My brain is telling me to leave. To send Pete a text saying,Sorry but I can't stay and talk right now.
But my friend is sitting patiently at a too-small table. He ran all the way here to see that I was okay. My dorm will be too quiet and too empty. My house will be too loud and full of questions.
The barista sets our cups on the counter and I scoop them up.
“You stickin’ around?” he asks as I hand him his cup and take a seat.
“Yeah, on one condition. And thank you for the tea, by the way.”
“Anytime, Josie. And what’s this condition?”
“I don’t want to talk about Van. I don't want to hear about how he’s going through a rough time—that’s obvious, but you and I both know he’s not the only person to go through tough times. And please don’t tell me that he loves me. I know that already,” I say, using the hard brown paper napkin to dab at my stupid, leaky eyes. “What I don’t know is why he’s deliberately hurting me, hurting us. But that’s not a problem I’m going to solve today. So I'm not staying to talk about Van, but I would love to hang out with my friend Pete.”
He smiles and his teeth are a brilliant white next to his dark brown beard. “That works for me, Josie.”
We spend the next hour just talking, and it’s the break I didn’t know how to give myself. I suspect Pete needed it just as much as I did. It’s all just normal stuff, but it’s the kind of normal I need right now after the drama and upheaval of the past few weeks.
Pete coaches the local high school team and they’re playing Zane’s school at districts next month, so I joke that we’ll be rivals. He asks all about the kids and laughs when I tell him about Milo’s recent brush with authority.
I ask about his mom, since I know she’s been through so much, and I’m heartbroken when he tells me her most recent scans showed that the cancer has returned. We’re quiet for a minute, because sometimes there’s just nothing good to say.
He tells me that his brother Leo is starting at Bainbridge next fall and plans to play hockey, too. Pete’s excited to start student teaching and he tells me he’s sure I’ll get the library job I want.
“They’d be crazy not to hire you, Josie. I can just see you sitting on a carpet with a big stack of books doing Storytime for a bunch of kindergartners. Or helping a middle schooler find the book that makes life a little confusing. I’m serious, Josie. You’re gonna do great.”
“Thanks,” I say. “Same to you. I would not want to teach biology to a bunch of thirteen-year-olds, so I’m glad there are people like you who really want to do it.”
Pete takes his cap off, smooths out his mass of curls, and slips in back on. “They’re a lot of fun, actually. And from what I’ve seen so far, teaching middle school isn’t all that different from wrangling a bunch of college hockey players.”
It’s getting late and real life is calling, so we gather up our trash and get ready to go when I hear someone call my name.
“Josie? Is that you? Hold up a sec.”I hear my name and turn to see Claire Fowler waving to me from her spot in line.
“Oh, Pete, can we stay for a minute? Claire’s here and she wants to talk for a second.”
Pete gets a strange look on his face. “I can guarantee she wants to talk to you and not me. That woman hates my guts.”
“That’s not possible,” I say, shaking my head. “You are universally liked. You’re a teddy bear. Who doesn’t like teddy bears?”
“Claire Fowler,” he answers quietly. “I’m serious, just wait. You’ll see.”
He leans back in his comfy chair and sure enough, when Claire approaches, she only talks to me. She doesn’t even look at Pete, much less say hello.
Claire smiles broadly at me. “Listen, I’ve got to go, but I really want to talk to you a little more about the Read to Rover program. I’m thinking of doing a feature on it for our next edition. You have my number, right?”
I scroll through my phone and find it. “Yep, and I’d love to talk to you about it. We have another one scheduled right after break if you want to take some pictures.”
“That would be perfect. Thanks, Josie,” she calls as she grabs her order and walks out.
I turn to Pete. “She acted like you weren’t even here.”
“Told you,” he says, shrugging.
I’m dumbfounded. “What did you do to make Claire so mad?”
Pete shakes his head. “I have no idea.”
We leave the coffee shop and walk back to my car. A cup of tea with a friend didn’t solve all my problems, but it made some of them a little easier to handle.
