Friction

For the next couple weeks, I avoided anything that would remind me of Tristan, or Kieran, for that matter. I hated thinking of them together, but really, thinking these thoughts were helping me to get over him.

I was tidying up my apartment when it dawned on me; I missed spending time with Kieran. We had become pretty close. I knew I wasn’t mad at him anymore. It wasn’t his fault Tristan couldn’t be loyal to either of us.

I looked at the clock. It was already three am. I didn’t think Kieran would be up, so I decided I would call him tomorrow.

I crawled into bed, falling asleep almost immediately.

When I woke up, I realized something else; this was the longest I had gone without having a coffee since I met Kieran. I knew he wasn’t working today, which I was thankful for.

I wasn’t completely sure I wanted to go down to Starbucks though, so I took a shower hoping to make up my mind.

I went for coffee after I showered hoping to see James and Martyn at the shop again.

I was in luck.

Right when I walked in the door, I was attack hugged by Martyn.

“Hey,” I said, still feeling pretty down.

“What happened to you? You look like something chewed you up and spit you out.”

“I found out the other night that Kieran and I were seeing the same guy. I didn’t take it very well.”

“Aww, Addy, I’m sorry,” James said walking up and giving me a hug.

“Thanks guys. I just need something to get my mind off him for a bit.”

It was almost two o’clock when I had managed to force myself out of bed, so Martyn’s shift was almost done. I still hadn’t called Kieran.

“Well, I get done in about twenty minutes. If you wanted to wait, we could do something.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want you to waste your time on me.”

“Addy, from what I’ve heard about you from Kieran and what I’ve seen myself, I wouldn’t be wasting time on you. In fact, if I were to not pursue any sort of friendship with you, that would be wasting my time.”

I blushed. “Stop it.”

“I have a couple more things to do before I get off, so I’ll meet you here in like twenty minutes or so. Is that okay?”

“Yeah, that’s fine.”

He kissed my cheek and bounded away, disappearing into the back, only to be replaced by James a few seconds later.

“He likes you, you know?”

“What?”

“Martyn likes you,” James said.

“No he doesn’t.”

I was in denial. I could sort of tell by the way he acted today and by the way that he looked at me, but I just couldn’t believe that someone other than Tristan could. I hadn’t had very many boyfriends in my life and all of them had turned out to be cheaters.

“How well do you know Martyn?”

“He’s been my best friend since fourth grade. I think I know him pretty well.”

“Has he ever cheated on anyone?”

“No. It’s usually the other way around. Why?”

“All the boyfriends I’ve had in the past have cheated on me. Every single one. So, I’m getting skeptical of guys who want to pursue a relationship with me. If they care about someone more than me, I’d rather just be broken up with than cheated on.”

James gave me a quick hug. “I’m sorry, Addy. Martyn’s a good guy though. He’ll treat you right.”

“Thanks James. I just want to forget all about Tristan. If Kieran still wants to date him, that’s his business. I won’t stop him.”

“That’s the kind of attitude I want to see. You’re young, hot, and single, everyone should have that sort of attitude under these circumstances.”

“Thanks James. Shouldn’t you be working or something?”

“Look around. How many customers do you see?”

I turned my head to look at the rest of the seating and laughed. “Me, I guess.”

“And I’m currently helping you, am I not?”

“You are,” I said.

Just then, the door opened and Kieran came in. He saw me and came over.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call. I was going to, but then I saw you in here and I figured talking in person would be better.”

“Okay. Do you want to sit down?”

“Yeah, that sounds good. Could you excuse us for a bit, James? What we’re talking about is kind of personal.”

“Sure. I should probably get back to work anyway. Remember what I told you about Martyn, Addy.”

“I will. Thanks, James. I’ll come up and talk a little bit more before I leave, okay?”

“Sounds good,” he said as he walked behind the counter.

“So, what exactly did you want to talk about, Kieran?”

