Chapter 45: The Coffee House Opens
Central Perk.
The space had been cleaned up and repainted, the bar equipment replaced with an espresso machine and a pastry case, the pool table gone in favor of a long central sofa and mismatched armchairs. It still smelled faintly of the old place if you knew what you were looking for, but everything visible said something new was starting.
Andrew found Gunther near the counter, wearing the particular expression of a man who had been promoted and wasn't entirely sure yet whether to be proud or terrified.
"Congratulations, Gunther. Manager."
Gunther accepted the hug with the stiffness of someone unused to being embraced and patted Andrew on the back twice in the manner of someone following a protocol. Then he stepped back and looked at him.
"Have you been working out? You feel different."
"Boxing. Three hours a day, most days." Andrew threw two loose combinations at the air beside Gunther's head, then flexed once because Phoebe was already reaching for his arm and he might as well give her a moment.
"Oh my God." Phoebe grabbed his bicep with both hands and made a sound that drew looks from the small crowd near the door.
Chandler, standing nearby, started to reach over with the expression of a man operating on instinct.
"Phoebe's fine," Andrew said, already moving his arm. "You and I have a different arrangement."
Chandler retracted his hand and looked at the ceiling.
Ross, standing slightly apart, quietly tensed his own arm, looked at what happened, and made a private decision about how often he was going to the gym this month.
"How you doin'?"
Joey's voice came from the doorway, pitched at the specific frequency he deployed for attractive strangers.
The woman he'd aimed it at looked past him.
"Andrew?"
Andrew looked up.
"Jade."
For a half second, everyone in the immediate vicinity felt the social weather change. Joey turned around. Chandler raised his eyebrows. Ross looked between them with the expression of someone doing arithmetic.
Andrew had a brief internal debate about whether leaving was an option and concluded it wasn't.
Before anything could develop, a sound came from behind the counter — the flat, decisive bang of Monica's palm hitting the coffee machine, once, twice, three times, in the rhythm of someone establishing authority.
Every conversation in the room stopped.
"This place opens in five minutes." Monica's voice was clear and carried. "Anything personal gets handled after. If I have to say it again, you will all regret it."
"Monica, that's a commercial espresso machine, it costs—" Gunther started.
The look she gave him finished the sentence for him. He closed his mouth.
The opening went smoothly. Mostly. There were a few moments that required Monica to intervene with varying degrees of volume, but each one was resolved before it could develop into something worse.
Gunther had anticipated a quiet, pleasant morning and gotten something considerably more chaotic, but the place was full and the coffee was good and lively was better than empty by any reasonable measure.
After the official opening, the crowd settled into its natural rhythms, and Andrew and Jade ended up in a corner booth with enough space between them and the main group to have an actual conversation.
"How have you been?" Jade asked.
"Good. Busy. You?"
"Same as always." She stirred her coffee. "You stopped coming to class."
"I got stretched thin with some things." He chose his words without elaborating. Telling her that he'd outpaced what the class was teaching him in three weeks wasn't the kind of thing you said to the teacher. "Evening schedule got complicated."
Jade nodded slowly, looking at her coffee. "I was wondering if you wanted to have dinner. Tonight, maybe."
"Sure," Andrew said. He didn't see a reason not to. Jade was good company, they'd established they got along, and a new chapter of things called for new approaches rather than old patterns. "Here at five-thirty?"
She looked up. "Five-thirty. Here." A small smile. "It's a plan."
"See you then." He stood, and she stood, and she left first with the easy unhurried energy of someone with the rest of the morning ahead of them.
Andrew walked back to the long central sofa where the others had colonized the cushions. Chandler shifted over without being asked. Five faces turned toward him with varying levels of transparency about what they wanted to know.
"We're friends," Andrew said, sitting down.
"Friends who are having dinner together tonight?" Joey had caught that part.
"That's right."
"So there's a window—"
"No window, Joey."
Joey accepted this with the equanimity of a man who had learned to move efficiently between opportunities. He picked up the beef sandwich he'd been working on and took a substantial bite.
Chandler watched him chew. "Did you eat breakfast this morning?"
"Mmhm."
"So what is this?"
Joey swallowed. "Brunch."
"And in two hours?"
"Lunch." Joey said it simply, with the expression of someone who didn't understand the confusion.
Chandler pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose and said nothing further.
Gunther found a moment between customers and came over to the sofa.
Andrew stood and walked with him back toward the counter — the way you do when a real conversation is better had away from an audience.
"You never called McLaren's," Gunther said, wiping down the counter while he talked.
"I know." Andrew held his coffee cup with both hands. "I haven't decided if I want to keep doing the bar thing."
Gunther was quiet for a moment. He didn't perform feelings, but they showed anyway. "That would be a real loss. Genuine one. I bumped your rate twice while you were here because I thought you were worth it. Most guys I've worked with can hit the technical marks. That other thing — the thing that actually reaches people — you can't teach that."
Andrew looked at him. Gunther meant it, which made it land differently than a compliment usually did.
"The food truck's almost ready," Andrew said. "Got the truck, passed the health inspection. Just waiting on the street permit."
Gunther stopped wiping. He looked at Andrew the way people look at something that doesn't fit the box they'd built for it.
After a moment: "Huh."
"You're welcome to come by when it's up," Andrew said. He put his hand briefly on Gunther's shoulder. "And thank you. For everything, from the beginning."
He didn't explain what he meant by the beginning. He didn't need to. Gunther had been there for it.
He walked back to the sofa.
"What did Gunther want?" Ross asked immediately, leaning forward.
Andrew settled back into the cushion and picked up his coffee.
"Nothing much. We used to work together — just catching up."
[Community Goals Ongoing]
500 PS = +1 Extra Chapter
10 Reviews = +1 Extra Chapter
Reviews are always appreciated.
P1treon Soulforger (20+advance chapters)