Taylor’s head spun. Jody provided exactly what Taylor didn’t even know he needed. She simply sat and kept him company-didn’t talk too much, didn’t press for details. She was just... there.
Taylor’s mood was consistently dark over the next week. Granted, being served divorce papers was never something to celebrate, but it seemed as if Taylor’s joy was seemingly stuck somewhere in a type of limbo. Even Ezra couldn’t seem to lighten his mood. It was heartbreaking to watch.
However, Taylor sprung a surprise on Jody in the fact that Ezra came to the store more than once that week. Ezra always made Jody smile. There was something about him that charmed everybody at the store.
“Jodyyyyyyy!!!” Ezra squealed as he struggled out of Taylor’s grasp and ran over to Jody’s counter.
“Hey sweetheart,” she greeted. “You’re back again!”
“Daddy said we could come back!” Ezra said proudly.
“He did,” Jody played along as she saw Taylor get on the line. “Why don’t you and your dad go decide what you want and once I finish helping all these people, I’ll make you something special.”
It took little Ezra all of 2 seconds to make that decision. “OK!” he said happily as he ran back to his father.
Dana dropped off somebody’s order at the counter and paused a moment. “That kid is so cute.”
“Isn’t he?” Jody agreed.
“What’s their usual order?” she inquired.
“I’ll get it Dana. Don’t worry about it.”
Dana chuckled. “He still into that raspberry chi stuff?”
Jody pressed the button on the register. “That’ll be 4 dollars and 28 cents,” she reported to the customer. She turned back to Dana. “Eh, not so much. He’s been mixing it up lately.”
“That’s uncharacteristic. Everything alright?”
Jody shrugged. “That’s not for me to say.”
“Fair enough.” She quickly glanced over her shoulder. “The newbies look overwhelmed.”
“Go help them,” Jody smiled. “I’ll be OK up here.”
“Next!” the ringer next to Jody called.
“I’m waiting for Jody,” she heard a familiar voice say.
Jody’s head shot up. “Eve?!”
“Jody!” Eve said excitedly.
“I’ll take this for now,” Dana said. “Go hug your friend.”
Jody didn’t even wait for Dana to finish her sentence. She was out from behind the counter faster than she had ever been and all but tackled her very best friend since 6th grade.
“You didn’t tell me you were coming down!” Jody squealed.
“You didn’t tell me you’d be working and not at home!” Eve responded.
“Oh I’m so glad you’re here,” Jody said sincerely as she let her friend go from the hug.
“Me too.”
“Jody, we really need you back here!” Horace barked from behind the counter.
“Be right there!” she called back.
“What time are you here ‘til?” Eve questioned.
“3. You gonna be around?”
“Sure. I’m gonna go and play.”
“You want a hot chocolate before you go?” Jody offered, knowing that Eve hated coffee.
“That sounds awesome.”
“Jody!” Horace yelled. “Now’s not the time!”
“One minute Horace! I’ll be right there!”
Someone who wasn’t Eve tapped Jody on the shoulder.
“Oh, Taylor!” Jody said surprised as she lightly grabbed his arm to make him stay. “Do you and Ezra mind some company?” He gave her a deer-in-headlights kind of look. “She doesn’t bite, I promise.” Jody was about to explode with excitement. “Taylor, this is Eve. Eve, this is Taylor and the little heartbreaker he’s carrying is his son, Ezra.”
“Nice to meet you,” Eve greeted them.
Jody felt two hands on her shoulders. “Jody. Now. You. Behind the counter. Go.”
She sighed. “I’m going, Horace.”
“You guys sit and chat,” Jody called as she was marched back behind her counter. If you need anything, I’ll be behind the counter at Riker’s Island,” she joked as she compared her job to being imprisoned.
Eve laughed lightly. That was typical Jody. Eve turned her attention back to the stranger. “I think Jody will kill us if we don’t sit together,” she joked.
Taylor shrugged, completely overwhelmed by seemingly everything.
“Jody says you have a usual table. Care to lead the way?”
Taylor continued to look down. “We really should get...”
“I’ll show you!” Ezra chimed in as he moved so his father had to put him down. Although he was still holding Ezra’s hand, he recognized the trusting look in his eye.
They all sat down with their drinks- and they did it awkwardly.
“So how do you know Jody?” Eve questioned innocently enough.
“Through the store,” was the short answer.
Eve nodded. “She said you were a regular.”
Great. Now a stranger knew about him. This was not what he wanted at this particular moment.
What he really wanted right now was to go back to his apartment, sit Ezra in front of the TV, put a tape in for him, and go into another room and figure things out. At 24 years old, Taylor had gotten Natalie pregnant, married her, watched the marriage crumble, watched their baby grow, and was now estranged from the woman he would give nearly anything to get back. These were things most people didn’t experience until they were at least thirty.
