If You Like Piña Coladas
"Hey! New girl!"
Minnie looked up from where she'd been pretending to be working.
"You know that café on the first floor?"
"Uh, yeah." I buy coffee for the entire office every morning from there. Of course I know it.
Her buddy (not a fellow intern, but a new hire at the company) drummed his fingers on the partition. "One of their usual baristas called in sick on short notice today. They're short-staffed. The manager called in a favor. Ever made coffee before?"
Minnie's eye twitched.
She had made coffee before, actually, but being a barista still sucked. People insisted on making small talk, which wasn't her forte. It was why she surrounded herself with people who could make small talk, like Hailey and Faith and Max and even Edie. It had taken her half an hour to figure out how to do latte art, but her manager didn't know that yet, so she took advantage of her newbie status to zone out when she should have been sweating over by the espresso machine. This mostly consisted of checking her phone for texts from Bobby. His messages had dwindled to one-word replies after her first week in Korea, which should have been expected, but past a certain point, it felt like she was the one carrying the conversation. (In retrospect, she'd been carrying the conversation for the past few months too. But she wasn't ready to examine that too closely yet.) Now their chat was basically dead, and she only sent cute stuff she'd found when they were really, really cute. He always reacted to them with a thumbs-up emoji.
It had been fun while it lasted, she reflected, hanging up her apron, but she didn't want to do it for the rest of her time in Korea. Being on her feet was tiring, even though she could take it, and she much preferred being in the sedentary comfort of her office upstairs rather than on the ground floor, where most of the human traffic was. Hailey and Edie had family functions, so she, Max and Faith had takeaway for dinner. After, instead of cleaning up, she amused them by tossing little pieces of indistinct Siamese stuff in the air and zapping them with her fingers.
She was standing in the lobby when the café manager called out to her.
"Jimin - it's Jimin, right? I forgot to tell you yesterday, but Dahyun's going to be on leave for the rest of the week. Seokjin said you'd be okay with working here until Friday."
Minnie stared at him until she realized abruptly that she was staring. Then she stammered something incoherent and allowed herself to be led to the café. She made a perfect microfoam flower on her first try. The café manager congratulated her on being a "quick study". Minnie cursed herself for zoning out and tried to make her expression look less like a grimace and more like an actual smile when she was on cashier duty.
Tuesday went much the same way. The others came down to hang out and order steadily more expensive blends, but eventually their responsibilities dragged them upstairs again. Minnie manned the counter in the late afternoon, when it was slower, and that was why she happened to notice someone familiar hurrying across the lobby.
It was Bobby's - it was the boy from 1-E. Heavyset. White. Canadian. What was his name, again? She didn't remember, but she did remember that Bobby had torn his shirt off to beat him during the tournament. (God, he was so hot.) Minnie spared a few seconds to savor her mental image of her boyfriend's pecs. When she shook herself awake, he was standing in front of her.
"Hi."
Minnie straightened up. "Hi?"
"You're from Shiketsu, right?"
"Uh, yeah."
The boy from 1-E blinked, as if remembering something. "Oh, right. I'll have the roasted cinnamon, please."
How polite. Minnie nodded, made his order, and slid it across the counter to him. Instead of paying with his card, he pulled a wad of notes out of his wallet and started to count them painstakingly. He was obviously trying to stick around. In between counting under his breath, he glanced up at her. "So, aren't you supposed to be on an internship?"
"Aren't you?"
He laughed. It was a short, quick laugh, there one moment and gone the next, little more than an exhalation, really. "I am. It's with, uh, my family. Family firm. We have little branches all over the world. One of our offices is in this building. I just landed in Seoul yesterday."
"How are you finding it?" He had to have found the exact change already.
"It's nice. Nice." He slid the notes across the counter. "Thanks for the coffee. Minnie, right?"
"Yep." Minnie tried (not very hard) to remember his name. "You're... Linus? Larry?"
"Liam." He pulled away from the counter. "See you around." Minnie didn't reply.
