Glass Sneakers

18th ♕

18th ♕

"The coffee?" I asked Jack, pulling my bag over my shoulder.

"We got it, Princess." Jack held up a thermos.

"Okay," I replied, tucking in my bag again. The tote bag kept on falling from my right shoulder. This was why I liked backpacks more.

"Do you like coffee, Princess?"

"Not really."

"I believe that there are only two kinds of people: one who loves to drink coffee, and the others who are yet to be convinced," Jack replied.

"Well, I'm sure there's a third category. Like those who doesn't love it too much and just drink it from time to time," I tried saying.

"There is none, Princess," Jack said.

I wanted to think that he was putting up a plausible argument, but he was saying things in a matter-of-fact way. Giving up on persuading my yoga guru, I just said, "Okay. Then someone's got to convince me."

"Drinking coffee is like falling in love with a stranger, Princess. When you get to know it better, the harder it is to say goodbye," Jack told me, adjusting his sunglasses.

"Gee... okay. Yeah, I guess. I mean, you got, like, a head start of at least twenty years compared to me. You know things better." Well, age really did make a lot of difference, unless we were talking about Mom no. 1. Jack definitely belonged to the ones who got wiser over the passing of time.

"Does she like chocolate?" Jack asked all of a sudden.

"I thought we were talking about coffee?" I turned around, balancing the lunchbox in my hands as we were briskly walking to the studio. I first thought I'd said Mom no. 1 out loud, but I realized who he was talking about.

"I put a tablet of dark chocolate in it." Jack held up the thermos. I wanted to ask him why, but I only let him be. He was the expert. I had also just found out that Jack's mother inherited a hundred year old family café.

I long stopped getting surprised by all the things people usually didn't know about him. And the things he'd say out of nowhere. Like coffee and love. For all I knew, Jack could turn out to be a royalty as well.

"Yeah, sure. Come on, that's going to get cold. Oh, there's a cat drawing on the thermos. Why didn't I see that earlier? It's so cute," I said, taking a closer look at the cat drawing. With a smile, I looked back to where we were heading. Spotting Bridge in one corner, I called, "Bridge!"

Jack cleared his throat. "This belongs to my mother."

"Oh, right," I laughed. "It suits you, for some reason. If you want, I can help you adopt a cat. We have plenty at the shelter."

"I'll think about it, Princess," Jack answered me, pointing up front.

I turned around. Bridge was standing in front of me with an inquisitive look. I greeted her, "Hey! Good morning!"

"Where did you go? I thought the reporters abducted you," Bridge said. She was wearing her hair down today, I noticed. Or maybe it was because it was only seven in the morning and we had an hour more before the photoshoot. But this hairstyle suited her more than her usual ponytail.

"I haven't seen much of them this morning. They probably got tired of me. Ha. Ha. I wish." I went to our spot. "It's still early for the shoot. You have to try these."

Bridge took a seat beside me, crossing her legs. "Is that why you skipped breakfast?"

"I made these with Jack," I told her, opening the lunchbox. "His mother's a really great cook. I ate a lot already, so please help yourself."