Taylor was ahead of schedule for most people his age. Blessed with an attractive face and demeanor, his musical gifts emerged early in his life as well. His gift of language was evident with each word he spoke. Creativity, it seemed, replaced the blood in his veins. It nourished him with every inhalation of breath. The beautiful young boy learned to sing because his brother, Issac, sang. After all, most little boys want to do whatever their older sibling did. In this respect, Taylor was normal. In all other respects he was not. Somehow smarter and more recognizable because of the breathtaking emotion in his voice, he was known the world-round by the time his voice began to change. Sure he had his brothers with him, but the spotlight from the fans seemed trained to shine especially bright on him.
But in an MMMBop, it was all gone. His whole perfect life had been shattered by a stack of papers.
Eve had noticed that Taylor was lost in thought. Ezra, on the other hand, was a chatterbox. The topics weren’t all that complex being that Ezra, as she found out, was four years old.
For the moment, the child was quiet because he was taking a sip of his apple juice. This gave Eve a moment to study the attractive young man. Jody was correct in telling her that he didn’t volunteer any information. He gave vague answers at best when he was asked about something personal. Jody had sensed that he was smart, and Eve thought so too. Just because he was quiet didn’t mean he wasn’t smart. Something traumatic had happened to him. Jody hadn’t said anything about that. Her eye as an artist led her to observe more than others. This made Taylor visibly uncomfortable as he shifted his grip on his cup of coffee, sighed, and nervously glanced up at Eve.
“How do you know Jody?”
“We’ve been best friends since 6th grade,” Eve said with a smile. “Jody tried to start a food fight and she accidentally hit me with her sandwich instead of the table next to us.”
Taylor looked up, grinned slightly, and shook his head. Yeah, that sounded like the type of spunky thing Jody would do. Somehow he wasn’t all that surprised.
“So who won the food fight?” Taylor quizzed.
Eve shrugged. “The assistant principal saw the whole thing and gave Jody a week’s worth of lunch detention.” Eve chuckled again. “When I threw the sandwich back, I got the same punishment. The rest, as they say, is history.”
“Bonnie and Clyde.”
“Something like that.” Eve reflected for a moment. “Yeah, those were the days.”
A friendlier silence settled on them.
“Jody tells me you’re a musician.”
Taylor nodded. “That’s right.”
Eve waited for another response. “Care to elaborate?”
He cleared his throat. “Not really.”
Now it was awkward.
“Daddy, I have to go to the bathroom,” Ezra chimed in.
“Excuse me,” Taylor said excusing himself, slightly relieved that Ezra had spoken up. “Let’s go Ezra.”
“I should be going anyway. I don’t get into the City much, so I’d like to play for as long as I can before the show.”
Show? That perked Taylor’s ears up. “What show?”
“You mean Jody didn’t tell you?” Taylor shook his head. “I’m surprised. That’s all she’s talked about since we got the tickets.” Taylor’s stare continued to beg for an answer.
“Dad-dy,” Ezra whined.
“But you’ll have to ask her yourself. I’ve got a City to play in. It was nice to meet you Taylor.” Eve retied her scarf around her neck, let Jody know that she was going, and left.
Leave it to Jody to have friends like Eve.
After taking Ezra to the rest room, Taylor re-bundled the child in his winter apparel and went over to the side of the counter to let Jody know that they, too, were on their way out.
“See you tomorrow?” she questioned as she put some change in the register and looked at him quickly.
Taylor nodded out of astonishment. “Yeah, I guess. See you tomorrow.”
“Hey Ezra,” Jody said, stealing over to the side of the counter, “high-5?” She offered her hand. Ezra happily complied. “Goodbye sweetheart.”
“Bye Jody,” he waved as Taylor carried him out. Dana was right- Ezra was cute.
And his father wasn’t too bad looking either.
Jody shook her head, mentally scolding herself for having such a thought. This was a man who was so consumed in his own pain that he couldn’t seem to even lift his head. This was a soon to be divorced man who was already a father. There was no way Jody could even fathom entering their world outside of Starbucks.
But that didn’t mean Taylor saw her that way. He was so intrigued by everything she did. The way she always knew what to say. The way she had somehow become a friend despite the fact that they only had a friendship that scratched the surface of either one of them. Taylor had a feeling that there was a lot more to Jody than she was letting on. The somewhat flighty image had to be covering up for something. All of the other employees seemed to have their off-days, but not her, not Jody. Nobody’s that happy to be working at a coffee place all the time.