The Sensible One (boyxboy) ✓

Chapter Twenty

I was standing outside the café, nervous and feeling a little sick, looking in to see if I could stop Weston sitting somewhere.

Marrone's was a large café with massive panels of glass windows out front and those little plastic hedges outlining the outside sitting area. The walls were exclusively a deep shade of brown and while they had good coffee and comfortable seating its business mainly relied on its reliability.

It was near to my workplace, as advertised, and a nice little resting spot after work if I had some work calling after I'd left the office. I should have organised this meeting somewhere further away, somewhere quieter where less people could see us. I felt sick knowing people would know I met him, possibly overhear us speaking.

As it was there were few people in the café for the middle of the day but I wasn't optimistic.

How long past the time we arranged would be adequate enough time to declare him as not having showed up so that I could leave?

I took a deep breath and stepped inside.

Looked around, didn't see him, queued and got myself a coffee and a muffin, making a face that must have looked like regret as the barista asked me twice if I was sure that was what I wanted and twice more if there was anything else, in a tone that seemed to be friendlier than normal.

Just as I was collecting the coffee I felt a hand on my shoulder and jolted, swinging around to face Weston who was directly beside me, looking at me with a friendly smile.

I stared at him with wide eyes, and a cold expression I could not describe as friendly.

I shrugged my shoulder roughly to get his hand off of me and stepped back, backing up into the order pickup table.

"Hello Maxwell." He smiled.

I looked at him and said nothing, moving around him to find a place to sit. Mostly empty, as mentioned, but I still wanted a table far away from anyone else.

I found one located just outside the toilets, that would be useful in case I found the need to vomit early. No one likes bothering their baristas by vomiting on their freshly cleaned dark oak floor.

I sat down, he looked around a moment and stared at the toilet door, then sat down opposite me.

I cursed the small circumference of the tables.

"This is pretty close to the toilet isn't it?"

I sipped at my coffee and extracted my phone.

Of all people I was not one to fiddle about with my phone. While it had the ability to download apps and that sort of thing I was never interested in it. Jeffrey liked to say that I was born an old man, I think that was fairly true, and in a way I'd looked for similar people and found them. So instead of playing with my phone I was really just moving back and forth between the menu and the alarm clock.

"So... It's been a long time." He started, wistfully.

Almost as though he were remembering good old days.

I took a deep breath. "Yes. It has."

He stared at me, waiting for something more. I did not want to talk to him though, so I held my tongue.

He pursed his lips and looked away. "Alright... I guess I'll be the one to get into it. There was a little misunderstanding between us long ago..."

I said nothing even as he waited for me to affirm that I was listening with some sort of noise. My cold unblinking look ought to have been enough.

"I know I hurt you back then, and I'm sorry about that, I-" He seemed like he was about to say 'I really am' as he reached out to rest his hand on mine as I held the coffee on the table in front of me but I snatched my hand back in time.