She hadn't spoken to a boy in a non-professional, non-transactional, or non-familial context in weeks. That was the proper way to refer to it, right? The only men whom she'd spoken to had been her relatives, her superiors, and the waiters or cashiers at the restaurants that she went to. And Hailey's chauffeur, but he didn't count. Or maybe he did. Whatever.
It was strange, how easily she adjusted to not seeing Bobby everyday.
Oh, sure, they'd called at first. But it was always Minnie talking about her day, and never Bobby. When he talked, he went on and on about how Impakt was teaching him a new move, or how tough today's workout had been, which was - okay, she could imagine him working out in her head, and that was certainly scintillating, but the words themselves just. Didn't do anything.
Their calls hadn't been like this before she'd gone overseas. They'd had real things to talk about, like where they'd be going for their next date, or what their classmates were doing, or her complaining about her parents. Bobby never complained about his mother. They'd never argued, though, not like how Hailey and Takeda argued. Usually, she chided him, he accepted it, and that was the end of it. They didn't... do... much.
How had they even gotten together? Minnie didn't like to think about the start of term. She'd been all but throwing herself at Bobby for the better half of a week, and then he'd grabbed her by the waist and kissed her on the mouth the second she'd managed to get them properly alone, and that had been that. They'd never talked about who they were to each other. What being boyfriend and girlfriend would be like. She'd implied her expectations, and he did his best to follow them, and he rarely fell short, because he was Bobby. One moment they hadn't been a couple (they'd barely been friends, only classmates), and the next they were boyfriend and girlfriend, and Minnie was giggling about it in the chat with the girls and Bobby... well, he'd probably bragged about it to his friends, too.
It was strange, how easily the rest of their lives were stretching out before them. Given the circumstances.
They'd met, and she'd fallen hard and fast. What was it that people said? "She fell first, but he fell harder." But had he, really? He looked at her with affection, with fondness, but it wasn't devotion. It wasn't love. Sometimes she felt more like a pet than a girlfriend. Even Takeda and Myoga would glance at their girlfriends, or say something, before haring off to do whatever it was they did with Owari. But with Bobby, he didn't even turn back. Minnie liked to imagine herself as a lonely wife watching her husband march off to war. Would he be home by Christmas?
But he wasn't marching off to war, and they weren't married yet. He and his friends were just going to do each other's makeup, or talk about girls, or have a pillow fight, or whatever boys did when they were on their own. And sometimes he was unreachable, and sometimes he got into fights, and when she said something about it he'd always disregard it or fob her off with something facile and meaningless, like "I won't do it again". Even though he very often did. It again.
Minnie huffed. She was working herself up into a fit for no good reason. She opened her eyes, scrubbed at them angrily, and reached for her phone. It unlocked at her touch. Bobby's number was one of her most popular contacts, but it was on its way to falling off the list, since they hadn't spoken in almost a month. They weren't having an argument. They just... weren't talking.
She dialed his number. His phone was off. She didn't know what she'd been expecting.
Minnie locked her phone and thudded back onto her bed. When she woke up, her pillow was damp. Gross.
Liam was one of the first customers to place an order on Wednesday.
Minnie got placed in charge of making sure all the cups were properly labeled and packaged. He stood and nodded at her once the order was done. "Interning, then?" she asked.
"The family has decided. I'll be in Korea for the rest of my internship." He didn't look excited, but he didn't look devastated, either. Behind his placid, polite expression, Minnie sensed rather than saw something stir. "Is this your internship? Being a barista?"
"One of the regulars took ill, and my boss knows the manager."
Liam made a face. "Sorry."
"It's not your fault."
He finished counting out the bills and placed them on the table. Why had it taken him so long to pay? He could have paid at the counter, with a card, or counted them out while he'd been waiting. He wanted to talk to her. He wanted to talk to her. He wasn't just nodding his head and saying yes and smiling to everything she said because he wanted to fast-forward to the part where he got to touch her and fondle her and kiss her, he actually wanted to talk to her.
"Do you want to grab lunch some time?"
