He waited. The couple got their drinks. They sat down. Tiffany went back to her phone.
Harold cleared his throat. “Excuse me, I’d like to order.”
Tiffany looked up. Her eyes traveled from his cap to his jacket to his shoes, slow, deliberate, the way someone scans something they’ve already decided to throw away.
“What you want?” Not a question, a verdict.
“A cortado, please, and a slice of banana bread.”
Tiffany tilted her head. A cortado? She turned to Jenna. He wants a cortado.
Jenna snorted without looking up. Tiffany turned back to him, speaking slowly, the way adults speak to children who aren’t theirs.
“Sir, do you know what a cortado is? Or do you just want a regular black coffee? Keep it simple.”
Harold felt the heat climb his neck. He kept his voice level. “I know what a cortado is. I’d like one, please.”
Tiffany shrugged, punched it in, didn’t ask his name, just scribbled BC on the cup. He didn’t ask what it stood for. He already knew.
He paid cash. Tiffany took the bills with two fingers like she was pulling a receipt from a wet floor, dropped his change on the counter instead of his hand. Three coins rolled. He picked them up one by one.
He took his cup and the banana bread to a corner table, sat down. The cortado was lukewarm. The banana bread was good. Actually, it was excellent. The best thing on the menu, and he hadn’t even known it existed.
He took a bite. And that’s when he heard it.
Jenna leaned across the register toward Tiffany. She didn’t lower her voice, didn’t even glance in his direction, as if he wasn’t worth the effort of discretion.
“Yo, did you see him count those coins off the counter? That was painful.”
Tiffany laughed. “I don’t know why people like that come in here. This isn’t a shelter. Go to McDonald’s.”
“He’s just going to sit there all day, watch, take up a table, buy one coffee, never tip. They never do.”
“At least he didn’t bring his whole family. Last week that one woman brought three kids. Three. And let them run around like animals. I told Craig if we don’t start filtering, this place is going to look like a bus station.”
