Out October 11
Coffee Break
Sienna jerked around at the squealing tires. She recognized Mark’s Corvette right away and wanted to jump into her own car to get away. But she just stared instead. She didn’t want to go over to Carol’s house and eat lunch with her and Glen. Already her heart ached over how many times she and Glen had done that while they were engaged.
Mark pulled his car into a spot right in front of her. The cafe was fairly empty still—Chloe wasn’t even at work yet. Maybe she had Sunday off. Sienna clutched her Toil and Trouble to her chest as Mark hopped out of his car. “Hey,” he said, “I thought you sang in the choir.”
She wanted to laugh at herself for thinking the first thing out of his mouth would be something like, “That was a great fuck last night.” Of course he’d be more civil than that. And he’d better not mention last night at all. And if he did, he’d better say it was great.
She said, “We sing at the earlier service. The service going on now is contemporary, with a rock band and everything.”
He seemed to be suppressing a laugh. “Naturally, you go to the traditional service.”
She knew it was a reference to how he saw her as a paradox, but she chose to ignore it. It verged on talking about last night. “Did you come by for a Sunday morning coffee?”
“No. I had to go have a fight with my ex-wife. I was on my way home when I saw you pacing here. Is there a reason you’re outside? It’s pretty cold this morning.”
“It seems to be a day for exes. I’m supposed to go have lunch with mine and his mom.”
“That sounds awful. Why don’t you join me inside?”
Sienna held her breath. It shouldn’t be so strange since they’d talked in the cafe for a couple hours yesterday, but that was before they’d screwed like two strangers at a rave. And before he’d given her a rose and a card. “Just for a little bit.”
Evelyn Aster 