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The crisp spring air cut through the thin jacket I was wearing. The sun was shining, and the city was coming alive, even in the early morning. There were people milling around dressed from the night before, and tourists getting an early breakfast.
I’d been camped outside of a shitty coffee spot, one for the past hour, pretending to read the paper, as I looked around for my target. So far, she hadn’t show up, and I wondered if the PI I’d hired two weeks ago to tail Annie, had been full of shit.
I sipped my coffee trying to ignore the sounds of New York City traffic.
“Let’s splurge on a chocolate croissant. I need some celebratory carbs,” a voice said. I rolled my eyes. I wasn’t interested in the type of women who were interested in restricting everything that they put in their mouths.
“You can have the croissant. I just want a black coffee.”
I immediately perked up. I recognized that voice. She was the person I’d been hoping to “run into” during this shitty little excursion.
“Black coffee is vile,” her friend said. “I don’t know how you drink it.”
“And that matcha shit you like smells like grass,” Annie countered back. I hid a smile as I watched her over the top of my newspaper. She was dressed in a pair of tight light blue jeans and a thin white blouse that was too big and a season out of style. Her mousey blonde hair was pulled back in a braid, making her large blue eyes visible.
I lowered the paper to my lap, but kept my eyes trained on it. Annie was perceptive, and I knew that I would only have to wait a moment before she noticed me.
“Mr. Wright?” her soft voice asked, as she and her friend passed my table. I’d been strategic in deciding where to sit, ensuring that I was closer to the sidewalk than the door, and not far away enough that I’d be blocked.
“Annie?” I asked in mock surprise. She vacillated between calling me by my last name and my first, but I always called her Annie. It had started as a ploy to see if she would correct me, but now, I couldn’t imagine calling her anything else.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. Her fingers went to her braid, and I immediately knew that my presence made her nervous. She always played with her hair when she was on edge.
“Just grabbing some coffee,” I said, nonchalantly.
“Here?” she asked, waving her hand around. “In Queens?”
“Yes?” I tried to act as offended as possible, but in truth, I was impressed at how Annie was able to see through some of my bullshit. She might have called me out on it if I hadn’t been prepared. “I had an early morning meeting not too far by, and I was desperate for some caffeine.”
Her eyes narrowed, and I knew she was wondering if I was telling her the truth or not. One of the more fascinating things about Annie was how suspicious she often was about things. It made me wonder what led to her distrust.
“Who’s your friend?” the red-headed girl next to Annie asked. She batted her eyelashes at me and stuck out her breasts, and I was immediately disinterested. There was a time and a place for a girl like her, and it was usually after a late night at the bar.
A pink flush took over Annie’s cheeks, and I tried to stop myself from smiling. She didn’t want her friend to know who I was. She was embarrassed.
Leaning forward, I reached out my hand. “Ezra Wright,” I said. “Annie and I work together.”
“How interesting,” the girl said, coyly.
The flush on Annie’s cheeks darkened, and this time, I knew that she was embarrassed by her friend’s behavior. Didn’t surprise me. Annie wasn’t obvious in the way her friend was. She would never bat her eyelashes and spread her legs at the first man who was wearing an expensive watch and giving her a half-interested smile.
“We should go,” Annie said. Her knuckles were white where she’d grabbed her friend's forearm. “I wouldn’t want to bother you on your Saturday.”
“Nonsense,” I said, shaking my head. “You should join me.”
The friend looked ready to sit down, but Annie shook her head. “We appreciate the offer, but we wouldn’t want to impose.”
“It’s not an imposition if he invites us,” the friend said. She takes a seat, and I’m actually quite grateful for her. If she hadn’t, I was sure that Annie would have rushed off. Sometimes she reminded me of a scared little kitten who jumped at the slightest sound. That was why I knew that I needed to approach things carefully with her. “I’m Julia. The roommate.”
I shook her hand. “Nice to meet you.”
Annie looked between the two of us, and I still wondered if she was still going to just leave.
After a long pause, and a sharp look from Julia, Annie eventually sat down. “Thank you for inviting us,” she said.
“No problem.” I flagged down the waitress who had served me. “What can I get you two?”