“Well, Tristan, obviously, but I wanted to know how you were feeling as well.”

“Well, Kieran, I feel pretty shitty. Every guy I’ve ever dated has cheated on me. Although, I’ll give Tristan props on this, none of the people that have cheated on me have ever ended up being with one of my friends. Nothing against you, but I really wish it had been someone else with Tristan. Someone I didn’t know, so I could hate them or at least pretend to.”

“I’m sorry, Addy. I really am. I’ve been with Tristan for about six months now, so I was with him before I met you. I called him today and left a message. I basically told him that because you and I are friends on top of the fact that it’s wrong to cheat on someone, he would have to choose one of us or neither of us to continue seeing. He couldn’t have us both. I don’t want to hurt you any more than I already have, so I hope that what I said was okay.”

“Yeah, that’s fine, Kieran. Just so you know, even if he chooses me, I have no intention of taking him back. If he cheated on us once, he could do it again, just as easily as the first time. I don’t know what you’ll do if you’re the person he chooses, but if you do stay together and I see him out with other people, I’ll call you so hopefully the same thing doesn’t happen twice.”

“Thanks, Addy. I don’t know what I’ll do, yet. I mean, I love him, but what he did, I’m just not sure.”

“I understand completely. I’ll be right back though; I came in here to get a coffee and got distracted.”

“James, can I get my usual?”

“Sure you can, Addy. I’ll bring that right out.”

I set a ten dollar bill on the counter before I started walking back to the booth I shared with Kieran.

“Addy, you take that money back right now. This one’s on me.”

I turned around. “I can’t do that James. You guys can’t keep giving me free coffee when I come in here. You’re all going to get into trouble soon.”

“You’re not paying for this coffee, Addy. You don’t have a choice in the matter.”

I just continued walking back to my booth without picking my money back up.

“Alright, I’m back.”

“You aren’t mad at me, are you? About Tristan, I mean.”

“Why would I be mad at you for that? You had no knowledge that I was seeing him, too. It’s not like we really talked about him to each other much to even make a connection about it. Even vaguely mentioning him, we could have been talking about anyone. This is a pretty big place. I’m sure a lot of people could fit the same description or character traits as Tristan. I’m not going to end our friendship over him if you’re willing to do the same.”

“Of course I am, Addy. If I wasn’t, would I have even stopped in here?”

“Well, you do work here. For all I knew, you would have been called in to work today.”

“I wasn’t, don’t worry.”

James walked over holding my coffee. He set it down over something and walked back behind the counter.

Picking up my coffee, I saw the ten dollar bill I had placed on the counter.

I sighed.

“I give up, James. You win.”

“Good. Now just promise to enjoy it,” James told me.

“I will.”

“I’m really glad we had this talk, Addy,” Kieran said.

“Same here. It’s like a weight has been lifted off my chest. I was really hoping you wouldn’t end our friendship over this. It’s not like either of us knew. He is one hundred percent to blame for what happened.”

“I feel the same. The look on your face at the bar the other night had me worried though. You were screaming and you looked like someone had told you your dog died or something. If what he had done hadn’t been breaking my heart already, the look on your face would have. I felt sort of responsible for that, too.”

I interrupted him, “You shouldn’t feel responsible for it, Kieran. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“You take things almost too lightly, Addy.”

“I’m just tired of feeling heartbroken over a guy that cheated on me because he didn’t love me enough to be with just me.”

“Yeah, I get that. I hate to cut this short, but I have to run. Kelly needed me to pick something up for her since she had to work this afternoon.”

“Alright. I’ll talk to you another time. We should do something soon. Maybe hit up a movie?”

“Sounds good. I’ll call you later to discuss when.”

I stood up to give him a hug.

“See ya.”

“Bye, Kieran.”

Shortly after Kieran left, Martyn came out front, having changed clothes.

“You’re done, then?”

“How could you tell?” he joked.

“Perhaps it was the fact that you aren’t wearing your gorgeous Starbucks uniform anymore.”

