was I?”

  “Yes, you were.”

  Brian shrugged. “Like I say, when it sunk in, I got jealous. And so when you missed our meeting again, it just hit me and I kind of lost it.”

  Derrick couldn’t shake the feeling that something was terribly wrong. “The day you are referring to is tomorrow for me, while in a waking state.”

  “While in a…okay you’re going to have to explain that one to me.”

  “This must be a dream. I am with Annie, and we’re living together. The last time I saw that was in a dream. When I awoke from the dream, we hadn’t even met yet. But it was the same day as in my dream, the day I went to that coffee shop, one I have never been to in my life, and there saw Annie for the first time.” He sighed. “So, how do you think we can avoid this argument we are supposed to have had?”

  “Well, I can think of one way to appease the selfish jerk that I was, but…”

  “Not blow you off?”

  He nodded. “But then that means you won’t bump into Annie for the second time.” Brian glanced at Derrick and looked back at his glass. “I can’t believe I am actually having this conversation with you. You do realize how…?”

  “Completely crazy that sounds? Yep. I can say that I do. Hell I wouldn’t believe me if I were you.” Derrick looked in the direction of the door. “You didn’t call the men with the butterfly nets did you?”

  Brian laughed. “You always did know how to say just the right thing at the right moment.”

  “Well, apparently not. Otherwise we wouldn’t have…”

  “Yeah, I am sorry about that.”

  “What are you apologizing for? I’m the one that wouldn’t see you after that. What kind of a jerk must that make me?”

  “My kind.”

  “Ouch!”

  “Hey, don’t start another argument, we only just now got back together.”

  “You have a point.” Derrick downed the last of his drink, and getting up he headed for the bar. “Care for another?”

  Brian too downed the last of his. “Don’t mind if I do.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Derrick was sitting at the same table where he met Annie the day before, having arrived early, and then waiting until the people occupying it got up to leave, pouncing on it like a starving dog on a bone. And if anyone had come up to him just then, eyeing the table, they may have been greeted with a growl.

  Gripping the coffee cup, his hand trembled slightly. He laughed, the people at the table next to him glancing in his direction. Grinning, he shrugged and looked away. “Note to self, not good to be seen laughing when sitting by oneself.”

  “I think you need to add, not good to be seen talking to oneself, either.”

  Looking up, he saw Annie smiling down at him.

  Sure enough, it was happening again, just as the first time, just like the first day. The same words, the same feeling rising up inside him, and he tried to convince himself his nerves were fear at the idea of losing her before the relationship had begun. That it couldn’t possibly be that just being with her would still make him feel like a school kid all over again. But he hadn’t taken into account that she didn’t know him, whereas he knew her intimately, and he had to remind himself not to do or say something that might ruin it before it had a chance.

  He tried to relax, letting the conversation take its natural course, allowing it to happen as it had the first time. And watching as she walked away from him down the sidewalk, glancing back, smiling in his direction, he had to grin to himself.

  Reaching into his inside coat pocket, Derrick removed his cell phone. Flipping it open, he turned it back on, seeing several missed calls from Brian on the screen. The phone rang before he had a chance to listen to any of them. “Hello, Brian.”

  “Where the hell are you?”

  “Whoa, calm down.”

  “Calm down? I’ve been waiting for half an hour.”

  “Half an hour?” He looked at his watch, and sure enough, he was already a half hour late for their game of racquetball. “I’m sorry. I must have let the time get away from me. I’m on my way now. I should be there shortly.”

  “Tell you what, don’t bother.”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t know what else I can say. But let me make it up to you — ”

  “A little late for that, don’t you think?”

  “It’s never too late to make it up to someone. Like I said, I’m sorry. At least let me make it up to you.”

  “You know how you could have made it up to me? You could have shown up on time. Hell, just showing up at all, would have been nice.”

  “I don’t know what else I can say. I’ve already apologized, more than once. I’ve offered to make it up to you. What else can I do?”

  “So, where are you?”

  Derrick didn’t know what to say.

  “I thought so. You were with her again, weren’t you?”

