"Is it an another woman?"
The voice was timid but firm in its inquiry. I was far from used to people initiating conversation with me.
The last place I thought I'd engage in anything casual is the popular coffee spot just below my office. Christina usually would run down and get me the fill, but every once in a while I made an appearance.
An appearance that seemed to be..lasting
They were closing for the night, chairs already stacked on clean tables and corporate jingle long turned off. Other coworkers of theirs bidding each other goodnight before exiting out
I look up from the card machine to the little pony tailed teen behind the counter in her green and white uniform, brown eyes frosted in disappointment.
She wasn't the only one. Two other girls were busy in the back, wiping an already polished surface or scrubbing a glass far too many times than neccessary. Continuing to steal glances and maneuver their heads
Even another sweeping young woman who seems to find that around my vicinity held the most dust I suppose
I scoff and place my card in the slot to pay
Every now and again this would happen. People believed they had some strange claim over me, or at least they wanted to. To possess me, to break me down to the excruciating seeds of my trauma and the dead of my eyes to reveal something..only they can extinguish.
They wanted the secrets that burdened me
To save me from drowning in my sullenness
But, I was no complex quandary
No, I was just broken fragments of a man barely clunked together. I wonder at times if I was ever fully whole
Oh, yes..at one point yes.
"Now..what makes you say this uhh.." I tilt my shades to glance at the name tag
"Kimmy." The payment goes through and I slide the black card back into my wallet
Kimmy shrugs half heartedly, playing with her black hair
"You've been coming here, ordering the same black coffee for months with the same expression. All stormy and tortured.." She smiles looking down at her feet but swiftly recovers "And now..now you're smiling. You are supposed to be dark and mysterious and now you're..ordering almond milk?" She whines flapping her wrists, truly upset at my change in demeanor
I chuckle sardonically
My pain is pedestalized. I've accepted this.
"Who else could it be but a woman changing your life and-"
"Ruining your chances of licking my flesh wounds?" A blush spreads across Kimmy's face and she looks away embarrassed.
I sip the coffee and hum with pleasure. It was different than what I usually liked but, sometimes surprises are necessary for change.
Digging into my back pocket aimlessly I pull a Benjamin and drop it into the tip jar with a deep sigh
"Child. Finish college, find good man. Of your age I must stress..that treats you like gold and marry him. You don't want an old scumbag like me. I'm already giving the woman I love a hard time and it's kicking me in the ass a little bit." I sip more coffee and begin to exit
She won't care too much for it but Christina will have to be the permanent coffee runner. I've no interest in revealing more to them
"But but! Ugh, she's so lucky.."
YOU ARE READING
Empress of the Phoenix King (BWWM)
Romance"Dawn..you're joking right? I guess I've changed a lot but even Jacobe tells me I look the same..how can you not recognize me right away?" The blonde girl was stunning, like she'd jumped right out of a painting..and she spoke like we'd known each ot...
