The Gift: Building New Haven

“Oh! You’re going to love the Whipped Vanilla Bean Dream, with a shot of expresso!” She says, all teeth.

ESSSpreso! “Sounds great.” I wink at Hippie Chick, but she pretends I don’t exist. That’s cool. I’m a whole five or six years older than her, so I’m invisible. I’m in another dimension altogether, and it’s OK. I’m used to that.

I’m also dressed in blue jeans and plain khaki t-shirt. Anything but trendy. I’m invisible even to women my age! Again, I’m OK with this. I know my limitations, and accept them wholeheartedly. I don’t delude myself.

Waiting for our names to be called out, Suz the hippie sneaks a peek at me, we both look away, then she looks at her sandals.

I don’t want to be the creepy guy, so I pretend I didn’t notice.

As I said, I know my limitations. I have one of those faces that’s so plain and normal that people always think they know me. I’ve been called hansom before… Mostly by my mom and my aunts, but I know. I know.

If you look up “normal” in Wikipedia, you get my picture.

They call my name first, “Ed!” and I grab my whatever-the-hell they ordered for me.

She looks at me wondering how I skipped ahead of her and I say, “I’m a regular here. I’m also a generous tipper.” I wink again. She looks away, then at her feet.

“Suz!” They yell behind me.

I’m getting my raw turbinado sugar and I notice that she sits down at a table outside. I grab extra sugar and go towards her table. Again, I don’t want to be creepy. I have no intention of coming on to this girl at all – I swear!

“Suz?” I say. She glares a question at me. “You forgot your sugar.”

“Oh! Thank you! Yes. I assumed it was in the coffee.” Her face lit up red.

“Oh no. They have 5 different sweeteners here. How would they know which one you want? I took you for the Raw 

Sugar type. I hope that’s cool.”

“Yes. That’s fine. Thanks again.”

She extends her hand, “I’m Suz.”

“Ed Harley. No relation though.” I shake her hand, and give a wink. I do that when I’m nervous. Very bad habit, I know!

She gives me a nice firm hand shake. Not that limp, melt in your hand type that some women give… Nice and assertive. “May I join you?”

“Why, am I falling apart?”

“A laugh escapes me. That’s cool. Enjoy your coffee.” I start to turn away, my own face red as a clown’s nose.

“I’m kidding. Have a seat Mr. Harley. So, where are you from?”

 “I’m from a galaxy far, far, away.” I smile. 

“Me too! We’re neighbors then!” She doesn’t miss a beat! I like this girl! Not that I have any kind of chance here, but if I get twenty minutes of good conversation from her, I’ll call it a win. I know I’m already way over my limit here. Let’s see how long this goes for.

“So you come from far away. Where are you headed?” I ask.

“I may be moving to a new community. Not sure yet. I’m going to try it out for a couple of weeks and see.”

“Oh Wow. You can do that?”

“You can in this one, if you know the right people.”

“Can I ask where it is?”

“If I told you, I’d have to kill you. Sorry.”

“That’s cool. It’s not like you even know me. I’m just curious. I’d love to move somewhere different, and it looks like you’re going somewhere different. You know what I mean?”

“That’s right.” But she still gave me no information…

“OK Suz, I’ll leave you alone now. I have places to go… people to see, you know. But here," I fished out my business card and handed it to her... "I’m not coming on to you, I swear. I find you very interesting, and I like to meet interesting people.”

“Oh. I’m like an exhibit in a museum?”

“No no! I didn’t mean – ” But she cuts me off.

“I’m pulling your chain.” I notice the sideways smile, not showing any teeth… Damn, she is cute!

She says, “People still do this?”

“What? Life Coach? Well, I do…”

“Give out business cards, I mean.” She hits me again. “...and Life Coaching too?”

“Damn girl! You hit hard! I’m never going to win with you.” I clutch my chest and laugh.

“What are you trying to win?”

“Friendship, really, but hey – just pretend to keep my card so I can tell myself that I may hear from you one day. Just a ‘Hey! How you doing? Want to grab a real expensive coffee so I can tell you about my latest adventure?’ or something.”

“Sure.” There’s that sideways smile again, which I don’t know if it means we’re cool, or ‘whatever dude…’”

“It was cool meeting you,” I say as I stand to leave.

“You really have to leave?”

“Yeah,” I lie. “I got these things I gotta…” I fumbled and left.

“Bye! Nice meeting you Mr. Harley!” me.

========================================

END OF PREVIEW

Download the entire book at:

https://ko-fi.com/KitchenMycology/shop