He laughed, “Yeah. That could be it.”

“So, what did you want to do since you insist upon spending time with me?”

“There’s actually a park not too far from here I was thinking about taking you to.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, it is. Is that alright?”

“Of course it is. I have nothing against parks. In fact, I quite enjoy them.”

“Great. Are you ready to go, then?”

“Yeah, I am.”

On our way to the door, I threw away my empty coffee cup and waved to James. “We’re going to head out now. You should text me sometime.”

“I don’t have your number.”

“Well, we can fix that.”

I wrote my number down on a piece of paper and handed it to James. “Don’t lose that.”

“I won’t. Have fun with Martyn.”

“Thanks. I’ll try to.”

I waved one more time before I walked out the door Martyn was holding open for me. He caught up and started leading me down the street.

“How far is this park?”

“About six blocks from here, I think.”

“You think?”

“It’s been a while since I’ve been there.”

“Oh, I see.”

“I think you’ll like it.”

“I hope I do.”

Martyn turned and started crossing the street since it was still green. I had to jog to catch up.

“I forgot you don’t know where it is. Sorry, Addy.”

“It’s alright. Would you just tell me we’re going to turn next time?”

“I’ll be sure to do that.”

“Good. So, why did you want to hang out today?”

“Well, I really wanted to hang out the last time you came into the shop, but I wasn’t going to be off for a while and you already had plans.”

“You probably could have come along. I’m sure Kieran wouldn’t have minded.”

“Well, you were also dating someone at the time. I’m not sure it would have been a good idea for me to come along. I might not have been able to control myself.”

“Control yourself how?”

“Well, you two go out a lot. Drinking would be involved. I might have tried something I normally wouldn’t have sober.”

I wasn’t sure of what to say, so I just smiled timidly at him. I had noticed he was cute the last time I had seen him, but I hadn’t really spent a good amount of time looking at him. He was more attractive than I had originally given him credit for. Maybe James was right. Martyn might be a good way to get over Tristan.

“Did I say something wrong?”

“No, I was just thinking about something.”

“Okay. We’re almost there.”

I could feel my excitement building. I wasn’t sure why, either. It was just a park. I’d been to quite a few in my twenty-two years of life, but I had a feeling this one was going to be different.

“We just have to turn this next corner and then we’re there.”

I was right.

We turned the corner and I took a sharp intake of breath. It was the most beautiful place I had seen. Words couldn’t even accurately describe it.

“It’s gorgeous, Martyn,” I said in awe.

“It’s not nearly as pretty as you, Addy.”

I looked at him, blushing. “That’s not true.”

“Yes, it is.”

I looked down. I didn’t want him to see how red I was getting.

He took hold of my hand. “Come on. I want to show you around.”

I followed Martyn around the park for nearly an hour. It was bigger than it appeared to be. We had kept the conversation pretty light, mostly about our likes and dislikes.

There was a bench on the side of the path up ahead, we decided to sit and rest for a while.

This is where it happened, where Martyn kissed me.

The wind had picked up slightly, blowing my hair into my face. He reached over, gently pushing my hair behind my ear. At the feeling of his touch, I turned to face him. He looked nervous, like he wasn’t sure he should be doing what he was about to do. Nevertheless, he reached over, cupping my cheek and placed a tender kiss on my lips.

It felt like an electric shock had gone through me, in a good way, though.

After the kiss, Martyn drew back a couple of inches to judge my reaction.

“Where are you going?” I asked before pulling him back to kiss him again.

When we broke apart, we decided that we should start heading back. Arriving back at Starbucks we exchanged numbers.

“I’ll text you later. I need a shower I think. It’s gotten really warm today.”

“Same here. Bye Martyn. I had fun today.”

“Me, too. Bye Addy.”

He kissed me again before parting ways.

Walking into my apartment, I couldn’t stop smiling. Today had turned out better than I thought.