Page 61 of Two Kinds of Stranger

‘I’m justpeachy. I take it you completely ignored everything I said to you the other day and you went to Cross’s place and fucked him up?’

‘Ah, I didn’t touch the guy. Bloch and Lake went to see him and things got out of hand. I’m sorry, but maybe it will teach the guy a lesson.’

‘It taught him a lesson alright. I just got out of the precinct. He’s alleging I paid someone to beat him up. I got arrested and questioned by police. He’s getting a restraining order against us. Don’t do us any more favors.’

19

Logan

Logan watched as Eddie Flynn pulled a roll of cash from his pocket, peeled off a twenty-dollar bill and held it out to the Starbucks cashier.

She said they only take cards.

Flynn was embarrassed. He patted his pockets and turned to his companion, who said he didn’t have a card with him.

‘Please, allow me,’ said Logan.

Logan pulled down the bucket hat on his head, leaned over and tapped his phone on the card-payment machine.

Eleven dollars and seventy-five cents to buy Eddie Flynn and his companion a coffee and a green tea. But Logan knew he would be buying a lot more for his money.

‘That’s very kind of you,’ said Flynn, offering Logan the twenty-dollar bill.

Flynn was the same height as Logan. Perhaps a little slimmer, not as much muscle development, but he was fit and Logan knew he could be fast. You could see it. He had that way of moving, every footstep sure, body in perfect balance, shoulders back. The lawyer exuded confidence like an aura that glowed off his skin. He wasn’t cocky. This wasn’t false swagger. This was the real thing.

Logan waved away the twenty bucks.

A polite first refusal was customary. It was made in the knowledge that Logan’s act of generosity was genuine. He didn’twish to diminish this selfless act, because he didn’t wish Flynn to guess at an alternative move.

‘Please, I insist,’ said Flynn.

Various studies have been done on this very human, everyday scenario. Most of these behavioral studies had been commissioned by major charities–what makes people donate money? Why do people commit an act of generosity and in what circumstances? This precise scenario, buying a stranger a cup of coffee when they didn’t have the correct method of payment, had been one such study.

Logan knew from the statistics that only twenty per cent of the sample study would be insistent, at this stage, on reimbursing the person who paid for their coffee.

Logan decided to push the interaction further.

‘It’s fine. Anyway, I don’t have change,’ said Logan.

‘Don’t worry about it. Please, for your kindness,’ said Flynn, with a handsome smile.

A third and final offer.

Only eight per cent of the sample in the behavioral study offered to reimburse the person buying them coffee a third time. When he followed Flynn and Lake into the coffee shop, Logan had simply wanted to eyeball Flynn. Man to man. You can observe someone forever. You can know their routines, listen to their conversations, watch their every move until you understand exactly how they think and interact with the world, but Logan believed that you never truly know what is in someone’s mind and heart until you look them in the eye.

Perhaps this was his psychology training. Perhaps it was some deeper knowledge.

But he needed that look from Flynn. To hold those eyes in his vision for a moment, stare into them and glean their secrets. He took as much from that as the experiment in paying for the coffee.

Logan nodded, took the twenty with a smile.

The entire interaction with Flynn had taken less than ten seconds. In that time, Logan had learned much.

Flynn was in the top eighth percentile of the population when it came to selflessness and generosity. This percentile group were also known for high intelligence, morality and empathy.

This fitted with Flynn’s job–he was a lawyer. His entire career was dedicated to helping his clients. Given his talents as a lawyer, Flynn had to be a student of human behavior too. He would know Logan’s initial refusal to take the money meant his initial act of paying for their drinks was a sincere act of kindness, made selflessly without expectations. And that, now, taking the money from Flynn was the polite thing to do. Reciprocal acts of kindness–so that both men could take the dopamine hit from goodwill.

Flynn and Lake took their drinks to a table. Logan ordered an espresso, paid with his phone again and then took a seat behind Flynn and Lake, a few tables away. The tables in between them were dirty, with used cups, plates and napkins on them. No one would sit there and block his view while there were clean tables free behind him and at the window. He could watch them, unobserved as they kept an eye on the cop’s Ford Taurus.