Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop
Al was first out of the cab when it pulled up outside the coffee shop. Kate managed to climb out in time to snag her daughter's coat before she ran right into a man in a suit talking on his phone on his way to work. As she turned to pay the driver, Al bounced back and forth along the length of the cab, dancing around people rushing past them then back to Kate's side once the taxi drove off.
The little bell on the door jingled as they walked in, Al running ahead to check at the table he had been at last time.
It was empty.
"But… but, he needs to be here." Al turned and Kate hated that those clear blue eyes were fogging up with tears that hadn't fallen yet. "He…" She buried her head into Kate's thigh, shaking her head. "Mom."
Kate ran her hand over Al's hair, looking at the table and wishing he'd materialize there. Not for her sake, but for Al, the girl so sad not to see the man she had met only once before.
"I know, kid."
She was sniffling as she pulled away. "Can we wait? Just in case?"
Kate sat Al at the table, draping her jacket over the back of the other chair. "We'll wait for a while." She left Al there, watching their coats, while she went to get coffee, a little container of milk for Al, and muffins for breakfast. She was at the front of the line, talking to the barista, when she heard her daughter scream.
He was caught in traffic. That's what he got for storming out of his own apartment at rush hour and expecting to get somewhere in a reasonable time.
"Sorry, dude," said the driver, tapping along with the music from the radio on the steering wheel.
Castle waved him off, pulling a pencil from his pocket. "Not your fault." He opened the notebook and started doodling along the top of the page, little swirls covering the top margin like ocean waves.
Still, he willed the cars in front of the taxi to move faster. Bored even with the drawing that he was creating on his notebook, Castle started scribbling possible murders. It sometimes creeped him out that his mind would come up with half of these but that was usually a good sign; if it made his skin crawl a little, it would transfer over to his readers. Icicles to someone's stomach that melted away leaving no evidence was his latest theory and he was making a list of problems the killer would face in offing someone in that manner when the car halted.
The driver had stopped at a set of lights a block from the coffee shop and the intersection was snarled so that even when the lights changed, the car wouldn't be moving anywhere fast.
Castle closed the notebook on the pencil, shifting so he could find his wallet in his back pocket. He pulled out a few bills, handing them up to the driver. "I'll walk from here. Thanks, man."
He climbed out, shut the door, and started off down the sidewalk toward the coffee shop. His hands were in the pockets of his jacket, the notebook tucked between his arm and side, as he shouldered past 9 to 5-ers.
When he reached the coffee shop, he stopped in his tracks at the sight through the large window.