Georgie parked in the coffee shop parking lot and made his way inside. The coffee shop was located on the edge of the town close to the forest and highway system. It was a relatively new establishment, Cool Beans. He hadn’t yet noticed it, but he had known of the building it was in. It had been abandoned most of his life, a brick building with wooden boards covering the windows and long patches of grass and weeds popping up through the pavement. When he was a young child, it was a Greek restaurant, but the family who had owned the place had vanished one day. Just packed up and left never to be heard from again. Georgie’s mom had mentioned to him once that the woman who had owned the restaurant got in trouble with the mob and had to go into the witness protection program. But, his dad seemed to think that was a ridiculous rumor. Apparently new owners were able to purchase the place, Cool Beans, formerly Zorba’s. He’ll always remember the daughter of the owners. He’d go frequently with his mom to pick up food from the restaurant and she’d always be there sweeping the floors or scrubbing down the tables. He always thought it strange that a child his age was being put to work so hard. Maybe her family depended on her. He couldn’t recall if they ever spoke to each other but he could definitely recall her eyes. They were huge brown eyes widely spaced apart and when she would stop working to look at him it felt like was looking right through him.
He ordered a pumpkin spice latte at the counter. He rarely frequented coffee shops and pumpkin spice was the first thing he could think of. The drink became something of a joke at some point, but Georgie remembered liking it before. As he walked around looking for a place to sit he noticed Sean seated at a small table with one chair. He was wearing large headphones and seemed transfixed to his computer. Georgie tapped him on the head and called his name. Sean was startled at first yet calmed down after seeing his friend.
“Hey Sean, what are you up to?”
Sean looked like his mind was still consumed with whatever was on his computer screen, not quite present.
“Uh.. Just teaching myself computer programming. Oh and making beats for Marquis. We’re working on some songs together.”
“Oh wow, I didn’t know that.” Georgie said slightly jealous that his friends were doing interesting things in their spare time.
“This place seems pretty cool, it’s my first time here.” Georgie said looking around at the décor. Sean’s eyes were now back focused on his laptop, nodding in agreement to Georgie’s sentiment.
“Yeah it’s a cool place. I’m here almost every day.”
Everyone else in the café seemed to have brought a computer or some project to work on and it was a little too quiet for Georgie, only a couple other people seemed to be talking. Georgie hadn’t thought about exactly what he was going to do at Café. He just knew he should go to the café. He looked around and noticed a small book shelf by the back wall.
“Alright, I’m going to find a place to read. We should chill sometime time this weekend.”
“You read?” Sean said smiling sarcastically and swirling his coffee before take a long sip.
“No, never learned. I Just look at the picture books.”
Sean laughed and agreed that they should meet up later in the week. Georgie went over to the book shelf, grabbed a Calvin and Hobbes comic book and found a seat toward the left hand wall, a darker wall with no windows and artwork hanging everywhere. He glanced back over at Sean, he was still so focused on whatever he was working on. He was a lot more intense than what Georgie was used to seeing. He suspected there was a lot to Sean he didn’t know about. Maybe his chill nerdy vibe was all a façade. He couldn’t quite remember how they had even met it wasn’t like he grew up in this town. He just kept popping up places and at parties and seemed to know friends of Georgie’s. He was quiet at first, but never seemed shy or out of place. Eventually they kind of became friends themselves. Sean was really good at pool and Georgie and him had won many games together at the senor cactus. He knew Sean but he couldn’t exactly say how well. He had never seen Sean lose control or exhibit any major flaw. That’s the main way Georgie was able to figure people out. Through their flaws.
He looked at the time. He already had been there an hour. He felt out of place not having any project to work on or class to study. He always thought about going back to school after flunking out after 1.5 years, but never could focus enough on a plan to get to that point. Hazel had told him she came to Cool Beans almost every day to study for school and the ACTs. He wondered how he would have turned out had he studied every day. Probably some boring nerd he thought. He liked the coffee shop. Kind of. But, the magic and allure Hazel seem to give it was not as strong for him. He was starting to get hungry. He went up to the counter and ordered a Zucchini Bread. In front of him was a redheaded woman around the same age as him, her hair tied up in a bun, with a purple birthmark on the back of her neck, he had seen this birthmark before. It was shaped like Arnold from Hey Arnold. He would always joke with her about it. Her name was Sammy they had lived on the same floor freshman year at State. He had only seen her a couple times after he left school, they weren’t quite close enough to maintain continuous contact. He tapped her on the shoulder and she spun around. She looked at him or through him with the same eyes as the girl from the Greek restaurant long ago, but maybe he was just imagining things.
“Georgie! Oh my god! How are you?”
“Doing pretty good Sammy. What are you doing here?”
“Oh just passing by on my way to cover a court case in Guilford. I live in West City now, but one of my coworkers said I had to try the coffee at Cool Beans. You like the coffee here too?”
“Uhh. I don’t know I just got a pumpkin spice latte. But West City! Nice! I haven’t been there since Covid.”
“Haha you’re a basic bitch. What are you up to now though. I haven’t seen you in years?”
“Oh, I still live in my hometown here.”
“Oh, that’s right you are from here. That makes sense.”
“Where do you work?”
“Oh.. I’m a computer programmer.” Georgie lied. “Mostly web design shit. Boring stuff like that.”
“Wow, that’s great Georgie. It’s good you came back and got your degree. You were a wild one. I mean we all were freshman year.”
“Yep. Gotta prepare for the ole future.”
“Hey, do you still live with PT? I miss really that guy. He moved in with you right?”
“He did for a bit. I haven’t seen him lately but he still lives around here. Oh right, you guys kind of dated at some point, right?”
“We never dated more of a short fling. It was complicated back then.”
“Yeah we’ve all had those relationships. I remember the three of you were inseparable. You Trevor and PT.”
“Yeah we were pretty close weren’t we. Wait who’s Trevor?”
“Pt’s roommate freshman year remember. I thought you guys were close, but maybe I’m wrong. I actually kind of knew him in high school. He grew up around here too.”
“Hmm, if I saw a picture of him, I bet the memories would come back to me. We did a lot of drugs back then.” Sammy smiled. “We were so dumb.”
“I don’t know about dumb.” Georgie said defending his younger self. “Just figuring shit out.”
“Alright, Georgie I have to get going. Can you give me PT’s number, I think I lost it when I got a new phone.”
“Ok, here it is.” Georgie said showing her the number on his phone.
“The 3 of us should get dinner sometime soon. I should be passing by a lot in the next couple of weeks.”
“Uh.. Ok just start a group text or something. Seeya Sammy.”
Georgie watched Sammy quickly walk over to her long green car. She was taller than he had remembered and prettier too. Probably because she had lost some weight. He remembered he had a crush on her the first week of college, but he did for most girls he met back then. He remembered her being more of a hipster than the rest of them, but really funny. He could name only a couple of people who he thought were funnier than himself and she may have been one of them. She’d also always be involved in groups around campus. She brought him to a Green Peace march once. But, they were never super close. Their personalities clashed sometimes and he remembered always getting in arguments with her. Still, it was nice to see her. After Sammy left, he started to feel alone here at the coffee shop. He thought about the fight he had with PT. He couldn’t quite remember the details and it all seemed so dumb to him now. He fondly pictured the 3 of them getting dinner. He did enjoy the warmness of his old friend hopefully they’d meet up next week. He looked outside; it had begun raining. He glanced over at Sean’s table, but he had disappeared. Maybe it was time to stop by Marquis’s place he thought as he took a bite from his zucchini bread.
