A Rainy Day in Nowwhere

[Evangeline Carter]

It was the right day for coffee. David hunched over in the old leather chair, shivering from the dampness in his clothes. Outside the coffee shop was the steady fall of rain, as there had been for the last two days. David's gray-blue eyes flickered to the wide store-front windows, watching the progress of the bodies still walking by in the downpour. It was a sea of umbrellas, tented newspapers and brief-cases held overhead. Inside, he was beginning to feel the appreciated warmth that came from the radiator.

He'd been served by a wiry woman in her late thirties, her skin darkened by many summers in a sunnier place and her eyes a warm green. She'd flicked a braid of brown hair over her shoulder when he'd entered the establishment, dripping, and she'd given him a steaming mug and a sympathetic smile. The coffee was strong and dark and it filled his chest with relief on the way down to his belly. The caffein would distract him from hunger for a while. It was too early in the afternoon to be looking for food.

“So do you actually play that thing or do you just use it to pick up pretty girls?” The green-eyed waitress was looking at him from behind the espresso machine indicating the guitar case that sat upright against his chair. David regarded her with a small smile, judging whether the flirtatious tone in her voice was the of the obligatory nature that came with most waitresses, or if she was really interested. She was probably fifteen or sixteen years older than him, but there was always something nice about being wanted. Even if it was only for a tip.

“If pretty girls serve me coffee,” he said. The woman gave him a look, smirking, and turned around to handle a new customer. David smirked into his drink.