Untangle Me.

New York. The Big Apple. The city that never sleeps.

It was good to finally be back after four years.
Sure, Paris had the city lights and bustling streets but nothing compared to home.
Jack smiled to himself as he tried to manoeuvre through crowds of people hurrying along dressed up for something, anything or maybe nothing. The 12th of February held no special meaning, but when the sun goes down in New York, everywhere is a party.
The further towards his destination he walked, the fewer crowds there were and the fewer street lights to add a hazy glow the cold night air surrounding him. He reached a vaguely familiar street corner and looked up at the rusting street sign nailed to the side of a worn red brick building. He pulled a scrunched, dirty and badly dog-eared business card out of his front pocket to double check it was the right place. Thames Street. He was there.

He turned left down a busier street and pushed his jacket sleeve up slightly to check the time on his watch – 8:13pm - before stuffing his glove clad hands back into his thick pockets, and wiggling his fingers to get the feeling back in them.
Eventually he got to the correct fairly sized, shabby brick building with a simple black sign hanging above the door reading “The Corner.” The blinds covering the large window on the front of the building glowed from the light illuminating the room inside. He was definitely in the right place.

When he pushed open the black door, a bell rang and he suddenly found himself surrounded by noise, contrasting with the near-silence in the cold street outside.
Inside the old New York style coffee shop there were around fifteen circular tables placed around the room, each with either simple wooden chairs or plush deep purple armchairs. They were all facing in the direction of the small stage that was against the far wall on top of which was a wooden stall, a microphone and three bookshelves overflowing with a number of old, aging books.
To the left of Jack running along most of the wall was a glass counter full of different cakes, pastries, snacks and a variety of different bottle drinks. Behind that, against the wall there was a counter top with two large stainless steel coffee machines and stacks of take-out cups. On the wall above that, there were shelves of different sized coffee mugs and a huge black board with one side covered in a menu of different drinks and the other mainly covered by the word “SPECIALS” and below that a list of strange concoctions including a “cucumber and strawberry” hot chocolate, which Jack figured he’d better avoid.

Before he could figure out exactly why anybody in their right mind would mix cucumber, strawberry and chocolate in one drink Jack was distracted from his thoughts as he saw a figure lunging at him out the corner of his eye before he felt a weight hit him square on, taking his breath away. Two muscled arms clung around his neck, and he was enveloped in a bone crunching hug.
“Rian, I can’t breathe.” He half laughed, half gasped. He felt his best friend loosen the grip around his neck before finally breaking the hug, still holding the tops of Jacks arms like a vice.
“Right, yeah, I’m sorry. It’s just... you’re you and you’re here. It’s been so long.” His mouth broke into a huge grin as he rambled incoherencies in excitement.
“Four years too long. I’ve missed you man, and hey you’ve still got the overly white teeth.” Jack joked with a wink, mirroring Rian’s smile.
“Hey!” Rian shouted in mock offense, his smile ruining the act slightly. “And you still have the overly large Jew nose.” He retorted with a returning wink, and a poke at Jack’s nose for good measure.
Jack swatted his hand away and scoped the room around him.
There were people filling most of the tables, some of them chatting animatedly to each other while taking sips of their drinks and others reading books quietly by themselves.

“This place is pretty damn cool, man.” He said, looking back at his best friend stood in front of him.
“Thanks, bro. I mean, it was hard work starting it up but these past few months it’s gradually been getting busier. I’m really happy with it, y’know. Not just the shop... everything. Life’s good.” He still had the huge grin on his face, but Jack realised that the smile wasn’t just for him, it was for everything. Rian was truly that damn happy and it made him happy to see his best friend so content with life.
“That’s good, I’m pleased for you. Speaking of your life, when exactly am I going to meet this woman of yours, hmm?” Jack questioned, noticing the way Rian’s face lit up just a little bit more at the mention of his newly titled fiancé.
“As soon as possible, bro. Cass is great... she’s perfect.” There was that look again. “I can’t wait for you to meet her, you’ll love her. Come on, I’ll get you a drink.”

They walked over to the counter and Rian walked around the other side where there were two men already stood. One of them had bright ginger hair and was wearing ridiculously tight black jeans and a black and white checked flannel shirt. He also had an apron tied around his waist with the top half folded down over his legs. He was running back and forth between the customers ordering drinks and the various coffee machines looking hugely stressed. Jack watched in awe for a moment, slightly impressed but also wondering how he was remembering what every customer wanted when looked as though he was making about four orders of drinks in one go.

