A Favor

I'm at a coffee shop waiting for Christian. I have been waiting for him for the last twenty minutes. He texted me earlier saying he needed to ask me something urgently.

I don't know what it was, or how urgent it was, but I have been waiting here and I was starting to get irritated.

"Lesley?" I look up at a surprised Michael staring at me.

"Hey Michael." I smile at him and he walks over.

"What are you doing here?" He sits down.

"Drinking coffee?" I point towards my half cup of coffee and he nods.

"Are you here alone?" He asks and I nod. "Want me to keep you company?"

"I'd love for you to, but I'm waiting for someone." I checked my phone for the umpteenth time.

"Oh." His smile drops a little. "Is it Billie?" He asks but doesn't let me answer. "It's been a while since I've seen her." He glances at the door. "I should wait to greet her."

"It isn't Billie." I corrected him. "It's Christian."

His smile disappears. "Christian?"

I nod. "He texted me saying he wanted to meet up." I took a sip from my coffee even though it was already cold.

"So you guys meet up for a chat now?"

I knit my eyebrows together. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's just that I didn't know you guys were this close."

Still confused. "What?"

"The first couple of months Christian moved here, you were always complaining about how you hate him and how you despise his presence, but now," He chuckles. "It's like you're best friends."

What?

"It isn't even up to three months he has been here."

"Exactly my point!" He raises his voice, a little irritated.

"Michael." I call his name. "That isn't it. It's not like we're best friends. And it's not like I hated him. I just-"

"And now you're changing your words." He interrupts me.

"Why do I feel I'm being interrogated?" I ask him instead.

"There's no reason for you to feel that way. I just want to know what changed your judgment in just a few months." He sits back.

The relationship between Christian and I isn't toxic. But I wouldn't say it's all roses either.

I'm not even sure if we have any kind of relationship at all.

We've gone back to our usual bickering but now, I kinda feel a sense of relaxation around him. One that I didn't feel before.

We spend more time together, we see each other more often but nothing more than that. There's truly nothing.

"Judgements change all the time, Michael. It's normal." I explained.

He stares at me for a moment and sighs. "If you say so. I'm just concerned for a friend and I don't want you getting hurt." Once again, I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Why would I-"

"There you are." Another voice interrupts us. We both turned to Christian. "Martin? Mark? Marcus?" Christian was facing Michael. "I'm sorry I keep forgetting your name."

"It's Michael." He answers as he stands up. "Although you have no reason to remember it."

"Alright." Christian steps aside for him. "Well, it was nice seeing you, Malvin." He says and sits down while I chuckle softly.

Michael turns to me. "I'll be seeing you around Lesley."

"Bye." I wave and he walks away. "I'm pretty sure he doesn't like you " I turn to Christian.

He takes my coffee. "I'm happy I don't have to remember his name each time we meet anymore." He smiles and I roll my eyes. He takes a sip from my coffee, and scrunches his face. "Your coffee is cold." He shifts the cup back to me.

"I didn't realize. I wonder why it's cold." I fold my arms together.

"Wouldn't that be your fault?" He asks. "For not drinking it?"

I sighed. "It's cold because I've been waiting for you for the past half hour."

"I'm sorry I'm late." Be apologies and my words get stuck at the tip of my tongue.

I was expecting him to say something else. To bicker about it or to say something corny.

Not flat out apologize.

"Did you have an accident on your way here?" I asked suddenly.

"What?" He looks at me surprised.

"Or are you sick? Are you injured?"

"What's wrong?" He glances around nervously.

"You've been apologizing outright lately. You don't even act proud or anything. You just apologize straight out. I'm scared."

"Is that what it's about?" He laughed in relief. "I was scared for a moment. My class dragged out longer than expected." He explains.

"Ahh." I nod I'm understanding. "But aren't you supposed to be like it's not your fault, but the professor's?"

"I can be very human, you know." He argued.

"Sure, of course." I rolled my eyes. "So why did you call me out?" I changed the subject.

"I need your help with one of my assignments."

"Um Christian, just in case you don't know, I'm a law student, not a science student." I reminded him.

"Of course you are. It's nothing difficult I promise. It's not science related." He quickly added when I was about to argue. "It's more history related."

"What does a science student have to do with a history course?"

"Exactly my point!" He raises his hands in frustration and sits back. "Our professor asked us a question, and when none of us could answer, he went all berserk and told us to write an essay on how mankind was created and the impact of science ever since it was made."

"And for you to write that, you need to write out the history of mankind, history of science and how they both came together." I state.

"Yup. All that and more."

"Then go meet a history major."

"C'mon Lesley. You're the closest person I could find."

But not the only person.

"Law is far from history."

"But you did learn the history of Law, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but-"

"See! You know. Little about history then "

How's that the same?

"Just please help me out okay?"

"I'm not sure I can be of help to you. Why can't you just go butter up a female from that major? I'm sure they'd be willing to help you."

"But I want you Lesley."

Why does that have a totally different meaning in my head?

"Please?" He pleaded.

I sighed. "Are you with your laptop?"

"Yeah." He nods.

"Then let's get on with it."

He's surprised. "Now?"

"We're both free now, aren't we? It's 3pm now and I have nothing to do. It's a perfect time to start. Unless you want to move it? Start tomorrow?"

"No, no, no." He quickly denies. " Let's get started. I'll go get my laptop from the car." He stands up.

"And I'll get us coffee."