“I agree. I like talking to you too.”
After that, we sit for a long time staring into each other's eyes without saying a word. The irony of that situation isn’t lost on either of us, and yet the trance can't be broken.
“How long are you in Seattle?” I ask.
“Just a couple of days. Long weekend. I have a flight out on Monday.”
It's Friday now. Not counting today, that gives us two full days. That's two days short of the lifetime that I want to spend with her.
“Can we not talk about it?” she asks.
“What?”
“I know that I'm leaving soon and I know that our reunion was a lot better than I ever thought that it would be. I couldn't even imagine it being this magnificent, but I'm leaving and I'm leaving to go back to my new life. I don't want to talk about that now. I don't want to talk about us being apart or what our future holds. I just want to enjoy our time together.”
I nod and agree to those terms even though on the inside I am screaming. I want to talk about the future and what's going to happen on Monday because I can't not have her in my life anymore.
This year has been excruciatingly painful. I stayed busy, I worked too much, and the days slipped by, but I wasn't exactly living. I don't want to go back to that.
I want to make a plan. I want to have something to look forward to. Even if she does go back home, I want to know when she will come back.
“What do you want to do while you're here?” I ask as casually as possible.
She smiles and looks out somewhere into the distance.
“I want you to show me around your marina and hotel. I want to visit the Space Needle and I want to sail around on this boat.”
“Anything else?”
“Hmmm,” she says with a coy smile, tapping her finger on her chin.
“I wouldn't mind going to that famous Fish Market where they throw fish at people.”
“That’s the same place.”
“Can we go to the first Starbucks?”
“Yes, I think so, but I don't know where it is.”
“Well, you just have to find out because I've never been here and I want to see it all… with you.”
“I like that,” I say, giving her a big smile.
Reaching over, I intertwine my fingers with hers. She squeezes my hand and I squeeze back.
“This is going to be our first official date,” she says.
“What about all that stuff that happened at your house and our road trip together?”
“It happened, but that was when you were Tyler McDermott. Now you're Oliver Beckett and I've never been on a date with Oliver before.”
2
Isabelle
After finding out about Rachel in that unfortunate way, I tried to get over it and not give it much thought. I believe Tyler when he tells me that they had broken up, not just because I want to but because he also said the same thing to her when she first walked in on us.
She has made a lot of threats that I know are weighing heavily on Tyler's mind, but I don't want to spend the weekend worrying about the future.
Worrying has never gotten anyone anything and though sometimes it's inevitable, for now, I'm going to try to put it out of my mind.
That's why I suggest that we go on a date. Now that Tyler is Oliver Beckett we can be in public and be normal people again. I want to go out.
When we were first together, life was nothing like this.
We were always in hiding.
We were always on the run.
Tempers elevated, consumed with worry.
I want to know what it would be like to actually just be with him. Just the two of us, a regular couple spending a weekend together.
I want to go on a walk.
I want to go to a restaurant.
I want to go to the shops.
I want to do everything that normal people do.
I love Starbucks and, of course, I want to visit the location of the first store. It's located in the famous Pike Place Market right on the waterfront where they toss the fish around in that demonstrative way.
Last night, Tyler drove me over to my hotel and I packed my suitcase and moved to his boat. We woke up around eight and arrived at the market by nine. The first thing I noticed is the modest 45-year-old sign, which only resembles the green mermaid logo that they're using today. It's a sketch of what the logo would become later on and the thing that strikes me the most is not how weathered it looks, but rather how brown.
The rich smell of coffee permeates outside as we get into the long line that curves around the side. The people around us are all tourists like me, making a pilgrimage to a place that has defined their lives.
Perhaps it's an exaggeration to say that a coffee chain defines one's life but for those of us who are fans, I can't imagine going more than a few days without visiting the establishment.
It's this place I think about when I remember studying late into the night in college.
It's this place I think about when I remember awkward dates and fun ones.
“Told you there would be a lot of people here,” Tyler says, looking a little bit annoyed.
“Are you worried about… that?” I ask, dropping my voice while I say the last word, suddenly realizing that being in a crowded place all clumped up together is probably not a great idea for an escaped convict.
Tyler pulls his hat down more over his eyes and pops his collar. It's drizzling again and, looking around, I see that he looks like every other guy here.
Bored and in need of caffeine.
“It's not that,” Tyler shrugs. “It's just that there's probably another Starbucks two streets over, so why bother with this line?”
I smile, shaking my head. I exchange a significant glance with the woman behind us and she also shakes her head.
“It's not about just having a cup of coffee. It's the fact that this is the place where it all began.”
“This isn’t the first Starbucks. This is the place they moved to in 1971. The first one was on Western Avenue,” Tyler reads off his phone. “But that one isn’t around anymore.”
“This is the first one that stuck around,” I point out. “This one hasn’t changed since then. “
“You realize that this is a chain, right?” he asks. “It's one thing to go to some ancient site where a battle was fought and stand on the ground and imagine what it would have been like, but this is a store.”
I know that he is joking, except that he's also not.
“You just don’t get it,” I say.
“No, I don’t. Explain it to me.”
I take a deep breath.
“Okay, there may be more than 20,000 locations around the world, but this is the beginning of it all. Yes, it's not the only one, but that's what's so special about it. You can go anywhere in the world, almost, and remember what it was like that one time you spent hours studying for a test at one or just got away from a busy day at work and read a good book while drinking a good cup of coffee.”
As the long line inches its way to the entrance, I glance to the glass, the floors, the fixtures, and the counters.
Everything here is one-of-a-kind.
The sign at the top of the awning has the name and crude topography, placing one letter in each window. Even the glass looks original and untouched. Inside, a friendly barista takes my order and I can't help but add a mug for souvenir.