just coffee.

“Call me.” 

She blinked at the napkin laying on the table, baffled. “Call me?” She flipped it over to find a phone number written on the back.  

She straightened, looking around the coffee shop thinking she would find who it belonged to, expecting to meet his eyes - maybe with a smile to confirm. But all she could see was a couple a few tables ahead of hers, holding hands across the table, who looked to be deep in conversation, and a woman sitting on a small couch in the corner behind her, headphones on and connected to a CD player, bobbing her head as she wrote in a notebook. The busy, early morning rush of customers needing their caffeine fix before work had passed, leaving a mellow buzz behind. Erykah Badu’s "On & On” poured out through the speakers of the mini stereo behind the counter, adding to the settled atmosphere. It had been two years since Baduizm had dropped, but every song on the album still felt brand new to her ears.  

A blaze of sunlight pierced through the windows lighting the space in warm, gold hues. Her favourite season was finally here. 

After scanning the area, she looked back at the barista that had placed the napkin on her table and was now sitting in the seat across from her, confusion still lingering over her face. “He left about an hour ago,” the barista laughed softly. “He would have waited longer to speak to you, but he was almost late for work, so he wrote down his number and asked me to give it to you.” The barista’s playful smirk was almost infectious. Almost.  

There was someone that had been waiting to speak to her? A man? Did she know him? She had so many questions. 

“Girl, who?” She didn’t try to hide the impatience in her voice, but she didn’t have to with Nia. 

Nia crossed her leg over the other, clasping her hands over her knee, enjoying her friend’s lack of patience. “The beautiful black man who was sitting at the table across from you. If you had looked up from your book just once Bri, you might have noticed him.” Nia tilted her head, still smiling, dimples adorning her cheeks, golden-brown sleepy eyes glinting in the sunlight that glowed through the window next to them. Nia was dark-skinned, with tight, black coils that framed her elegantly beautiful face; full lips and nose, and high cheekbones. Not to mention she had the physique – and height - of a professional model. Briana had tried to convince Nia to start modelling in the past, but she simply wasn’t interested. Nia’s exact words were “I don’t want a career where anyone gets to gawk at me for free.” A response that left Briana with questions – a lot of questions – but decided to leave the conversation there. They were often mistaken for sisters with how much they resembled each other. Their only striking difference in features were Briana’s eyes; round, and a deep, onyx brown.  

“Well, why didn’t the ‘beautiful black man’ just give me his number himself?” She tilted her head, playfully mirroring her friend. “He said he didn’t want to disturb you from the story you were so clearly absorbed in. He was being a gentleman. Although, if I was him, I would have snatched that book out of your hand and got your attention that way.”  

Briana stared at her, eyes wide, almost laughing. “So, you would just walk up to a stranger and snatch their book away to get their attention? And you wonder why I call you crazy sometimes.”  

Nia laughed as she stood to walk back over to the counter, preparing to serve a customer that had just walked in. “Listen, crazy works sometimes. It’s never steered me wrong.”  

“Ha! Yeah. Right.” Briana replied over her shoulder as she bookmarked the page and put the book into her bag. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Nia was now behind the counter, hands on her hips, smirking with a brow raised. “Oh, nothing.” Briana casually waved her off as she held back a laugh.  

“Mmhmm.” Nia murmured just before turning her attention to the customer to take his order.  

Briana picked up the empty coffee mug and stared down at the napkin still laid out on the table. “Out of all of the women that had been in and out of the shop all morning, why me?” 

She flipped the napkin over again, realising he hadn’t written down his name. “Leave it to a man to leave out the important information.” She muttered to herself, shaking her head. She contemplated for a moment. What would she even say to this man when she called him? If she called him? How would the conversation go? What if he ended up wasting her time? She huffed out a sigh and grabbed the napkin, stuffing it into her bag before she changed her mind, pulling it over her shoulder. She stood and walked over to the far end of the counter, placing her cup down and resting her elbows on the counter. Nia was busy making a fresh cup of coffee while the customer stood waiting, reading a newspaper.  

“Didn’t he tell you his name?” Briana asked.

