Living in a moderately-sized apartment with four fully grown men was a hard task for any woman. When you also take into account the fact that one man was her brother, another was a borderline pyromaniac, the third was a pansexual man-child and the final was a beautiful yet broody man who had the ability to create a tornado indoors then it becomes almost impossible. To keep her wits about her Lisa had made a point of leaving the apartment every Friday morning for a few hours as a way of relaxing after spending a week in her testosterone-filled hell.
This week she had decided to spend the morning sitting in the Starbucks which was only a few blocks away from the apartment. She had spent a good few minutes studying the boards and trying to decide which beverage to go for before eventually settling on a large green tea. "I am a health goddess" she thought to herself as her tea was prepared. "My body is a temple and with this drink I am cleansing it!" She eyed up the pastry selection as she moved forward. "Or not."
"Excuse me?" She asked sweetly. "Can I also get a cinnamon bun and the last of those chocolate brownies?" The cashier nodded and plated them up for her. She grabbed her tea and food and made her way over to the window seat to people watch while she enjoyed her down time. She tried the tea and gasped softly as it burnt her lips. "Fuck!" she exclaimed quietly and pressed her cool hand to her mouth. That failed to fix the problem and she rushed back to the counter and asked for a small chunk of ice. The cashier smiled sympathetically and handed a chunk over, wrapped in a small cloth. "Thanks." Lisa said.
She was walking back towards the table when a woman bumped into her from behind. She felt something cold spread down her arm and she glanced to see the remnants of an iced coffee on the floor beside her. The woman was very apologetic. "Oh my god. I'm so sorry! I didn't even see you. Wait a minute and i'll grab some tissues." Lisa sat down in her seat and waited for the woman to come back.
Within a minute she was back with a handful of blue tissue and began dabbing at the back of Lisa's arm. "It's okay." Lisa said quickly. "I can get it." She took the tissue off the woman and began to dry her own arm.
"I am really sorry." The woman said. "If you need to get that shirt dry-cleaned then you can just send me the bill. My name is Iris by the way."
"I'm Lisa." Lisa replied. "So what were you reading that caused you to become a human wrecking ball?"
The woman blushed slightly and said, "It was just an article. It was on the Flash."
"Oh." Lisa made a small non-committal noise.
Iris's face fell. "You not a fan of the Flash then I take it?"
"Not really. But then again, I sure can appreciate a man who enjoys wearing leather."
Lisa smirked as she saw Iris's face turn switch from a mild blush into a full on 'beamer'. She decided to take pity on the poor woman and quickly changed the subject. "So." She asked conversationally. "What brings you to Starbucks on this fine morning?"
Iris sighed and began. "Well i'm actually kinda hiding out here at the moment. My father, adoptive brother and boyfriend are together in the house and I can't handle that amount of men this early in the damn morning. So I came for a coffee to escape and relax for a while." Lisa was mildly surprised at her story.
"You're not the only one." Lisa sighed. "I live in an apartment with my brother and three other men and a girl just needs some time to be herself ya know?" Iris nodded. "It just gets a little much at times."
Both women soon settled into a lively discussion about how their respective men were goddamn useless. After around ten minutes of laughter they got onto another topic. "So Iris." Lisa began. "What do you do for a living? Iris became very animated as she described her new job at the newspaper to her new friend and she was talking about her bitchy co-workers when Lisa's phone started ringing.
She politely excused herself and answered. It was Lenny asking where she was and after she told him her location he said he would be there in five minutes to pick her up as she was needed to prevent Mick from murdering Axel back at the apartment. She sighed and hung up as she made her way back to the table. "I'm sorry Iris but i'm gonna have to leave soon as my brother is coming to pick me up." Iris nodded and said "It's okay. My Barry just texted to say he was coming over to meet me."
Both women picked up their previous conversation and Iris finished her anecdotes about her co-workers. "So what is it that you do Lisa?" Iris asked. Lisa sipped her now-cold tea and replied that she worked in a antiques store which specialised in jewellery. Iris opened her mouth to ask if she enjoyed it when the front door of the store opened and a man in a pair of dark blue jeans and a black t-shirt walked in.
Lisa waved him over and introduced him to Iris. "Iris this is my brother Len. Len this is Iris, my new Starbucks friend." Lenny smiled politely at the woman and shook her hand. A second later the front door opened again and Iris watched Barry walk in with a dopey grin on his face. He spotted her immediately and walked over.
"Hey Bear" She greeted enthusiastically. "Meet my new friend Lisa and her brother Len." Barry looked at the couple with a smile before his eye widened comically as Lenny winked at him.
"Hey Barry. Long time no see." Lenny drawled as Barry's face flitted between shock and anger. Iris looked questioningly at Lenny and asked "So have you two met before?"
"Y-yeah." Barry stuttered. "S-so how have you been?"
"Good. Business is good as usual. But Lisa and I need to be heading off now. Sure we do sis?"
Lisa gave Lenny a quick glance and made her goodbyes to both Iris and Barry as Lenny did the same and the couple made a quick retreat out the door.
As she got into the car Lisa looked at Lenny and asked "So...you gonna tell me what that was about?"
Lenny chuckled deeply and said "You wouldn't believe me if I told ya sis. You wouldn't believe me if I told you. So, how about we get home and stop our pet pyromaniac from char grilling our favourite little trickster?"