Page 14 of Semi-Rejected Life

As I stepped into Amarok Cafe, I saw Andy raise his hand to greet me, some form of verbal abuse pulling at his lips. But, before he could get the words out, he stopped. Instead, he traded his insults for something worse.

“You look like shit,” he breathed as I stepped up to the counter. “More so than usual.”

I growled at him. “Remind me why I’m friends with you again?”

“Because I give you free coffee and donuts every morning?”

“So not only are you annoying, but you’re making me fat too.”

He smiled, but gave me a serious once over. “For real though, you okay?”

“I’m just tired,” I replied, trying to dismiss his concern. The last thing I wanted to do was talk about it.

“You’re a bad liar,” he replied, dragging me around the backside of the counter. He called out to his barista, a younger girl who’d just started there a few weeks ago. “Can you handle things for a bit? I need to help my friend.”

She lifted an eyebrow, but didn’t comment on how sexual that sounded. “No problem. Take your time. I got this.”

“Thanks.”

Andy dragged me through the swinging kitchen door and over to the other side of the bakery where his office was. He plopped me down in the chair across from his desk.

“Shit,” he muttered. “I forgot your coffee. Just a second.”

“Andy, I don’t want to–”

But he was already gone. He was a good friend, don’t get me wrong, but the man had zero patience. If there was a problem, it had to be fixed right now. Waiting was not an option, even if that meant making people very uncomfortable. And people, in this case, was me.

He returned a moment later, placing a cup and a fritter in front of me. Taking a seat at his desk he laced his fingers behind his head and said, “Alright. Spill it.”

“Andy… I don’t want to talk about it…”

“Come on. I don’t like seeing you look like this. It’s not natural. Whatever it is, just get it off your chest and be done with it. You’ll at least feel a little better.”

“Are you my therapist now or something?”

“Considering I just bribed you with a donut to talk to me, I’d say no. But if you wanna put a twenty in the tip jar on the way out, that’s fine too.”

I grumbled, shaking my head.

“Vince,” he said, leaning forward. “Seriously though… Are you okay?”

I sighed. I hated it when he did that. “Yes,” I groaned. “I’ll fucking live. It’s not like this hasn’t happened before.”

Andy lifted an eyebrow. “Care to explain?”

Another sigh. There was no getting out of this. “You know that guy I told you about? The surfer?”

“The one you didn’t think was gonna come back?”

“Yeah.”

“He came back I take it?”

“Uh-huh.”

“And it… didn’t go well?”

“It didn’t go anywhere.”

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