“He didn’t need to.” She couldn’t see Nia’s face, but she could sense the smile in her voice.  

“Huh?!” Briana’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”  

“You’ll figure it out when you call him.” 

“If I call him.” 

Nia looked over her shoulder at her. “When.” A huge grin splayed across her face.  

Confusion took over Briana’s mind once again as she watched Nia serve the customer his drink. He paid, took his coffee, and sat at the table in the far corner near a small bookshelf. “How do you know I’ll call him?” Briana asked eagerly, walking over to stand in front of Nia, arms folded across her chest. “Because girl…you’re desperate.” 

Briana’s face dropped, “Bye, Nia.” She turned, walking towards the door as Nia’s laugh erupted behind her, “Love you too Bri!”  

“Whatever!” Briana couldn’t help but smile and huff out a laugh too as she pulled open the door and stepped out into the warm, summer air. Nia’s way of showing love: playful bullying. It pretty much summed up their friendship.  

Briana had been sitting on the floor of her bedroom staring at her empty notebook for about an hour. She thought that maybe if she stared long enough the story might just appear on the pages. So much for wishful thinking. She had been pretty determined to get back to her fictional story as soon as she left NiNi’s Cafe — the romance novel she had been reading lighting a small spark of inspiration in her mind — but after getting home and throwing her bag over her desk chair, kicking off her shoes, throwing on some background music and grabbing her notebook and pen, her mind had decided, yet again, that it was blocked. Closed off. It had been a week since she had been struck with the frustration of writer’s block. She knew exactly what she wanted to write about, the story constantly played out in her imagination in vivid detail, but as soon as she would sit down to get it all down on paper, the imagery would shrivel up as if it had never existed in the first place. 

Briana sighed and slumped back against her bed and looked around her room, hoping the inspiration would stand out from a random object or place in some almost magical way. Her eyes glanced over her dresser, her bookshelf, her window, then landed on her bag slung across her desk chair.  

Call me. 

She shook her head as if that would cause the curiosity to tumble out. “Nope.”  

She turned her attention back to her notebook and picked up her pen, scribbling down mindless notes, just to give herself something else to do instead of reaching for the napkin and phone in her bag and making the call before she could stop herself. She refused to let Nia be right about this. When Nia had said. How could she have been so sure that she would call him?  

And she already knew his name? Apparently.                                                                   

Briana paused her scribbling and looked at her bag again. Before she knew it, she had dropped her pen and had crawled over to her bag, opened it, grabbed her phone and the napkin and dialled the number. Her heart begun pounding as the phone rang - anticipation, curiosity and nerves running through her body. The phone rang and rang and rang — voicemail. She sighed and then hung up feeling slightly embarrassed at the reminder that Nia had told her he had almost been late for work when he had left his number, so of course he wouldn’t be able to answer the call. So, she decided leaving a text was a better option since she knew how much of a stuttering mess she would be if she had left a voicemail.  

“Hey, it’s the bookworm from NiNi’s’, you left me your number on a napkin? Just texting to let you know it’s me x” 

She pressed send before she erased and rewrote the message a million times, or changed her mind, then put both her phone and the napkin back into her bag, closed her notebook and stood to head into the kitchen to keep herself busy. Distracted. She knew if she didn’t do something, anything, she would sit around waiting for him to text or call back, and she knew just how shameful that would feel. It would also make Nia right twice. And that couldn’t happen. So, preparing dinner early it would be. 

By the time Briana had finally slumped down on her couch, it was 5pm. She had cooked enough food to last a week, cleaned every room, rearranged her bedroom, gone for a run that had somehow taken longer than usual, and showered. This routine — food hoarding, room-rearranging and extra steps aside — was a regular day for her, but her use for this routine as a distraction was what made everything she had done feel...excessive. Especially the new bedroom set-up.  

Knowing that all she had to do was shower after returning home, still catching her breath, was a relief — the day’s activities had left her almost lightheaded with hunger. All she could think about was food and sleep. But she knew both would have to wait — Nia would be here for dinner soon after closing, and would no doubt want to talk her ear off about customers at work, the new guy who still hadn't figured out how to use the coffee machine after a month, and the man she knew Briana had called.  