  “Look, Brian, right now you consider me to be a selfish jerk. I get that. And I can’t argue that. I was. But other than admitting it and offering to make amends, I can’t think of what else I can do to fix this.”

  “The way to fix it was to have not done it in the first place.”

  “You had a fight with Denise, didn’t you?”

  “What?”

  “That’s what this is about. You’re pissed at her and you’re taking it out on me.”

  “Oh and you consider yourself blameless in all this?”

  “I’ve admitted I was wrong. I offered to make amends. The ball is now in your court, there’s nothing more I can do.” It was clear to Derrick that there was no way he could have avoided the argument Brian mentioned in his dream, other than to meet Brian and not Annie. It had come down to a choice. And he had made it. The fight was inevitable. At this point all he could do was to wait and let Brian calm down. By then he would be open to what he had to say, and things could go back to the way they were. “Brian, I am sorry. Your friendship does matter to me. I want you to know that. No matter what happens, I want you to know that.”

  There was a silence on the other end, followed by the sound of Brian hanging up.

  A pair of hands reached up from behind and covered Derrick’s eyes. “Guess who?”

  Grabbing the hands, he felt them as if by doing so it would provide him with some sort of clue. “Um…Amanda Fisher in the fourth grade.”

  “All right, who is Amanda Fisher and where can I find her?”

  “You can find her in the fourth grade.” Derrick laughed, turning to face Annie, her arms now around his neck as she smiled up at him.

  Kissing him, she leaned in close, her lips next to his ear. “Just as long as she stays there.”

  “Oh, I don’t think you’ll have a problem with that. She is married with five kids. She just doesn’t have time for me anymore.”

  He pouted, and Annie laughed. “How about I make it up to you with a bowl of cereal?”

  “Hmm…and here I thought you were going to offer something of a much more…intimate nature.”

  “Oh, you did, did you?”

  “Can you blame me? When I live with you?”

  “Oh, Mr. Sloane, you really need to stop trying to impress me.”

  “Is that your way of saying you’re tired of me saying nice things?”

  “Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that.”

  “Oh, you wouldn’t, would you?” He drew his hands up into her hair, his gaze moving to her ears. They were no longer pierced, and he hadn’t heard the word honey once yet that morning. “All right, I’ll take you up on that offer. You pick the cereal.”

  “Oh wow, you’ll actually let me ch
oose the cereal. That’s saying a lot!”

  “You better believe it.” He gave her a long, sensual kiss.

  “Whoa, what was that for?”

  “For being you.”

  “Ah, aren’t you just the sweetest thing?”

  “Don’t I know it.” He stepped away.

  “Where you going?”

  “I just remembered, I wanted to check on something. I’ll just be a moment.”

  “Okay, but don’t be too long. Once the milk is poured I will not be held responsible.”

  Stepping into the bedroom doorway, he looked to the bedside table…still no books. Going into the walk-in closet there was not a black dress or Armani shirt in sight.

  Picking up the phone, Derrick dialed Brian.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, Denise, could you put Brian on for me?” There was a long silence.

  “Excuse me?”

  “I was wondering if I could speak to Brian. Is he in?” Again, there was a long silence.

  “What kind of an animal are you?”

  “I’m sorry?”

  “You can only say that so many times and then it just stops meaning anything anymore.”

  “Denise, you’re going to have to help me here. What’s this all about?”

  “What’s this about? What’s this about?”

  High-pitched laughter came through the phone, and Derrick held the receiver out from his ear.

  “You are one sick son-of-a-bitch, you know that? First you let him down by not showing up, and then you get into a fight with him and don’t bother to call him back. And as if that wasn’t enough, when you do finally bother to getting around to fixing it, it winds up getting him killed.” The sound of muffled crying came through the receiver. “We had a fight that day because of you. I actually defended you, and now I’m wishing I hadn’t.” The crying stopped. “Don’t ever call here again.” She hung up, and Derrick stood staring at the phone in disbelief.

  “Derrick?”

  He could hear Annie talking to him, but he wasn’t paying attention.

  “Derrick, what is it?”

  “What?” Annie was staring at him, and he tried to smile as he hung up the phone.