Cat on a Hot Tin Can of Beans

Xander wasn’t sure what exactly made him gravitate towards that particular café. For the past weeks, he went there almost daily, mostly at noon and now in the late evenings due to his work piling up. It wasn’t as if it was because of her; he couldn’t say he was attracted to her. At this point in his life, he couldn’t even say what attracted him anymore. He had dated what one might call conventionally attractive - ‘hot’; and even ones that were homely but with bright careers. While the physical side of things he didn’t find all that unpleasant, emotionally it was torture to try and relate or understand them. No matter who it was, in the end, he came to see them all…plain, like NPCs that looked and did whatever was expected of them but did nothing of their own accord. They bored him – simple as that.

He assumed that his subconscious attraction to being around her was because of her connection to Victor and Max; a part of his past where the thrill of being better than someone was still electrifying. Another part of him attributed his newfound intrigue with her to his obsessive side with the unknown; after all their touch-and-go conversations, she was still an enigma. She fascinated him. Again, physical attraction was not a factor here, even though he could objectively say she was not bad looking.

He was not really all that worried that this would lead to something. He went through this pattern many times before. Something intrigues him, he fixates on it, and then after a while, his brain lets it go. He had great faith that his brain would get bored of this any time now.

These last few weeks he managed to learn more about her design woes and trials. It proved to be fairly easy to get information out of her though, as she would say almost anything if he pretended to be interested. He, on the other hand, gave back only very few details regarding his say, work or life.

The one time he actually decided to humor her and explain what he did for a living she asked “Kinda like what Vic does, no?”. That quickly put him in a bad mood and marked the end of any further developments on the subject. So that left banter and personal observations to make up most of their conversations. Sometimes it was quieter and no more than a few acknowledgement nods and waves were shared, but at least the moments have lost their initial awkwardness.

Today he would be later than usual, but luckily for him, he could drink coffee at any hour and still sleep like a log. Unperturbed by office clatter and with a new wind of focus, he got to work.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Humming lightly, Taisa scrubbed the counter for the fifth time in the last 40 minutes, her eyes flickering from time to time to glance at the gaudy watch on the wall.

Her co-worker, Mel, was sitting at one of the tables and reading one of her physiology books. Hearing Taisa sigh for the umpteenth time, she decided to share her two cents on the matter. “You know, he takes his coffee to go when you’re not working,”she lazily stated without looking up from her book.

Startled by Mel’s unexpected break of silence, Taisa cocked her head slightly at her, taking in the underlying meaning of her words. Mel looked at her phone and closed her book. “I’m gonna go now. Don’t think you’ll need me in the last half hour.”

“Yea, sure.” Taisa leaned against the sink behind her and began recounting her day. Today wasn’t that bad actually; the projects were coming along nicely and her upcoming exams were practically in the bag. Still, she felt she should be more elated.

Mel said her goodbyes and left Taisa alone with her thoughts once again.

Not five minutes later, the door opened for the last customer of the day. Taisa looked straight at him and suppressed a smile. She went on to make his coffee while he seated himself at his usual spot.

“You’re later than usual.” The steaming espresso was placed before him.

“I worked more than usual.”

“I don’t get the point of being your own boss if you just have to work more.”

“I still have a board of directors to worry about.” He pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. “Among other things.”

“Ok, ok… don’t get all pissy just ‘cuz I don’t understand corporate crap.”

“You’re not the reason for my vexation.”

“Thanks for letting me know, Xander,” she deadpanned. “You know I have to close soon, right?”

“I’m not stopping you.” He drowned the last sip from his cup and pushed it towards her. As always, he placed his money and got up to leave. Taisa noticed he hadn’t waved his usual goodbye. She didn’t think cutting him off like that would get him so peeved, but she really did have to close up shop. And she was hungry enough to eat her toenails – stale biscuits and croissants were just too easily digestible.

Closing the register, she put on her brown corduroy coat and exited the café. While putting in the lock code, the faint smell of cigarette smoke was pushed in her direction by a gust of wind. She jumped slightly and looked toward the source of the smoke.

6 feet to her right was Xander puffing away above a trash can.

“Calm down. It’s me.”

“I knew that! It’s just… I wasn’t expecting you to be… still here?”

“You’re really jumpy for someone that uses public transport at late hours.” He noticed that since she locked the door she had not approached him. “Why are you still standing there?”

“You’re smoking.”

Pretending to look at his cigarette like it was the most interesting thing in the world, he then put it back in his mouth for another drag. “Yes. And your point is?”

“I have asthma. Smoke’s like Diane to my Sam Malone.”

“Oh.” Xander took another long drag from his cigarette and continued to stare at her.

Seeing that he had no intention of moving or ceasing his smoking, Taisa decided to end this stalemate. “Sooo, I’m gonna go now… Really hungry at this hour. Catch you tommor-“

“Where do you normally eat?”

“Eeerrr, at home? Like most people?” It then dawned on her that they were economically on different sides of the spectrum. Intermediate-lower poor, as she liked to call herself.

A frown crossed his face as he put out his cigarette on the side of the trash can.

“Come eat with me.” Her eyes widened at his brusque request and had it been someone else she would’ve told them to go back to the asylum they escaped from. But after 3 weeks of being exposed to his offhanded social skills, she had started to understand that this was within his normal parameters of interaction.

“Thanks for your ‘gracious’ invitation, but I got a can of beans waiting for me at home,” she said beaming at the mention of beans.

From Xander’s expression, it was very hard to tell whether he was recalculating the situation or was just bewildered that someone might actually enjoy beans coming from a tin can.

“Come eat with me… if you want to eat real food?”

Sighing a bit more dramatically than necessary, Taisa mulled whether or not she should humor him. ‘Not a real improvement from the original version. It sounds like something Terminator would say if he wanted to feed me.’

“Fine, fine. We can stop somewhere on the way to my bus stop. There’s a sandwich place that’s pretty decent.” No use in wasting more time at this point. Food is food and the sooner she got to it, the better.

Not looking all too pleased with the decision, Xander wrinkled his nose slightly and stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Lead the way.”

She took a few brisk steps toward him and then waved her hands like she was redirecting air traffic to signal the course they would be heading to.

Xander wordlessly turned on his heels and started walking in the direction of the appointed route. Falling into step with him, Taisa was already fantasizing about the types of sandwiches she was going to devour.

After a few minutes of walking in silence, Xander felt the need to speak about what had been on his mind since their departure from the café.

“I guess sandwiches are a substantial upgrade for someone that normally eats canned food.”

“Food is food. You eat it and harness its energy to do stuff.”

“Still not real food,” he muttered.