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[stand_unshaken]

 

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[stand_unshaken]

[He lets the message sit a little, because he needs to figure out what he thinks about it. In the end, recalling their very drunken fight, he decides it's good.

Honest. That's good.]

I appreciate you letting me know. Thank you.

[dog_eat_dog]

[She's not sure if it was ever realistic to expect enthusiastic praise or anything, or if she even truly wants it, but the impossibility of reading tone over text nags at her anyway. Maybe he's fine with this. Maybe he's pissed.]

No problem.

[stand_unshaken]

You okay?

[dog_eat_dog]

I’m fine.

[A pause.]

Are you?

[stand_unshaken]

Fine. Just fine.

[dog_eat_dog]

[Tess decides old men are not to be trusted with text messaging, and apparently, neither should she.]

OK.

Lunch?

[stand_unshaken]

Sure, I can do lunch. Half an hour?

[dog_eat_dog]

Yeah that’s fine.

[She’s reasonably sure she can pull herself together in half a minute, but thirty works too.

She’ll be there a few minutes early anyway. Just because.]

[stand_unshaken]

He's there a minute or two late, but not out of rudeness. He sees her across the room and points at the coffee machine-- want some?

[dog_eat_dog]

She nods, sure, thanks, and crosses the room to join him. He doesn’t look pissed, so maybe it’s really all fine and she doesn’t have to have her hackles up either.

“You know, I’d never thought I’d be a coffee drinker,” she remarks. “Guess you’re rubbing off on me.”

[stand_unshaken]

He pours her a cup, first, and hands it over.

"Why not? Not so much coffee left I guess?"

[dog_eat_dog]

“None whatsoever,” she replies, taking it. “A whole lot of people would kill for this.”

[stand_unshaken]

"I try not to go anywhere without it," he admits. "Cut back on the cigarettes, but can't quit the coffee."

[dog_eat_dog]

"And you drink it black to boot," she remarks, amused.

The corner of her mouth turns up.

"Someday," she adds, "I am going to take you to a Starbucks in the Enclosure and introduce you to the coffee I drank when I was a teenager."

Or what passed for coffee, anyway. She's sure he'll hate it, but it'll be fun.

[stand_unshaken]

"I'm guessin' it'll be amusing, considering the way you're saying it," he says. He doesn't mind.

"Let me get something to eat, and we can sit down."

[dog_eat_dog]

“It’s fancy, city-folk coffee that costs like eight dollars,” she replies. Which is probably several thousand to him or something, Tess has no idea. “I’ll get us a table.”

[stand_unshaken]

"Eight dollars?"

He looks at the back of her head as she goes. What the fuck?

He's still a little dazed as he comes to sit down by her, sandwich on a plate, coffee in hand.

[dog_eat_dog]

Tess grins when he sits down. Coffee talk is far more fun than business with the Brew.

"Alright, maybe I'm exaggerating a little," she replies. "Maybe closer to six dollars."

[stand_unshaken]

"You're killin' me," he informs her, seriously. He also doesn't really get inflation.

[dog_eat_dog]

"All the stress I put you through, coffee prices is what does it?" she laughs.

[stand_unshaken]

"Well, what kinda future do I got to look forward to, coffee becomes that expensive?"

Come on!

[dog_eat_dog]

"How much is a coffee in 1899?"

[stand_unshaken]

"Couple cents, you buy it somewhere," he says. See his problem? Awful.

[dog_eat_dog]

"Okay, but you can probably buy a house for a couple hundred bucks, while for us it was three hundred thousand! It's all relative."

[stand_unshaken]

"Alright, alright, geez."

He waves an old-man-hand and sips his coffee. "Point taken. Things change."

He doesn't have to like it, but.