The pros of her best friend’s coffee shop being across from her place? She could come over whenever she wanted to. 

The cons of her best friend’s coffee shop being across from her place? She could come over whenever she wanted to. 

She figured since she only had about 10-15 minutes left to enjoy her own company; she would sit in the warm silence of her home. As she laid her head back and closed her eyes, she could faintly hear the voices of people passing by through her open window, children playing and laughing together, and music that had started to play from the jazz and poetry club a few doors down from NiNi’s Cafe. She took a deep breath, soaking in the distant sounds surrounding her and allowed her mind to drift and wonder. “Maybe I could just take a quick nap- no don’t fall asleep yet, you still need to- I really need to finish that story- I really should have left a better message- I wonder what he looks like- Ugh, Nia will be here soon and she’ll have to know what I said-” And almost as if Nia had a telepathic connection to her best friend, the doorbell rang.  

“I mean...that’s not so bad.” Nia had a slight smirk on her face. “You could have said ‘Kisses!’ at the end of the text.” Nia snorted, and then howled with laughter. As soon as Briana had opened the door, Nia had rushed in firing off questions at her – how the conversation went, if he had asked her on a date, when the date was, what she was going to wear. She didn’t know if Nia had even taken a breath between sentences. “I only wrote that once and that was because you told me to write that!” Briana sulked, “You knew how much I was crushing on Eric and you made me embarrass myself like that. He actually laughed in my face about it when we finally went on a date.” Briana felt herself cringing as if she was back at dinner sitting across from her old crush all over again. The date hadn’t gone well. He had laughed at her, repeating “kisses!” so loud that people from other tables had not only stared, but made complaints. He’d spent the entire meal chewing with his mouth open, making rude comments to the waitress, and at the end of the night after walking her to her car, had tried to kiss her with food stuck in his beard. She shivered with disgust at the memory. She had made every effort to avoid him after that and, thankfully, never heard from him again. 

“Well, look how that turned out. At least you finally got to see what everyone else did,” Nia shrugged, “I still don’t understand how you ever thought that man was fine.” Briana rolled her eyes. “I was young, dumb and desperate. Leave me alone.” She stood to close the window, then walked over to the kitchen to get plates and cutlery, ready to dish out the food that she had started warming up after she had managed to escape Nia’s barrage of questions.  

As tired as Briana was, having Nia over for dinner was re-energising in a comforting way. Conversations always flowed naturally between them – they could talk about anything and everything. And despite that, awkward silences were never a thing; they simply acknowledged them as comfortable pauses. 

It was during one of those pauses that Briana realised she hadn’t checked her phone. It had been three hours since Nia arrived, and her company had been an unintentional distraction. So, while Nia was wrapped up in an episode of Living Single, Briana got up and walked over to her bedroom and grabbed her phone out of her bag – one missed call and one unread text. “There’s no way we were talking that loud that I didn’t hear my phone ring.”  

“We’re always that loud when we’re talking Bri!”  

“You mean YOU are always that loud!” Briana heard Nia chuckle then mumble a few unpleasant words, but she just laughed to herself as she opened the text: “Damn, we’ve barely been back around each other and you’re already ignoring my calls... Call me back, ma’am.” Briana blinked at the text. “Ma’am?! Nia, who is this man?!” Before Nia had a chance to respond, Briana had begun calling him back, as she moved to stand in the doorway, mildly annoyed by the smug grin on Nia's face. 

After a few rings he picked up, speaking before she could get a word in. “I thought that might get your attention.”  

“Who is this?!” 

“So, you don’t even remember your childhood friend, and you still got all that attitude? Here I was thinking I was unforgettable and the only one you could be nice too.” Hearing the smile – the familiarity - in his tone, her heart lit up. Was she really feeling butterflies right now? No. Nope. She couldn’t be. 

“Jay?!” She couldn’t hide the excitement if she tried. “Where have you been?” Nia’s grin grew wider as she mouthed, “Told you.” Briana rolled her eyes, smiling so hard her cheeks were almost aching. She turned and walked into her room and sat on her bed, legs crossed beneath her. She heard the TV raise in volume, quietly grateful that Nia knew when to give her privacy. 