The other man had shorter, dark hair that was styled carefully. He was wearing a more formal pair of black suit trousers and a white button down shirt. He was leaning over the counter, brows furrowed in concentration as he scribbled notes down in a black important looking notebook. The ginger man kept looking over at him desperately in a silent plea for help with no response.
“What can I get you?” Rian asked, getting Jacks attention and causing him to get a few dirty looks off the people stood in the queue that had been waiting to order for a while.
“Um,” Jack looked up at the black board he’d noticed earlier. “I think I’ll just have a black coffee, thanks.”
“You’re making a mistake.” A voice came from behind Rian, and the ginger guy came into Jacks view with a smirk on his face.
“I’m sorry, what?” Jack asked, slightly taken aback.
“The drink.” He stated as if what he was saying was the most obvious thing ever and when he got another blank look from Jack he continued. “Coffee just shouts boring. You should try something new... take a walk on the wild side.” Jack tried to work out if this guy was hitting on him, or if he was just always this cocky.
“Um, yeah... right.” He said, confused. “But if it’s all the same, I think I’ll stick with the coffee.”
“Your loss.” He stated with a shrug.
“Good choice,” Rian cut in, glaring at the ginger guy. “And Caleb if you find coffee boring then I assume you don’t want to continue to work in a coffee shop?” He said jokingly.
“You couldn’t handle this place without me.” Caleb retorted before turning to Jack and reaching out a hand. “Caleb Turman, probably the greatest person you’ll ever meet and the co-owner of this here coffee shop.”

Jack shook his hand briefly before looking at Rian in confusion, but it wasn’t Rian that answered his silent question of “what the fuck?”
“He isn’t a co-owner,” said the dark haired boy that was previously occupied but was now looking at the scene in front of him with interest. “Much to his dismay, that is.” His mouth broke into a friendly smile, breaking the otherwise slightly intimidating vibe he gave off.
“Hey, it’s a good idea. Me, you and Ri-” he lightly punched Rian on the shoulder, and received a raised eyebrow and a harder punch back “-could really make something of this if it were a three-way thing. And trust me, I have experiences with three-way things and they always work out... for everyone involved.” He said, smirking.
“Right, I’m sure you have. But the fact is, you aren’t going to be in charge of anything around here but taking orders, and also are you sure your heavily pregnant husband wants you talking to us about three-ways?” He asked, raising an eyebrow and chuckling. Caleb didn’t answer and instead huffed and walked over to take more orders from impatient customers.
Matt shut the book in front of him and walked over to them before he too put out a hand for Jack to shake. “I’m Matt, the actual co-owner of this place. You must be Jack?” He smiled and Jack nodded.

A few hours –and 3 cups of black coffee later- The guys were all sat around one of the tables in the corner, with the exception of Caleb who was still working behind the counter serving customers. The place was slowly emptying for the night and Jack had learnt that Monday was their least busy night but Tuesday night always brought twice as many customers due to it being “poetry night” where the stage was put into use with people showcasing their own personal poetry or any more known poems that they enjoyed and wanted to share.
Jack liked ‘The Corner’ it had a nice, homely feel to it and the people there all seemed friendly and polite. He’d met a few of the regulars already, when they’d stopped by to greet Rian and Matt, making small talk and buying each other drinks and for the first time in a while, he felt welcome.

Over the past four years he’d spent in Paris there, Jack had always felt something was missing and after spending a short space of time with his friends, new and old, he realised that what been missing was the feeling of belonging, and that’s exactly how he felt in that moment... As if he belonged.
Rian had told him that his couch was free and Jack could stay with him until he found somewhere more permanent due to his sudden and unplanned decision to move back home as soon as he could, and for that he was grateful.
When the coffee shop finally closed doors, Caleb came over to sit with them, dropping into a chair with a thud and hitting his head down on the desk out of tiredness.

“Well,” Matt said after a few minutes of comfortable silence, “I hate to rush off but I’ve got a hot date tonight.” He pushed his chair out noisily and stood up, walking back over to the counter to pick up his bad and the notebook he’d been writing in, which Jack had been informed was a new rota they were working on because a new guy was starting the next night.
“See you guys later.” He shouted back, walking over to the door.
“Hey, Matt.” Caleb said, leaning back in his chair. “Tell Zack I said him and that Alex kid both looked fine yesterday.” He said with a wink, trying desperately to piss Matt off because it’s just what he does.
“He doesn’t even know who you are, douchebag.” Matt retorted, walking out the door.
“His loss!” Caleb called after him. “I would go home too, If I wasn’t too tired to get up from this chair. A kids party all day and then a full nights shift. The things I do as a dad, man.” He muttered.
“Well, you’ve got another on the way so get used to it.” Rian replied, with a chuckle before standing up, “We should probably get going too, Jack.”

But Jack barely heard him. He hadn’t been listening to what they were saying since Caleb used the “A” word. He’d blocked that word from his mental dictionary a long time ago, so to have it thrown at him so suddenly and out of the blue was a shock to his system. There were hundreds of Alex’s in New York so the chances of Caleb meaning his Alex were slim to none, but it didn’t stop him from going nostalgic and a heavy blow struck to his heart. A heart that he’d tried to give to Alex all those years ago. Tried and failed.

Maybe coming back to New York wasn’t such a great idea after all.