Mondays suck. Longest day of the week, customers are always bitter, the weekend is so far away, and a majority of the drinks are on special so everyone comes in on their lunch break for a relatively cheap drink. The worst part is I got off of work at 1, which meant I just catch the worst of the lunch crowd, then get off when it finally quiets down.
I grabbed a bottle of juice from the 'fridge and floated around the tables talking to everyone for a little while. Eventually, I settled into a table. It had been a few years since I had moved into the city, and it was a pretty awful place. I was alone, bored, and barely making enough income to make rent. It was pretty miserable, and I'm okay to admit I hated it. After about a year of that, I was getting ready to completely cut my losses and move back in with my father. A scary proposition, given how many years I'd been out school. Although I got bailed out of the fire by a calm, steady hand. It was then I had met Cahlee.
I hesitated to think too hard on it, fearing my mood would drop. I didn't just like Cahlee, I loved her. We were possibly the cutest couple in the world, and we were pretty nuts for one another. At the time, I'd probably sheepishly look away, but I would've married her. She was everything I'd wanted out of life, and then some. We practically lived at the other's apartment, and were never separated for more than a few minutes at a time. After work, I'd either go straight to her place, or she'd meet me and we'd go to mine.
No more than a few months ago, she ended up meeting some other guy. For a while, they were just friends. But we stopped spending every minute with one another, and started spending many minutes. Then a few minutes. Before I knew it, we saw each other once or twice a week, most often in passing. The distance seemed like it was just the joy an early relationship fading, it was actually her getting closer to the other guy.
She caught me early one morning, a freakin' Monday, and told me the news. She was moving away, with the other guy. Some foreign country, something Asian. Hong Kong maybe. She hid where from me, for God knows what reason, and stepped out of my life. Though the coffee shop's front door. Not too unlike Aer. I took another sip of the apple juice and stared at the front door with all the contempt in the world.
Well, things got crushing again after Cahlee left me. The emptiness, the loneliness... It was crushing me again, and this would probably be my... Ninth? Tenth? Whatever, thousandth month straight of the crushing loneliness. Aer clearly didn't work out, so I wasn't sure what I was left with.
"You look lonely," said the voice from behind me. "Need a friend?"
I looked up, and saw Sky Kemea plop in the seat opposite mine. She was cute today, like always, pig tails and an adorable dress. "Hey cutie," I said by way of greeting, "to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Meeting Max," she said, grin stretched to both ears. "The big dumb llama's supposed to meet me here later today?"
"So you figured you'd waste time with the local mope? You should have greater aspirations. There are cool folks like Sharphoe and Digital Horizontality? They're over at the other table."
"You shouldn't be so hard on yourself, Nuke. You're a great guy."
MaxTheReaper flopped in the chair beside mine, grinning at Sky, "Like me?"
"No," she explained, "you're a llama."
"Hey!"
Max protested, "Look, just 'cause humanity sucks doesn't mean I'm a llama. It means I'm a god."
"Capital G," I said, reflexively. "But not one of us is God. Well, at least I'm not. If I was, I'd probably be paid more."
"I'm the only God around here," Max told me, confidently. "These peons wouldn't worship me otherwise. I wish they wouldn't, not worth the effort."
Sky got up to leave, her boyfriend in tow, and they continued to banter on the way out. "I wish they wouldn't either, who would worship a llama?"
They got out of earshot, and I turned back to my drink. Did I really need a friend? Hell, it couldn't hurt. I pulled from my drink and threw the bottle blindly behind my shoulder. It bounced in the trash can, and the cap swiftly followed it. "That looked practiced," Puppet said on his way out.
"It is," Kari explained.
I frowned, "Be nice, Puppet."
"No," he said simply, closing the door on the way out.
"Yeah," I said to the empty seat across from me, "I definitely need a friend."
"What?" Came a shocked voice, attached to one very awesome Baby Tea, "I don't count or something?"
"Are you kidding?" I asked him, grinning simply at the sight of him. "I couldn't ask for a better friend than you, BTea."
"Sure you could," he said, tossing a fiver on the table, "a friend that doesn't make you get drinks for him."
"Yeah, but most friends wouldn't let me pocket the change either." I got up to go get his drink.
"Who said I'm letting you pocket the change!?"
I came back, and slid his drink across the table. "I did, see? Magical disappearing change."
He held out a hand, wordlessly.
