Meeting again (1)

Sophie and Ava - two girls who became casual friends after being assigned together for a social subject's assignment during few first months of their freshman year. Their friendship didn't instantly click when they first met but because they both didn't bother to form their own clingy cliques like other girls, they were just fine with each other's presence. The assignment required them to sit next to each other for few weeks during the classes and subsequently Sophie became accustomed with that seating arrangement. Ava also didn't bother to change her seat since they had no issues during their assignment period.

Time fled by so quick and three years had passed. Sophie worked at one of the big companies in East City while Ava took over her aunt's coffee cafe business. The places were relatively close so Sophie often had her breakfast there and picked up Ava for dinner if they planned to go eat outside. It could be said that they met each other almost every day and supposedly with Sophie's personality, she should have gotten annoyed with Ava's everyday stoic expression and not contacted each other after college ended but she didn't. Ava was one of the few exceptions.

Sophie disliked maintaining any relationships as she was the type who easily got bored of people and things so she avoided making commitments if possible. Even her job at the big company - Star Inc. was a contracted one year term employment. Well, since she came from rich family background and her parents didn't mind of her being rottenly unemployed daughter, Sophie stubbornly lived her life this way. But she still couldn't escape from marriage issue and this inevitably stressed her out.

This situation made her reflecting her three years and possibly many more years friendship with Ava. Most of people would find so difficult to deal with Ava-type of people but to her, Ava wasn't much of a hassle. At least forgetting birthdays, friendship-anniversaries, weekly/monthly/yearly parties and etc wouldn't need her to spend a fortune to fix this unforgiven mistake. Plus with Ava, she could speak bluntly and Ava's responses were no lies and no fakes. You could hardly find people like this nowadays and these were among her top reasons why she could remain interact with Ava till today.

So the main question here was there any Ava's male version who's still single to become one of her blind date's candidates? Reliable men got hitched fast.

Ding!

"Dine-in. Hot americano and a pack of tomato sandwiches. Table at the left corner."

Sophie, as usual, went to Ava's cafe and quickly ordered her breakfast at the counter before immediately went to the far end corner which perfectly suited for single seating table. She would normally alternate the breakfast menu and table every time she went there and occasionally she would leave feedback on the menu and the cafe environment when she felt like to do so.

It took around 5 minutes to get her order ready and being the regular customer and friend to the owner, Sophie's order would be delivered by Ava.

"Hot americano and tomato sandwiches," said Ava while gently putting the food tray on that small round wooden table. Ava was careful with the food as to not spilling them on Sophie's stuff on the table.

"Thanks." Sophie gave a very short reply and Ava went back to the counter afterwards. They kept their interaction briefly and no greetings needed. They didn't really talk much with each other and even texts and calls were rarely exchanged between them. People would naturally think both of them were strangers to each other however that wasn't it. Their friendship was really a simple one but meaningful.

Sophie was borderline friendly and always maintain amicable conversation with others. But when people tried to get close to her, she would carefully and politely draw the lines. While Ava was often criticised for her stoic mannerism. She would only speak for important things and didn't voluntarily engage with any personal topics. But if someone asked her, she would reply them without much thoughts as if she could predict their queries and obviously many times she got questioned for her emotionless personality every now and then. She would then blurt out the same reply - 'Ask me again when I have the damn answer'. Her honest and straightforward responses often offended other and subsequently people would stop asking and ignore her. Fortunately she didn't avoid human interactions at all despite the judgement she received from the surrounding.

Sophie once asked Ava. "Aren't you hurt? Although we both stand closely next to each other, people will only say hi to me and pretend to not notice you."

"No. Being visible only when they need me isn't that bad. At least I'm excused from their fake pleasantries. Once they get what they want from me, they will go away. That way I don't have to deal with unnecessary dramas."

Hearing that, Sophie calmly nodded her head. What Ava said was true though and their friendship started the same way too. They tolerated each other for the sake of the assignment but soon they grew closer a bit because Sophie partly was like that too and she could understand Ava's thoughts.

How did people like Ava can get through school days just fine without getting bullied? Ava would give in voluntarily but she didn't let them lead her around by the nose. If what they asked were too much, she was brave enough to stand up for herself and most importantly she's got what it needed to be a lone wolf. Top student and exceptionally smart people like her won't need others but it was the opposite. Teachers accommodated to her needs for the sake of the school's prestige and the acquaintances asked for her notes to score exams.

Most people thought that Ava was the gifted student but she wasn't. She knew what she needed so she manipulated her strengths to shadow her weaknesses. Meanwhile, Sophie was the one on the talented spectrum and she was born with a silver spoon. They neither take advantage nor competing with each other so their friendship was among the purest one.

Recalling these, Sophie smiled faintly while she sipped the warm coffee few times and slowly bit the sandwiches. She wasn't in rush so she could take her own sweet time to finish her breakfast. When she was almost done, Sophie took out a plain memo and jotted down few words on it before slipping the memo under the two third empty coffee paper cup with few dollar bills. She then walked out from the cafe without bidding goodbye to Ava and walked towards her company building's direction.

Ava noticed Sophie's dismiss. Habitually she went to clean up the table where Sophie had her breakfast. Sophie never failed to leave behind the exact dollars of her order amount so Ava would then take the bills to the cashier to settle the bills. Ava catched the sight of the memo and momentarily she thought it was Sophie's occasional review. Instead, the memo had different detail and without any qualm, Ava crumpled the memo before throwing it into the dustbin along with other trashes.