So, at three fifteen, I somehow had the balls to park up outside the coffee shop he mentioned, taking a few precious minutes to stare at the place, and wonder if I could even go in. It wasn’t Harley I feared, but everyone else. People had no boundaries. People got too close, and when people were together in groups, they had fewer boundaries and inhibitions than any other time.
“Brakes doing okay?” I jumped out of my skin, turning to see Harley behind me, and thank god his reflexes were good, because my helmet slipped from my hands, but he caught it just before it hit the ground, and was ruined.
“Shit!”
“It’s all good. Never touched down, so there’s no damage, it’s okay.”
He seemed good at comforting me through my awkwardness, but I always wished he didn’t have to.
“You’re early,” I said, taking it back from him with an awkward smile of thanks.
“So are you,” he replied, casual and relaxed as always. He gestured to me to walk ahead of him, and I really wished he hadn’t because I wanted him as a buffer between me and people, but it would have been rude to refuse, right?
Harley watched me for a moment, then lightly touched my back, nudging me to walk beside him, and it didn’t feel weird. It didn’t freak me out. He was touching me, not for the first time, and why did I never panic when he did that? Another person touching me would have had me in full panic mode.
“So the brakes are good? No issues?”
I forced myself to answer him, amid the whirling of my thoughts.
“No problems. Uh… you did… whatever you did worked.”
He grinned, and stepped ahead of me to pull the door open, and I had no choice but to step inside the warm noisy coffee shop ahead of him. Why were coffee shops always so loud? Why did people have to practically yell to each other, even though they sat at the same table?
The coffee machine roared in the corner, making me flinch, and my fists clenched at my sides, one still gripping my helmet strap.
Harley glanced behind us, and stepped in front of me, getting into the queue.
“It’s ridiculously busy in here. Do you want to go hold a table outside, and I’ll bring our stuff out?”
It was like he knew it was overwhelming me in the crazy loud place. It was like he could see the tension in my body, and the way my ears were ringing with the deafening sounds.
I swallowed hard, shoving my phone at him, but he shook his head at me.
“Uh… I don’t need that.”
“I’m buying you coffee, remember?”
Harley pushed my phone back at me, smiling gently, despite my awkwardness.
“You can get the next ones. It’s fine. Do you want a cake or anything?” I shook my head, and he nudged me toward the door.
“I’ll be out as soon as I can.”
Huh. I eyed him for a few more seconds, and he lifted his chin, showing me a stubbornness I hadn’t seen before in him, but I found oddly appealing. Stubborn worked with me, because I always backed down first. That probably wasn’t a good trait to have, but it worked for right now.
Next ones, he said next ones, as in, maybe we’d do this again? I had to force myself to put that thought aside and get out of this place, before it crushed me under the weight of all the people.
I headed back outside, my ears still ringing from the sounds, and now from the blessed low noise levels, from passing cars, and very little else. The wind was blowing through the trees across from the coffee shop, but that wasn’t an unpleasant sound. It helped to centre me, as I settled at the furthest table from the door, and sat down. I obviously brushed crumbs from the seat first, and wondered for the millionth time how people dropped so many eating a simple snack, especially with the table there to do that very thing. Catch crumbs.
Five minutes later, Harley set a large ceramic mug in front of me, and the scent of my favourite coffee reached me. Mocha, with chocolate sprinkled on the foam in the shape of a maple leaf.
“Thank you,” I said softly, lifting my eyes to meet his as he sat opposite me, cupping his mug of black coffee.
“How do you drink it like that?” I gasped, watching steam rising from it, and marvelling at how he wasn’t pulling his hands away.
“I like it. Dark and bitter, like my soul.”
I gasped. “No way! You’re like the sweetest person I know! You’re so kind!”
