Me
Tell me when you’re there.
jo
[picture of hospital lobby]
Me
Thank you. I’ll be down in a few.
Ten minutes later, I say goodbye to Lucas and take the elevator down to the lobby where, to my relief, Jo is leaning up against a pillar by the front entrance. I stride across the lobby, and when I reach her, she bounces on her toes and reaches up to hug me. With her arms around my neck and her cupcake scent filling my senses, the fist of anxiety wrapped around my spine finally loosens.
“Hi!” She beams when she lets me go.
“Hi, yourself. Thanks for waiting inside.”
“Yeah, you’re definitely explaining that later. Here.” She bends down and rummages through the bag at her feet, pulling out a thermos and two coffee mugs. She straightens and gives both mugs to me, using her free hand to open the thermos.
“What’s this?”
“Coffee mugs.”
“I know, but what am I doing with them?”
She gestures for me to hold the mugs straight and she pours coffee into them, capping the thermos and tossing it back into her bag. She lifts the bag up and swings it over her shoulder, grabbing one of the mugs from me. “We’re caffeinating on the way to breakfast. I have a theory. Are you cool walking like fifteen or so blocks? I thought we could grab bagels at our bagel store and head to the park.”
“Sounds good.” I like the way she saysour bagel store, like we’ve been friends for long enough that we have regular places we go. It feels nice. Comfortable in a way I can’t quite explain but that settles a part of me that has been unsettled for a long time. “And please explain to me why I’m carrying an open coffee mug through the Upper West Side again.” I gesture towards the door, and we push through it and out into the humid June morning.
“Okay,” she says as we head uptown on West End. “The thing is that the coffee we had the other morning after movie night when you walked me home was the best coffee I’ve ever had, and I think it had something to do with the mugs.”
“It didn’t.”
She gives me a disappointed look. “Have an open mind, dude. I already made the coffee just how you like it. I told you us taking our coffee the same way would come in handy.”
Jo takes a sip of her coffee as we cross Sixty-First Street, and her face lights up. “It does have to do with the mug. I can’t explain it—just try.” She gestures towards my untouched mug, and I take a sip. Fuck, that really is good.
“You taste it too!” she exclaims. In her enthusiasm, her bag slides down her arm and I take it from her, swinging it onto my shoulder. “Thanks. Okay, so I thought maybe it was just that you make the best coffee in the world, but it turns out, all coffee is amazing when consumed on the move in an actual coffee mug.”
“Hey now, I make excellent coffee.”
She bumps her shoulder with mine as we walk and then takes another sip of her coffee. “No doubt, J, but the free mugging makes it even better. This is who we are now. The Js are officially free muggers. No more to go coffee cups for us.”
“Okay, but does it apply to cars too, or is it strictly an outside thing? Because I can totally get behind walking around with the mug, but taking an open mug in a car seems risky.”
Jo gives me an approving look, like she’s glad I’m entertaining this little bit of lunacy. “I’m not sure. We can test it out in a few days when we take our road trip.”
I give her a side-eye. “I’m not entirely sure how I feel about open mugs in my car.”
“We’ll be careful, but we need to do this. For science, J. Science is counting on us.”
I snort out a laugh, and Jo beams at me as we make the right turn onto Seventy-Second Street. “I like when you laugh, Jordan. Happy looks good on you.”
I drain the rest of my coffee, thinking that I don’t know whether it’s my full name or the way Jo is looking at me, but as we stroll across town, my chest warms, and a lightness I haven’t known in years fills me, like all I need is Jo and this morning and this little piece of Manhattan that we’re making our own.
The deafening crash from the street yanks me out of my contentment.
The lightness disappears, and a surge of panic shoots through me as I wrap both my arms around Jo and spin so my back is to the street, my body shielding hers from danger. Her mug tumbles from her hand, and I flinch at the sound of ceramic shattering on concrete.
