Related Reading: Falcon

“This is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.” Her eyes welled as she pulled a tissue from a pastel pink box.

Keith winced at the stock phrase, but was glad he had elicited that reaction. Shelley was pretty and treated him like a person. He was saddened by the thought that her life was so devoid of joy and considerate people that he had made her day on a whim. To see someone so outwardly confident buoyed by such a simple gesture made him wonder exactly who she was.

It was a simple cup of coffee. He walked by The Gourmet Bean coffee shop every day on his way to work, and occasionally stopped in for a to-go cup. That morning he had decided to grab an extra for Shelley. Jumbo mocha latte, lots of cream and sugar. He liked that The Gourmet Bean didn’t try to disguise their sizes. If you didn’t want very much, you ordered a small. If you wanted the most caffeine they offered in one cup, which was what Keith felt he needed to get going that morning, you ordered a frazzler.

He knew a lot about her from one phone conversation overheard at work.

“Yeah, he called the cops and told them I was hitting him. I told the cop, ‘He’s lying. I didn’t touch him. He doesn’t have a mark on him.’

The cop looked at me and said, ‘We can’t assume anything when we respond.’

‘Dude, if I hit him, he wouldn’t have called you because he’d be dead. ‘

The cop said, ‘Well, you two really shouldn’t stay in the same house tonight.’

I said, ‘Fine with me, but I’m taking my daughter.’

He said, ‘Ma’am, I have to ask him if that’s okay.’

I was like, ‘Excuse me?’

And he said, ‘Well, I can’t allow you to take your daughter when your husband said you hit him.’

So I walked over to Nick and said, ‘Don’t tell them not to let me take her.’

He told the cop, ‘It’s okay, she can take her.’

After that, I just told him I wanted him out of my life, except for our daughter.”

Based on that conversation, Keith figured she was tough. Something about his act of kindness had melted that exterior. He was uncomfortable and wasn’t sure what to say.

“Well, I’m glad you like it,” he said.

She set the cup on her desk and finished wiping away her tears. She wadded the tissue and tossed it into her wastebasket. “It’s very nice. Thank you,” she said.

“You’re welcome,” he said.

Keith walked away with a smile on his face.

Later that morning, he still felt tired and needed a little more caffeine. He took his frazzler cup and, still floating high on the intrinsic rewards from earlier, strolled into the kitchen. As he entered the doorway, he saw Shelley standing at the sink, her back to him. He watched her as he approached the coffeemaker.

He noticed a pouring motion from the corner of his eye and heard liquid running into the sink. A quick sideways glance revealed Shelley pouring out her jumbo mocha latte. Judging from the amount coming out of the cup, she hadn’t drunk a drop.

“That son of a bitch,” she muttered under her breath.

Keith hoped she wouldn’t notice him. The insulated aluminum carafe clanged against the coffeemaker when he set it down.

“Oh, Keith,” Shelley said. “I didn’t see you there.”

“You know, if you don’t like coffee, you can just say so. You don’t have to cuss me.”

“Oh, no, it’s not that. I mean, I don’t like coffee, but I wasn’t talking about you.”

That was good to hear. “That’s good to hear,” he said. “Are you okay?”

She withdrew the sink sprayer and started rinsing the stainless steel basin. “No. I’m not. My ex-husband’s turning my daughter against me.”

“I’m sorry. I had no idea.” That was a lie. He’d overheard other conversations, too.

“I’m surprised you haven’t heard me complaining about him.”

Keith grabbed six sugar packets and two creamer packets and shook their contents down. He ripped them open carefully to avoid spilling. “What’s he doing that’s so bad?” Keith asked two seconds before he realized it was nosy.

“Well, he does special things for her now that he’s married to that rich woman. He takes her off-planet a lot. In fact, she’s on Mars with him right now.”

Keith always had wanted to visit another world, but forever found himself just a paycheck away from leaving Earth.

“Geez, off-planet, huh? That’s pretty cool.”

She shoved the sink sprayer into its hole and shot him a cold, hard look. “Yeah, I know. Thanks.”

Keith lowered his eyes and stirred his coffee, now the perfect shade of taupe. He glanced back up.

Shelly relaxed her brow and grinned. “Sorry. Just a little testy right now.”

“That’s okay.”

“It isn’t just that. My daughter understands I can’t afford cool stuff like that. It’s when he acts like he’s doing me a favor by taking her at all. He agreed to share custody. I’ll gladly take full custody, but don’t act like you’re doing me a favor when you take her.”

Keith had nothing to relate to this. He had no children nor even a wife of his own, and neither of his parents had remarried. His father had come out of the closet and the government had sequestered his mother. His memory of that never would fade.

“But it’s ridiculous, Mom,” Keith had told her. “Why didn’t you just follow the law?”

“That law is stupid. Besides, I didn’t have anybody to come home to at night, anyway. You kids were gone and your dad… well, switched teams.”

He felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked up. Shelley stood there, one eyebrow turned up quizically. “Where’d you go?”

“Oh, sorry,” Keith said. “I was just thinking about something else for a minute.”

“You went zonesville on me.”

“Yeah. It’s my mom.” What was he doing? He’d never said more than five words to this woman, and now he’d decided to tell her about his sequestered mother?

“Gah. Everybody has to have one,” Shelley said. “Unless you’re a clone.” She absently turned the empty Gourmet Bean cup in her hand. “What I wouldn’t give to be one.”

Keith took a cautious sip from his cup. “Not me. My mom was great, but she’s off-planet now.”

“Business or leisure?” Shelley asked.

“Neither. She got three strikes under the overtly obese law.”

Shelley stepped over to a garbage receptacle and set the cup onto a loading tray. As she pulled her hand away the cup disappeared with a sucking sound. “How’s her weight loss coming?”

“She’s not losing.”

“Wow. Why not?”

“She said she likes it up there on Prodigia.” Keith said. “It was her lifelong dream to leave Earth, and in a weird way, she got what she wanted.”

“That law is arcane,” Shelley said.

“Tell me about it.” He pulled the cup back to his lips for another careful sip.

“I will. Over dinner tonight.”

Keith involuntarily gulped a mouthful of hot coffee. He wheezed. “It burns, it burns!”

He sprinted to the water cooler. Ignoring the cups, he leaned down and opened his mouth under the spigot, then pushed the lever.

Cool water rushed into his left eye and ear. “Dammit!” Finally he got his mouth in the right spot.

Shelley laughed. “If you don’t want to go, you can just say so. You don’t have to cuss me.”

(to be continued)