Coffee and Aspirin

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It was five minutes until five o'clock and Henry was closing up the cafe (again, it's whatever you'd call it). The computers were all shut down and the ovens were cooling from the morning. He was cleaning up the tables when there was a knock on the door.

Henry looked over and saw a teenage girl at the door. He dropped his rag and went to open the door.

"Sorry, we're closed." 

The girl nodded, seeming to already know that. "I know, silly! I was just wondering if maybe... I could get your number. I don't know if you remember me, but I was just in here, a few hours ago with my friends. I um, saw you and planned on asking you out. So, what do you say?"

The girl was quite pretty. Her blonde hair was in contrast to his black and her grey eyes were hauntingly beautiful. However, Henry had to decline.

"I'm- I'm sorry, but I can't." Henry's cheeks flushed red with embarrassment and it seemed that it went the same way with the girl.

"O-Oh, yes," her hand came to twirl a lock of her hair. "Well, I should - um, be going now."

Then she hurried off.

Weird. Henry thought. Of course, had she been a dude, he probably would have said yes, as he was looking more for a daddy than a mommy. Also because he was bisexual and ultimately believed that no one would want him.

^^^
"And he just embarrassed me, Jamie!" Cried Alissa.

Jamie sat across from Alissa, one of his patients, in his office the next day. She was discussing how last night she had stopped by the Dunkin Donuts and had asked out one of the employees.

"I mean, what's wrong with me, Jamie? Why didn't he like me?"

Alissa's lip was trembling as she spoke, and her voice often caught on itself. Alissa was a patient who Jamie had come to know on a very personal level, knowing that because of her parent's divorce, she began thinking low of herself, and had it not been for her older sister catching her committing self-harm, she wouldn't have met Jamie and gotten better.

She typically had trouble having people like her because of her headstrong and often abrasive attitude toward others.

"Alissa, honey," Jamie set his notepad and pen down, going for a more comfortable conversation. "He probably didn't know you well and henceforth, didn't feel comfortable going on a date with you when he didn't even know anything about you."

"So... I just have to get to know him and then he'll like me?" She asked.

Jamie cleared his throat, leaning back into his chair. "Well, you could certainly try, Alissa, but sometimes people just don't like certain people."

She gasped. "What if he's gay?! Oh my god!"

Jamie put his hands out in front of her as a sign for her to calm down. "Perhaps you could ask him if he was, then, if he said no, try to get to know him a bit."

Alissa sighed, digging her fingers into her hair, "Alright, fine. I'll 'talk to him'."

"Good."

***
Henry once again had the closing shift. He had once again been wiping the tables down after cooling the ovens and shutting the computers off.

And just like yesterday, there was a knock on the front door.

Sighing, Henry contemplated whether he should just continue his work so that he could leave earlier than usual or let the girl in.

Henry dropped his rag into the hand-held mop bucket and went to tell once again, that they were closed.

"I know that I was just— okay, listen," she took a deep breath, "Would you want to get together sometime - as a way of getting to know one another - I mean!" She exhaled then looked pleadingly at Henry. "Please?"

Henry furrowed his brows and pursued his lips. No one knew of his sexuality, and if they did, Henry was thankful that they were keeping quiet about it. While Henry enjoyed both men and women, he desperately wanted a daddy and as far as Henry knew of genders, women couldn't be men unless they were gender-neutral but looking at the girl in front of him, Henry took a (not-so) wild guess and said she was of the female species.

"Um, look, hon, I'm older than you, and legally we can't uh - date. So, this thing you have for me, whatever it is, has to stop." Henry told her.

The girl sighed, nodding reluctantly in agreement. She dug through her purse that hung off her shoulder and took out her phone. "Gimme yours." She said, palm awaiting Henry's phone.

Confused, Henry handed it to her and she began typing something in. Then she handed it back to him and left.

Curious, Henry looked at his phone as he shut the door and saw Alissa typed in his contacts. Just one other reminder that Henry needed to get a code for his phone.

Well, it wouldn't hurt to be friends, Henry gave in.