Coffee Date Part I
January arrived at the café with pep in her step. Despite Lottie’s comments about Ernst, she was excited to be able to meet with him for coffee. He was the father of her daughter’s best friend. He was a man. He was not Gulliver with his overinflated sense of entitlement. Those cons far outweighed the current con of being a weird lab rat who barely spoke. That was the description Lottie used right before she left, and January pushed it away.
“January,” the quiet voice came from behind her.
She turned to face the man who fathered the little boy her daughter adored with a big smile on her face. “Hey Ernst. How are you?”
“I’m well, thank you for asking.”
He was very formal, and she couldn’t help the way her lips twitched.
“Shall we get coffee?”
“That would be a good idea and then we can perhaps go for a walk to the park and back?”
“Sounds good.” She nodded and stepped back as he pled the 4 door open for her. Entering the café, she pretended not to
Coffee Date Part I
+2 Bonus
notice how the entire café stopped buzzing and a weird silence descended as they approached the counter. “I’ll have a large vanilla latte,” she told the woman behind the counter.
“I’ll have the same,” Ernst said as he cleared his throat.
January wondered if he was actually struggling to place an order.
“Are you okay?” she asked as she leaned against the counter watching him.
“Everyone is staring,” he whispered back.
“It’s not you, it’s me. I’m the talk of the town right now because my ex showing up. Did I mention he’s a billionaire and he showed up with a fleet of cars, armed security agents and threatened to take me and Moe pulled a gun on him?”
“No!” Ernst gasped and covered his mouth. “No wonder everyone is staring.”
“Yeah. It’ll blow over,” she paused, “I hope.”
They stood quietly waiting for their drinks and then once they were walking, drinks in hand, to the door she turned and looked around the room and shook her head at everyone was staring. “Crazy town.”
2/6
12:34
Coffee Date Part I
&
+2 Bonus
Outside she took a breath and gave him a tight smile, “that was
intense.”
I can walk into a room full of scientists, talk science for hours on end and never feel an ounce of stress and be confident. I walk into a coffee shop with a bunch of townspeople I’m unfamiliar with and I feel like I’m running a marathon.”
“You really like sciences, huh?”
“I do.” He nodded sincerely. “There is something about laboratory medicine which appeals to me.”
“You’re a doctor, right?”
“Yes.” He smiled at her. “I worked hard to get my PhD. It feels like it was a long time ago.”
“I didn’t even graduate college,” she muttered sadly.
“How come?”
“I found out my whole life was a lie and I ran.” She shot him a sideways look as she took a sip of her drink.
“Your ex?”
12:34
“Yes. I was feeling ill during one of my classes and I thought I 3/6 should get checked in case I was pregnant. I went home to tell
Coffee Date Part I
my husband I was pregnant. I was really excited.”
“You were married?”
+2 Bonus
“No.” She made a snort. “Dumb right? I went home to tell the man I thought I was married to that we were having a baby, and I heard him and his sister having a conversation about how we weren’t really married, he was engaged to someone else through family connections and the ceremony we had was fake.”
“Oh January, that’s awful.” He offered sadly.
“I called my father and my father reached out to a friend of his and his friend convinced me and Dad that my ex was a mobster. He told us he made his money illegally. Between my anger at him, the lies he said and the lies my father’s friend told us, I agreed to relocate here. We changed our names and have been living here ever since.”
“Like witness protection?”
“Yes and no. We relocated with all our own money. We weren’t really supported financially or anything by the government. We were on our own to make our lives here. We were living quietly and that was fine with us.”
“And he found you?”
476
12:34
Coffee Date Part I
+2 Bonus
“Quite by mistake. His sister runs a boutique in New York, and she came to my shop to look at my jewelry. I was behind the counter when they came in.”
“Are you upset about being found?“
“Yes for me, no for Kaylee. I can see now he’s going to be good for her. He’s as wild as she is. I just wish he didn’t think I was part of the package.”
“Is he really a mobster?”
“I don’t know if he’s a mobster,” she lied, “but I do know that with the kind of money he has, I can’t compete and there is always a risk from a security perspective. Not sure if you noticed but about a half block back, there are two guys following us and it’s my security team.”
“Will your ex be upset you’re out?”
“No. I have his blessings.” She stretched the truth, “he thinks I’m going to remember how in love we were when all he did was destroy my trust and affection with his lies. I was so scared to live at all because the cop friend of my dad’s had us terrified, but it turns out it’s mostly lies and now I can start to live. I have security to keep me safe and nobody telling me that I need to lay low or I’ll blow my cover.”
5/6
get that.” He said softly.
12:34
Coffee Date Part I
“You do?” she looked at him in surprise. “How?”
“I was relocated here by the government with Darwin.”
+2 Bonus
Had he slapped her in the face, she wouldn’t have been more surprised.