"Oh fine." I told him, dropping the change in his outstretched hand.
"Good." He said. "I don't make enough to just throw money away like that."
Srsly appeared, draping herself across his lap. "I do, let Nukezilla have his change."
"Neezilla," I greeted, "pleasure to see you."
She smiled back, "Only 'cause I'm wearing this skimpy outfit today."
"Because I became your friend for the cleavage."
"Hell yeah," she replied, buffing her nails.
BTea rested his hands comfortably around her waist, and I felt a pang of jealousy. Instead of reacting like I wanted to, I held my tongue. "So Nuke, tell me a bit about your plans for the rest of the night?"
"Well, I was going to the Swedish Bikini Team's modeling agency to have a sit-in interview with every girl, including a five-hour photoshoot, but reality set in and I'm looking at an evening in front of the TV. If I play my cards right, I might even have a cat nearby."
"Boooring," he said, "come to a movie with us instead."
"Teeeeea." Neezilla whined. "This was supposed to be our night!"
"But look at Nuke, he looks abysmal."
"I don't care, Tea. You've promised me this date for months since you started working double-shifts. You owe me."
"Oh alright. Fine." She smiled victoriously, and sauntered out of the cafe. A lesser man would've been tracking her as she left. I'll admit to being among those lesser men.
"Sorry man, gotta go. Duty calls."
I tried not to sound bitter, "Have fun on your date."
"You know it."
The cafe got quiet again, and I didn't get any more visitors until closing time. I got whisked out of the store, and dumped onto the street. I shoved my hands in my pockets, shivered at the absurdly cold evening, and realized I didn't have my jacket on. I turned back to the cafe, used my key to unlock the door. My jacket was hanging comfortably on the back of the chair, and I put it on and hurried out of the store. I was about to relock the door when I slammed into a body. We both stumbled, and the other body outright fell over.
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry," I began, reaching a gloved hand to help the woman up.
"It's alright Nuke," she said, "it's been a long time."
Oh my God. That face... "Cahlee?"
"Uh-huh." She said, smiling sheeplishly. God, she looked exactly like I remembered her. Memories flooded me, and I couldn't help but recall some of our... uh... 'finer' encounter from our time together. I brushed off her back, feeling her too-warm fingers on my shoulder to help steady herself. She looked as gorgeous as I remembered. I would've asked her how she was, but I caught a glint from her hand. Her wedding ring was beautiful, though not nearly as much as she.
"So... Uh. Hey, when did you get in town?"
"Saturday. I had to spend all day yesterday in a meeting, and this morning was the same thing. I finally got a spare few hours, and was hoping to catch you here in the cafe before they closed."
"You missed closing by about five minutes," I explained, "but I forgot my jacket."
"Lucky me," she said, smiling. Gods, that smile...
"Lucky us. C'mon, let's go get someplace warmer."
"Still in the same apartment?" She asked as we took off toward my place.
"Yeah, I haven't exactly been the stalwart crusader of riches since you've been away."
"Damn shame," she said, and I spent the rest of the walk trying to work out what to say.
The inside of my apartment was much warmer, and I was making coffee for Cahlee and a glass of milk for myself. We sat down, and discussed what we'd been doing since we last saw each other. My end was unspectacular, but she'd apparently started work as a translator and was making a crazy-awesome success out of her life. Her smile wasn't like I remembered, it was actually better. Wider. She seemed happy, and was just generally more whole. I can't help but say I was a little jealous, but not in the way I suspected I would be. I was jealous of her happiness, not her husband.
We ended up talking about her husband for a while, a moderate businessman with an unstoppable ambition. They'd both climbed the corporate ladder since they'd moved, and were making bank. The business trip that sent her back here cost her the same it would for me to live here for a year. I tried not to think about the luxury that the company was paying for, willingly, for her services.
The rest of the evening banked by faster than it had begun, and she had to go to bed early for another meeting tomorrow morning before she was to head back off to Hong Kong. With a precursory pet for Manveru, she smiled and met me at the door. "I'm sorry about what I did, Nuke. You didn't deserve that."
"No hard feelings," I said, surprised by how much I actually meant it. We hugged briefly, but warmly, and she left. I smiled in her wake, and turned back to my cat.
"I'm happy for her," I told him. He mrowled at me in reply.
I went to bed honestly happy that night. I don't remember what I dreamed about, but whatever it was left a very warm feeling inside me. Tomorrow was going to be a good day.