Minnie's mouth delivered the answer on autopilot. "Sorry, I'm having lunch with my friends."
Liam shrugged. He didn't seem upset. "Next time, then." He tilted his head. "And it's not your fault."
Minnie went back behind the counter.
Liam didn't come by on Thursday, but he did come by on Friday. Minnie had been walking around for the whole of Thursday feeling like her head was stuffed full of cotton, but on Friday she felt terrifyingly, superlatively clear. She was glass, brittle and clean, and no one touched her for fear of leaving fingerprints.
Thursday night had been bad. She'd woken up several times with nonsensical images fading away to nothingness in her mind's eye. She'd dreamed of Bobby running away with, of all people, Owari. Bobby coming home from the Western Front in a coffin. Bobby transforming into one of the long-dead tyrants of Pyongyang, obese and nicotine-stained. (Although he still looked strangely Caucasian. Would Sun Man have looked like this, if he'd been permitted to grow old and fat?) Bobby, but shrunken and shriveled, a creature with spidery limbs and thick fingers, grasping and grabbing at her with a ferocity and neediness that frightened her. Bobby leaving her waiting at the altar, resplendent in a wedding dress. Bobby pressing his hands against her, reshaping her, reducing her small breasts to nothingness, until her chest looked like a man's. (And not just any man's, but a skinny man's. Bobby's chest would have been larger than hers if it had really happened. Which it hadn't, she reminded herself, as she brushed her teeth in the mirror in the morning.)
"Will you be here next week?" Liam asked.
"I'll be in my office," Minnie said. "It's on the 17th floor."
Liam nodded absently and handed her the banknotes, their knuckles brushing against each other. He stood to leave, but stopped. Minnie's hand was on his bicep.
"Let me give you your receipt first."
He looked into the paper bag, confused, as Minnie stuffed the scrap of paper into his hand. Everything was in order, but at the bottom, in a scanty slice of empty space, there was a number written in pen. He looked up at Minnie.
"See you around, Liam."
Owari had a bodycount now. And not in the sex sense, but in the murder sense.
It all made sense, Minnie thought. Outside, the clouds flashed by as Hailey's private jet cut through them. Bobby had been growing apart from Owari, and wanted to pull him back. That was what he'd been spending all his time on, instead of texting her during her internship. Minnie understood the importance of friendship, even if she thought he ought to have told her first. But those problems had existed before Owari had even begun skipping down the slippery sanity slide, hadn't they? (They probably hadn't. Owari had probably always been a little bit cracked, even before the start of the school year. She was a woman, after all, and women always knew.)
Opposite her, Hailey was loudly saying that Takeda hadn't known anything, that he (quick glance up at Minnie) and Bobby had been slaving away for Impakt and only Impakt for months, and that if the press had anything to say about it, they were going to get (vulgarity vulgarity vulgarity) sued into the (vulgarity vulgarity vulgarity) ground. She stamped her foot for emphasis.
Their boyfriends were waiting for them on the tarmac. Hailey and Faith had their requisite tearful reunions, but Minnie hung back, unsure. But then Bobby opened his arms, and she rushed forward and threw her arms around him. "I missed you," she said into his neck.
Bobby patted her back. She felt his hand graze her bra strap. "So did I," he said. "So did I."
So maybe she wouldn't do anything drastic yet. She'd let things settle down. See if Owari's little stunt convinced him to be more mature. Owari was more than enough drama for their entire school year.
There was a notification on her phone when she took it out of her purse. Max was coughing exaggeratedly as she stumbled out from her bedroom, waving imaginary clouds of dust away from her face, but Minnie didn't look up. The number wasn't registered, but she knew whose it was. "Vacuum it yourself," she said, and stomped past Max into her own room.
When was the last time Bobby had suggested a date? Had he even suggested those dates of his own volition? Myoga and Takeda were romantics, but Bobby... he'd just fallen in with them. Minnie didn't want to demonize him. She liked Bobby. She liked his hair, his eyes, his muscles, his smile. But besides those, there wasn't really much else, was there?
