Flash Fiction Friday - "What'll you have?"

He sat in the cramped lobby alone. A window seat with his bag on the seat beside him, reserving the space.

Renee asked if there was anything she could get for him. He stared at her for a moment. She expected him to say something but he didn’t.

“You know, a straight up espresso always gives me a lift on a day like today...” she had watched him trace the trails the rain left on the window.

“No. I’ll just have the honey lemon ginger tea... Um, and a sandwich.”

“Which kin...”

“The one with hard boiled egg.”

It was forty minutes past the lunch hour that the brown haired woman from the bar last weekend had suggested he come by at. Maybe she prefered alcohol centric dates. Maybe she just didn’t prefer him. It would have been awful even if she came. It was rainy instead of sunny and it was hard to talk in the little shop. She would have liked a walk in Prospect park. He was sure. It was even named ‘prospect’, but he stopped himself there. That train of thought was getting too corny.

She watched him rearrange his bag on the floor between his legs. She watched a lot of people. Commute Dave from Newark; Homeless Cathy from the park a few blocks east; Same name Rene, who lived in a town house on 14th. She loved those brick houses down by the park. She grew up on the west coast and there was something so solid about the old buildings here. Maybe, if she could ever get her life started, she’d live in one.

#

Renee, having taken the time to curl her long hair instead of her usual “keep it out of the cookies” updo and enough makeup to make her feel uneasy, was sitting on a stool at the bar. She was wedged between a drunk 30-something birthday girl and a handsome but too-broad-shouldered-for-this-situation businessman. She had heard this place was popular, but hadn’t considered the implications.

She was the only one sitting alone tonight. The bartender stood in front of her with a question hanging on his face. She hadn’t heard him. He repeated “What’ll you have?”

“Oh. I guess I was, um, hoping something would happen... I mean... I mean maybe I would have to choose a drink... if someone offered to buy one...”

She was trailing off. He was smiling and picked up a small tumbler “Straight up then.”