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Two Coffees
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No Return Nothing Personal
The family had improvised beds with chairs and they were all sound asleep, wrapped up in their coats and jackets. The old man was done cleaning and gone—Silvia pictured him sleeping in some small backroom, to an old record player spinning a Sinatra album.At the hall, she showed Jay how to make the coffee machine work. His triumphant grin when he was able to get his own coffee made her chuckle again.“This fucking junk made me sweat for nothing,” he said, and glanced at Silvia. “If you forgive my French.”She pretended to be shocked and crossed herself. Jay narrowed his eyes, raising only one eyebrow.They were still suffocating their giggles as they tiptoed across the waiting room back to their corner.As they sat back down, Silvia thought that it looked like both of them had decided to put behind their rough start, acknowledging it’d be easier to bear the situation together.“So, Argentina,” Jay said. “Buenos… Aires? Heard it’s a big city.”“Yeah, too big for my guts.”“You don’t li
No Return The Guitar
“You have a guitar, right?”Silvia needed a moment to extract herself from her gloomy musing. “Yeah. Do you wanna play?”Jay shook his head with a playful smile. He’d weighted how mean it would be of him to do this, and his inner bastard argued he’d promised to make amends first thing next morning and it was still night, so. The fact that she didn’t recognize him annoyed him more than he was willing to admit, pushing his ego to team up with his inner bastard.“No, but bet you can play,” he replied in his most innocent accent.She stared at him for a moment, like wondering what was with him, then she shrugged and nodded.Jay noticed the rigid case she was opening looked brand new, and the guitar itself made him raise his eyebrows. It was a gorgeous electric-acoustic Fender. Who took such a beauty on a trip other than a music tour? His fingertips tingled to caress the velvet wood and the shiny metallic strings.Unaware of his cannibal-craving stare, she sat the guitar on her lap and che
No Return Love & Hate
They were playing one of Jay’s old songs when he realized Silvia was singing the background vocals. He looked up at her and raised one eyebrow, both mocking and questioning. She raised both—what?—and nodded for him to keep playing. He did.“Well, what about those BG vocals?” he said when the song was over.“Oh, I love their arrangements. If you can take it, I’d rather go for that.”“Be my guest.”But he still couldn’t bring his inner bastard to behave, so he picked Save Your Soul. And she sang the higher voice along with a contagious spark of joy in her eyes. Jay leaned a little forward to sing:But who are we supposed to be? She smiled in the following pause and leaned a little forward too, chuckling when he sang, like asking her:And who am I supposed to be today?Her lips pursed in an ironic smile as he charged on with the chorus, nodding for her to join him.I give back all that’s been givenI take back all that’s been takenI could never go on this way again…She hit all the rig
No Return Just a Hit
Silvia sang oblivious to the rest of the universe.This was just like having Jim Robinson playing only for her.Jay was simply irresistible, he played so well, and his voice kept triggering avalanches of chills down her spine.And since they were complete strangers, and would never meet again after they left the bus station in opposite directions, she felt unexpectedly liberated. So she sang along like she’d always sung those same songs back home, in the shower or while she cleaned her house.Loving every minute of it.She didn’t remember ever coming across such an attractive, charming guy, with such a magnetic personality, nice and rude at the same time. A real bad boy, her little sister would have called him. She labeled him as a lovely bastard. Exactly the kind she always fell for.Good thing she still had eyes on her face, even after so much crying, to keep her from overlooking what was in plain sight. First of all, the age gap. Jay looked closer to her sister’s age than to hers,
No Return Ten Less
Right from the hall door, Silvia saw Jay had fallen asleep, curling up on the couch. It was a miracle he hadn’t knocked the guitar down to the floor in his sleep.She left the paper cups on the coffee table, put the guitar in its case and searched her bag for her trip blanket.Jay’s jacket was still dripping on the back of the other armchair and it was plain to see he was cold. She tucked him in, grabbed her latte and went back to her armchair. Out the windows, the platform lights drew static white cones that the rain pierced in a hypnotic dance.Silvia glanced at Jay and sighed with a mild smile.She’d never been a fan of spite sex, but this gringo sure made the idea appealing.If only she’d been ten years younger and ten pounds slimmer.Then she would’ve felt authorized to wish she were sitting on the couch with him, resting against his side under the blanket.For starters.She turned to look out the windows again, as the endless night crawled its way through the storm toward the mo
No Return Help Marching On
A soft touch on his shoulder woke Jay up. The first thing he registered was daylight, the next was the man standing by the couch, looking down at him with an apologetic smile. He tried to sit up and found Silvia’s head resting on his chest, and his own arm around her shoulders. One of his legs was stretched over hers under the blanket.The man realized he could hardly move and crouched down by his side to speak in whispers.“Sorry to disturb you. We’re leaving, but I’m afraid we have no room in my brother’s car for you guys. Is there anything we can do to help?”Jay understood this was the father of the family that had spent the night there like them. He tried to move again and asked the man for a minute.“I’ll be at the hall,” the man said, straightening up.Jay turned to Silvia. There was no way to leave the couch without waking her up. He managed the easy part—removing his leg from over hers. But as soon as he tried to gently pull out his arm, trapped between her back and the couch
No Return The Bruises
Hearing his brother’s voice felt like the best thing that had happened to him in ages. He told him about his situation and his brand new plan to leave the bus station in three or four hours.“I’ll call you when I get to town.”“You’re gonna have to spend the night there, ‘cause I can’t go get you right now. They warned us the road to town is flooded.”“Don’t worry, bro. I’ll wait for you.”“Hope you have some fun, ‘cause you’re missing it big here, man. Jo brought Fay and some more girlfriends along, and we’ve been partying around the clock ever since they got here.”Jay chuckled. “Sons of bitches. Tell those babes I expect a nice welcome.” He saw Silvia coming. “Gotta go now, bro.”“Take care, bastard.”Jay disconnected and handed out the latte to her with a bright grin, telling her the breaking news.She took a moment to reply, surprised to see his eyes were actually blue, clear and pale like water. “That’s great, Jay! You’ll be on your way in a while!”“Hell yeah! Can’t fucking bel
No Return Complicated
Jay rested his shoulder against the window by her side, giving her the latte. She looked so calm, so composed, like she’d never told him what had happened to her, or like it hadn’t happened to her at all. But he’d seen the bruises.“There you go, with that song again,” he said softly.She smiled to thank him for the coffee and shrugged. “Yeah, it’s just catchy.”Break Free? Jay almost choked on the word. “Catchy?”Silvia noticed he’d taken offense and quickly added, “Well, not really. It’s actually gloomy, that’s why it’s catchy for me.”“You make a funny use of adjectives, y’know?”“You think?”“Don’t pull my tongue, ‘cause you don’t wanna hear my inner bastard.”“It’s okay, I like him.”“That’s why you are where you are, woman.”“You’re right, maybe I don’t like him that much.”They chuckled together.After having their coffees, they decided to give a personal touch to their corner of the waiting room. They turned the couch around and placed the coffee table before it. That way, ins
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