Minnie shook her head, then looked up guiltily, even though she was alone in her room. Being beside Bobby again, being his adoring girlfriend, falling back into the roles that they'd played for half the year - it was the easier path. Her parents had come around, and their opinions were the only ones that counted. (Well. Her grandfather wouldn't be happy, but he was never happy.)
Bobby rolled his eyes when she initiated PDA. (When he initiated PDA, she had to slap his hand to keep him from groping her in front of the whole school. She was his girlfriend, not some common slut. How dare he?) He rolled his eyes before using her pet name for her. (She had to come up with her own pet name. Who does that?) He rolled his eyes when she used her pet name for him. (This was the least of his sins, but it still rankled.)
"As long as you're happy," her mother had said, sounding doubtful. What if she'd put her foot down? What if she was making a mistake? Minnie leaned forward, buried her face in her hands. Spots danced in front of her eyes.
That night, she dreamed she was in an unfamiliar bedroom. She walked into the bathroom, mind blank, and stared into the mirror. She couldn't recognize herself. Bobby wrapped his strong arms around her, and she raised her head to kiss him, but he'd turned into a swarm of insects.
"Max," she said. "I know you vape. Lend me your vape."
Max goggled at her and made an abortive grab for her phone from where it was on the coffee table, but didn't pick it up. She pinched herself. Minnie wasn't amused. "My spare is in the leftmost drawer of my desk," she said. "Second from the top."
She typed out a message in the lift with shaking hands, stalked out of the lobby, and went to the side of the building. Her first toke made her cough, but she wasn't the type to give up easily. She inhaled and exhaled sweet-tasting smoke until she felt more in control of herself, and that was when she saw Liam emerge from the lobby, trying not to look excited. She called out instinctively; he saw her and jogged over.
"I didn't know you lived here," he said.
"Neither did I," Minnie said stupidly. They looked at each other.
"Same building," Liam remarked, casually. "Again. What are the odds?" They were standing too close together. People would see. However far away they were from Shiketsu, people would see. Minnie stuck her (Max's) vape into her mouth again. Liam's eyebrows crept into his hairline. "I didn't know you vaped."
"I didn't," Minnie said. "Not before today." She pushed him faux-playfully (or real-playfully, she wasn't sure), trying not to think about how much softer he was than Bobby. It wasn't all about looks. She knew that now. "I'm just... expanding my horizons."
Liam looked uncomfortable. "Listen," he began, taking a step back. "You're attractive, Minnie. I like you. But if you're doing this to get back at Bobby -"
"This doesn't have to be about Bobby," Minnie said, a little sharper than she should have. "We're friends, right, Liam? Just friends?"
"Minnie -"
"If we're just friends," Minnie said, in a rush, "then it doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean anything. If I don't say anything to Bobby, and you don't say anything to Bobby, then it doesn't mean anything." She swallowed. "And we haven't been doing anything, really. Just talking." They'd done nothing but talk. She knew Liam wanted more, but he was holding himself in check. He could hold himself in check. Bobby could too, but he'd be in a bad mood all the while. "No" always meant "Later". Minnie knew her boyfriend well.
Really, even Liam would be a better boyfriend than Bobby. She'd had to drop hints about her favorite color before he wised up and bought her a gift (probably at Myoga's or Takeda's urging), and it hadn't even been the right shade. He'd come to her apartment often enough to be familiar with it.
"Sure," Liam said, strangled. "Just talking."
"We can't grab lunch together," Minnie continued, "Or dinner. Like in Korea. But we can still chat." She imagined inviting Liam to the 1-D table. Would that encourage Bobby to do better? Did she even want Bobby to do better? Was she the problem?
"If you've been having relationship troubles," Liam said, like he'd told her last week over army stew, "you should ask Bobby for a break." He swallowed, straightened up. "Don't - I don't want you to do something you'll regret before that."
Minnie watched him head back into the building and wondered why her chest hurt so much.
"Fuck," she whispered. It didn't make her feel any better.