Exes & Ohs

Coffeehouse Conversations

Ethan loved his job, acting was his passion and he was fortunate enough to land a major role on a popular show. But when shooting was canceled the day after he met Odette he was ecstatic. He was going to have a day off all to himself, but instead of sleeping all day and relaxing he decided to go back to Tic Tac Joes.

He walked through the door and lifted his sunglasses, relieved to find the cafe dimly lit. He walked up to the counter and found the baristo from last night. He immediately became annoyed himself as he forgot to find out if boys were baristas or baristos, he also silently wondered if the plural for barista was baristi.

"How may I help you sir?" Said the baristo with a name tag that read "Drew." Drew was taller than Ethan with shorter hair. Ethan was lean and muscular while Drew was burly, a lot of people were made nervous by his bulky biceps.

Ethan was seriously tempted to say "Are male baristas called baristos?" and follow up with "Is the plural for barista baristi?" but instead he said "I would like a Joe black coffee, made by Et if that isn't too much trouble?"

Drew sighed, he recognized the actor from that silly over sexed TV drama that the girls religiously watched each Tuesday night. The few times he had watched it Et and the others fawned over him, and a lot of the scenes shocked him. Drew considered himself fairly progressive but a TV show aimed at the 18-25 demographic which depicted acts that more than hinted at BDSM surprised him.

In his opinion there were only so many times you could watch supernatural creatures fuck and kill, fuck the ghosts of their victims and then get all angsty about it. But his coworkers and friends could not get enough.

Drew smiled at the famous customer and said a polite "Sure, let me get her for you."

He whipped out his cell phone and texted Odette. She immediately came down the spiral staircase laughing. She looked at Drew and said "What?"

He looked at her and said "A customer requested your services."

It was then, that Odette saw Ethan. She had not been expecting him, especially not so soon. When she arrived behind the counter Ethan asked for a "Joe coffee no frills." with a smirk and a wink.

As she prepared it he asked her when he shift started today. She informed him that she was off today. So Ethan said "Well then make that two Joes no frills."

"Sure."

She handed him the two cups and he gave one back saying "Since I bought you a coffee will you spend the day with me?"

Odette wanted to say no. Was tempted to return to the loft upstairs, but instead she decided to take the risk. "Fine" she conceded "but a coffee doesn't buy you sex, so don't get frisky bucko."

They laughed and sat at a table near the bookcases.

About two hours into their pleasantly witty conversation and three cups of coffee each later, Odette was perplexed, she leaned back and asked "Well aren't you going to question me about it?"

Ethan looked honestly confused and said, "Ask you about what?"

"My scars."

"No, I was not going to ask about them. I trusted that if you wanted to talk to me about them you'd bring it up. Which I guess you just did. So tell me about them?"

"What do you know about self harm Ethan?"

"Not much, my character on Fear Nights, used to cut himself before he became a vampire. I comprehend the concept, I empathize with people struggling with self harm but honestly I don't understand it." He answered before taking another sip of coffee.

"That's funny" Et responded in an almost broken whisper, "I don't understand it either. I don't hide my scars anymore. I haven't since I left home. I only ever tried to hide it from my family but they probably wouldn't have noticed if I had put in less effort. They don't notice much. And here, I don't know. I guess part of me doesn't want anyone else who self injures to think they're alone, or maybe I use them to make myself less approachable. I don't know."

Odette didn't know much about self-harm, well more than those who've never done it, but probably less than most "self-harmers". All she really knew was that, there were no cookie-cutter outlines for reasons why. Everyone was different, she knew people from all walks of life, and backgrounds did it. She knew that anyone she saw could be hiding scars and wounds from the outside world, as she sat thinking and sitting across from Ethan Parkers.

Ethan could tell she was shocked by her own candid revelation. Her expression shifted from shock to deep thought, so he waited. Eventually Ethan said that it was okay not to know. She hurriedly changed the subject with a sloppy segue. Shortly after Ethans' phone began to ring, it was work. He needed to go pick up the rewritten script for the next episode. He looked at Odette after he hung up the phone "I have to go soon." he said, "How do you feel about beaches?"

"Um, I suppose I'm fairly indifferent to them." She replied with a perplexed tone.

"Do you want to go to the beach tonight?" Ethan asked.

"Oh, um I'm not sure. I think Betsy was wanting to chill tonight." Et said.

"Betsy can chill too." He said as he began to write on the back of his receipt, "Here is my phone number let me know when you figure it out."

"Yeah alright." She said, planning on never using his number.

"Have a nice day, I hope to see you later." He politely said.

"Maybe." Et said with a tense smile. Ethan could tell through her body language that she was not intending to contact him.

"Actually, I'm worried I gave you the wrong number" he stated, "can you call it real quick so that we can check?"

"Yeah sure. Hold on." Et picked up the piece of paper and her phone, she quickly dialed the digits. Ethan's phone began to ring.

He answered and said "Hey, so I guess it's the correct number after all. Now that I have your number too, I will just text you when I'm free and we'll try to make plans." with a smirk.

Odette smiled and shrugged realizing she had been tricked. "Sounds good she said" with a laugh.

He waved and walked out of the cafe while she went up to her loft.