“Where do I start?” A gentle laugh. “I’ve been a very busy man, Bri...” 

They spent an hour and a half catching up. It had been 12 years since they had last seen or spoken to each other. Jay’s mother had moved them out of the city when he was 18 after his parents' divorce. Jay had seen the divorce coming long before it had happened, but having to watch the two people he had looked up to the most slowly begin to hate each other was an ache that refused to ease. The sudden move had impacted them all - Briana felt it more than she had ever let on. But Nia was the only one who knew how she had truly felt. The three of them had grown up together living on the same street, going to the same schools and youth clubs – it was rare that they were ever apart. It was why her and Nia had stayed so close, why their bond was unbreakable. 

Jay and his mother had spent the first couple of years struggling to get by after the move. That struggle was the push to make life better for them. Easier. So, he had worked a string of jobs in restaurants, starting out as a waiter, then gradually moving his way up to head chef after working tirelessly to prove himself; he had always dreamed of owning his own restaurant, and while life had seemed to get in the way over the years, he knew he was getting closer.  

Briana beamed with pride – Jay had always pushed himself, always going above and beyond for achievements. As well as studying hard for exams, he always made time for cooking lessons from his mother every day after school. She knew how much it had taken for him to get to where he was, and she couldn’t be happier for him. This catch up had turned out to be just what they both needed.  

“Wait, so you have you even had a chance to talk with Nia?” Briana asked. “Well, after I had to rush out of the shop this morning, I went back on my lunch break and we caught up then.” Briana breathed a sigh of relief; the guilt of taking up time that Nia could have had catching with Jay began to simmer. “You need to talk to your girl about her taste in men.” Jay laughed. Briana smiled, saying, “Well, I would, but mine hasn’t been much better and she’d be quick to remind me.”  

“Oh? I need to hear about this.” Briana heard rustling in the background as if he were making himself more comfortable and felt herself flush with embarrassment. “Nope. No way am I telling you about any of that.” 

“Oh, come on! I won’t laugh, I swear.” 

“You’re already laughing! See, I’m not telling you anything.” 

“Okay, okay, my bad. I won’t laugh again.” 

“You say that now!” They both chuckled, “I’ll leave those stories for another day. But don’t worry, my taste in men has gotten better with age.” 

Then there was a pause. Briana sensed a shift, so, she straightened, then said, “Jay?” 

“Umm, so, uh, I was wondering,” A pause. “Maybe we could finally go on that date?” Briana paused in confusion, then a slow smile spread across her face as the memory of the pact they had made as teenagers filled her mind; if we’re both not married by the time we’re 30, let’s go on a date.  

“The pact.” She nodded, still smiling. 

“The pact.” He confirmed. 

She contemplated for a moment. There had always been something unspoken between them. Everyone in their lives saw it, especially Nia. She had even spoken to them separately, trying to get them to see it too, but they both had the same reason for never taking things further; they didn’t want to ruin their friendship. But they were older now, life, and time, had changed them – matured them. It had been 12 years. They would be spending time together, getting to know each other all over again, right? “It’s only one date. Don’t overthink it. If it doesn’t work out, it’s not the end of the world...right?” She nodded slowly to herself. “Right.” 

“Bri?” The way he said her name still created flutters in her chest. It also drew her out of the short spiral of thoughts she had fallen into. “We can keep it simple, nothing crazy. We’ll go to NiNi’s, somewhere you’d feel more comfortable.” As calm and reassuring as his tone was, she knew he was holding his breath, anticipating her answer.  

“Okay.” She finally responded after another pause, and exhaled, not realising she had been holding her breath too. “Just coffee?” She asked, trying to control the nerves in her voice. A date with Jay. This had been a long time coming. She couldn’t help but feel excitement brewing within her. 

Jay exhaled, feeling any tension he’d been holding finally release. His excitement was hard to tame, and with a smile in his voice, he said, “Just coffee.” 

Part 1.