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She was shouting, pissed and acting dumb was not going to bode well for me. If she was in front of me, she would have smacked the crap outta me. Oops.
“Don’t play dumb with me, you shit!”
“Now, now, Paula, no need for name calling.”
“Cram it! I have been looking after you for years. I got rid of all those women who wanted to steal your money, or make babies with you to claim checks. And now this?! You cannot screw this up!”
“You’re making it sound like Kim is some sort of skating royalty. She won a few awards, but she’s not retired.”
I could hear the sigh on the other end of the phone, and I glanced at Kimberly as she continued her phone call. We were standing just off Main Street, hidden by a few buildings and the wind was already picking up as a chill went through my clothes. Kim hadn’t just won a few awards. I had watched her shows and kept up with the news as best as I could throughout the years. When her husband became ill, she just stopped and disappeared. She had disappeared back home it seemed.
“Samuel, listen to me and I am only going to say this once. This woman has been through hell and back from what I have found out today. She was forced to retire, because her husband got sick then died. If you are just looking for some fling or a hookup, this isn’t the one you want to do it with. Find someone else.”
“Would it surprise you to know, this isn’t just some random hook up? Kim and I have a history, there are things I want to try and repair with becoming friends as the end goal. Anything after that, well that’s for her to decide.”
Paula went silent on the other end of the phone, which was something I wasn’t used to and worried me more. If I didn’t hear her sigh, I would have sworn she had hung up on me. It wouldn’t have been the first time either.
“Alright, but try to stay out of the public’s eye. This would end in a PR disaster if it’s not planned correctly.”
She hung up then. Paula always meant well, and I knew deep down she did care about me. I wasn’t just someone who paid her, we were friends, maybe even thought of me as family. When I turned around, feeling awful for my delay while on the phone, Kimberly was just looking idly into the windows of the closed shops.
“Sorry about that, my eh, personal assistant can be pretty demanding.” Shrugging my shoulders, I popped my phone back in my pocket and joined her.
“That’s alright, you’re a busy guy – Now, how about that coffee.”
My ears perked up when she mentioned coffee and for a moment, I had forgotten about it. I honestly thought she would return after her phone call and decide she wanted to go home instead, but obviously Crystal had convinced her to stay. I would have to thank her next time I saw her.
“When I found the suit shop, it said on the map there was a gin and coffee bar in the opposite street. Obviously, we don’t have to have gin.”
“I am partial to a glass of gin or two, however as you are driving it wouldn’t be fair.”
I struggled trying to keep my smile from beaming across my cheeks and possibly blinding her. I gestured for her to go first and turned down the street directly opposite the suit shop, we found the gin and coffee bar pretty much instantly.
Ginbeans & Co
A play on words, but a clever name. Kimberly stepped in first, with me following close behind. The bar was decorated with Christmas lights and tinsel already. It even had a Christmas tree with coffee cup shaped ornaments decorating the far corner. Not as busy as I thought it would be, but still busy enough, so we didn’t draw too much attention to ourselves.
I was crossing my fingers and toes no one recognized me, but then again, who was I kidding. This was Canada and hockey was pretty much our national sport.
Grabbing a booth in a corner tucked away slightly from view, but we could still see the front door. Kim tossed her small bag down on the seat next to her and I sat opposite her. Even in the slight glow of the fairy lights, she looked beautiful.
“So, why are you ‘really’ here then? Hiding away from the world and its cameras.”
Her question took me by surprise. She looked at the menu then lifted her eyes to watch me, her eyelashes doing some sort of flutter, lifting in the corners. She was smiling a little.
“I, eh, I got into a fight with one of my teammates and well, they put me on leave for stress.”
“Ah.”
Her response was simple, and I waited with bated breath to see if she would say anything else. When the waitress came to our table, I lowered my head, a little out of her gaze. She first asked Kimberly what she’d like, a caramel latte large, then me. I hadn’t even had a chance to look at the menu yet so I just picked something random off the menu and had no idea what it even was.
“Okay, so that’s a large caramel latte with whipped cream and chocolate dust and for you, a gingerbread chocolate mocha with cream!”
The waitress seemed too happy and grinned a little like a Chester cat or like one of those creepy China dolls my grandma would keep in her house. Her eyes were wide and surrounded by black eyeliner. I only noticed as Jane would often wear her make up the same and that would creep me out even then.
“That sounds like a diabetic fit in drink form. You sure that’s what you wanted?” Kimberly asked, appearing to hold back a laugh.
“Oh, it does, yeah. I don’t know, I just picked something at random. Normally, I’d have ordered a black coffee with two sugars, but then I didn’t want to come across as boring.”
