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“Oh and you blush!” she exclaims. “Wonderful!”
I smile, blushing even more. She turns around, as if she is waiting for someone to appear, then checks her watch. There is no one here, apart from a few people walking in and out of the cafe, paying no attention to us.
“Listen,” she starts again. “I’m here with two of my colleagues, I was supposed to drop off, but they say they need to go back to our regular office for some documents. Do you mind if we take one round trip, so they could pick up their documents and then we could all go up to the office?”
She looks at me straight in the eyes as she talks. She is barely blinking and what I hear sounds like a rehearsed speech. She just blurts the whole thing out in one go and I feel like there’s something unnatural about it.
“Well, if you do mind, you could just stay here and wait, but I don’t think I need to tell you, that wouldn’t really leave a good impression on my colleagues. And, they’re involved in the decision process, so…”
“Of course not,” I shoot my answer out, like out of a shotgun. One big boom.
Do I mind? I feel like I do. But I also feel like I’m not supposed to say it. I’m supposed to be a big girl. Big girls adjust to new situations, right? And, this is just a round trip. We’ll be back here in no time, hopefully signing that contract. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?
She presses her thin lips tightly together and for a second, she reminds me of a hyena about to burst out into wild laughter. But she remains calm and composed. She doesn’t laugh. She just keeps smiling and nodding. Suddenly, she gets up and clumsily pushes my cup to the side of the table and it falls to the ground, spilling out all over the floor.
“Oh, I’m so clumsy!” she shouts, a little theatrically, bending down to pick it up.
“It’s OK,” I assure her. I really don’t mind. It was obviously an accident.
“Let me just grab you a new cup of coffee and we can go,” she tells me, heading back inside, before I could even tell her that I don’t need another cup of coffee. That was more than enough.
But, a few moments later, Hannah returns, adjusting the plastic lid on the cup.
“Here,” she offers it to me, without sitting down.
I stand up and accept the cup. It’s a small latte, just like mine was.
“Thank you,” I mumble. “But you really didn’t need to get me a new coffee.”
“Nonsense,” Hannah waves her hand dismissively, signaling that she’s going to end this discussion. “It was the least I could do. Oh, by the way, I put just a little bit of sugar in it. Try it, to see if it’s good.”
“I’m sure it’s fine,” I nodded, but I can tell from the way she’s looking at me that she’s expecting me to taste it.
So, I do. It tastes slightly bitter, almost like it’s not coffee from the same place I just got mine. I’m guessing there’s less sugar than I usually put in, but there’s no way in Hell I’m going to say anything. I make that happy, satisfied click of the lips when you try something you like and smile at her.
“Perfect,” I tell her. “Thank you.”
“Alright then,” she takes a deep breath, as if she’s preparing for something important. “Let’s go.”
She starts walking without waiting for me, the sound of her heels clicking against the sidewalk. I rush after her, trying to keep up. Even with her in heels, we’re about the same height. The coffee in my hand is still warm and I try to take another sip. It tastes even more bitter this time.
“I’m just around the corner,” she tells me, as we turn left.
She heads over to a black van, with no markings on it. The windows aren’t tinted, but the color itself gives off a dark vibe. A moment later, two guys walk over to us and stand by her side.
“Isabel, these are Michael and David,” she introduces them.
The guys just nod, without offering me their hand. I smile a little nervously and Hannah notices.
“I know it’s a bit unorthodox to rush you around the city like this, but I’m afraid these two would forget their own heads if they weren’t screwed onto their bodies,” she talks, ending her statement with a roar of laughter.
The two men just smile, but it doesn’t feel like any of us is having fun. Once again, I have that weird sense of something not being right. I take another sip of my coffee, realizing that I’m almost done with it at this point, but my stomach refuses any more of it.
“You can ride in the back with David,” Hannah continues.
“Oh,” I start, hoping that she might change her mind and let me ride shotgun.
“You don’t mind, do you?” Hannah gives me a strange look and I lower my gaze.
