coffee and tattoos

It was one of the first days of spring, warm and beautiful, and Jordan had decided to celebrate by wearing a dress. Her roommate, long considered the fashionista of the two, only shook her head as she watched her buckle the cloth belt in the front. "You look like a 50's housewife in that thing," Delilah told her, popping another grape into her mouth. Then, gesturing to the ratty old converse shoes Jordan was wearing with it, amended, "Well, a 50's housewife gone wrong."

Jordan splayed the A-line skirt out with her hands, posing and batting her eyelashes. "I do what I can."

"Right," Delilah agreed, and then went back into her room. "I can't decide between the green shirt and the yellow one. Which do you think he'd like better?"

Jordan rolled her eyes but went to see what she'd picked out. Both were set near the jean skirt Delilah had her heart set on, mainly because, as she'd so delicately put it, "It makes my ass look amazing, and if the boy knows what's good for him he'll be looking at it all day." Stealing a grape, she put a hand on her hip and then shrugged. "They're both festive. But the yellow one looks better with the skirt, I think. Don't you always wear the green one with jeans anyway?"

Delilah pet her friend's shoulder. "Good point."

Both girls finished dressing for the day - for Jordan that just meant a coat of mascara and a spritz of perfume, but for Delilah it meant another half an hour of hair and make-up duty, and the trying on of at least four different pairs of shoes - and then walked to class together as far as they could before parting ways, promising, however, to meet up afterwards for coffee at the campus Starbucks.

"You've gotten me addicted!" Delilah yelled at her, shaking her fist for emphasis as she started up the stairs to her building.

Jordan just waved jovially at her in return. "I love you too, darling!"

Her class was one of two literature courses she had for that semester, and the professor who taught the course was one of her favorites. This was the third class she had with Dr. Barb Jennings since she'd started undergraduate, which meant that not only was she entirely comfortable with talking in class and bouncing ideas off of Dr. Barb, she usually ended up staying behind a few minutes after every other class or so to catch up with her. The weather had her especially cheerful and talkative today, though it helped that they were currently discussing Beloved, which was one of her favorite recent reads. Dr. Barb clearly wasn't surprised when Jordan approached her after class to talk about a potential paper topic.

Fifteen minutes later, armed with some possible sources and still slightly in critical literature mode, Jordan left the English building and headed towards the Starbucks. She didn't make it ten feet from the building before she felt her cell phone vibrate in her bag. Knowing it was probably her roommate, Jordan fished it out. "Yo!"

"You stayed after, didn't you?" Delilah asked, sounding amused.

"Yep," Jordan replied. She waved back at a girl who called her name from the other side of the street, a friend from an old class, and then added, "I'll be there in five. You already there?"

"Yes. I've been here for ten minutes, staring at somebody's frappucino because I am a good friend and I'm waiting for you to get here before I order. I am thirsty, Jordan."

Jordan grinned. She could definitely imagine her petite little Arabic friend sulking at their usual table, drooling over some frosty drink she spied across the room. To complete the scene she added some guys spying and drooling over Delilah, which is what usually happened when she decided to leave their apartment, and then remembered that her roommate had had class with the boy. "Hey, so how'd the outfit work out?"

"Well, he definitely stared for an indeterminate amount of time, so I guess it worked out," Delilah observed. "He invited us out to a party this weekend."

"Us? He remembers I exist?"

"Jordan, you were wearing that bright pink shirt of yours with the headless bird. Of course he remembers you."

Jordan laughed. "I love that shirt." It was just one of many odd designs that belonged to one of her favorite bands, who were nothing if not quirky.

"Anyway," she continued, and Jordan imagined her friend was rolling her eyes, "It's on Friday night over at Oakland Heights, which is where your friend Rob lives, right?"

"Yeah." Rob was another friend she'd met from one of her early literature courses. They'd sat next to each other on the first day and struck up a conversation about music right away - Jordan had been wearing one of her quirky band shirts and he'd actually recognized it, and their friendship had snowballed from there. They'd actually gone on a couple of dates early on but had decided they were better off as friends. "I'll have to give him a call and see if he's heard anything. At any rate, I can escape over to his place if you decide you want a little privacy with the new boytoy."

"I may just take you up on that." Delilah paused, and then in her best stalker voice, declared, "I can seeeee you."

Jordan was still a block away from the Starbucks - a small block, mind you - but it was a straight shot from where she was and the dress she was wearing was a bright cherry red, so she couldn't say much. "Creep."

"Bitch."

"Floozy."

"Stepford-wife on acid."

Jordan couldn't rightly see in the building, due to the darkened glass, but could guess what direction her friend was in and flicked her off from across the street. "That was very unlady-like," Delilah informed her then, as Jordan glanced both ways for traffic before crossing.

"I'm hanging up now," Jordan returned, and promptly did so. A few seconds later she was pulling the door open and entering the caffeine haven that was Starbucks. Since it was a campus 'bucks, there was a large number of tables in the place, and there were always students studying or meeting friends between classes. Delilah was at their usual table in the corner by the window, mock-glaring at her. As expected, there were a handful of guys near by, though only two of them seemed to be busy checking out her friend. They looked sporty, and were her usual run-of-the-mill, so Jordan was not surprised to see her friend sitting straight up with her legs crossed.

She was a little surprised to see that one of the guys was actually rather busy checking her out; he was sitting alone, with his black messenger bag on the table in front of him, his chin propped in his hand. He was thin and lean-looking, definitely her type, and she could spy a half-sleeve tattoo peeking out from under his fitted t-shirt that instantly piqued her curiosity even more. Their eyes met for a brief couple of seconds, and Jordan had just enough time to think, Oh sweet Jesus, he's hot, before Delilah demanded her attention.

"Finally!" Her roommate stood and straightened her skirt, and then collected her debit card from her wallet. "Sit already. You want your usual?"

They took turns buying, mostly because tables disappeared in here faster than a sorority girl's virginity, and also because they agreed it was more exciting when somebody else bought your coffee. Jordan set her tote on the table and plopped down in the chair opposite the one Delilah had vacated. "You want me to call Rob now or wait?"

"Please wait," Delilah replied. "You know you can't have a five minute conversation with that boy and I'm afraid I'm going to require all of your attention today."

"Jesus, you're clingy," Jordan teased, and then promptly began searching through her friend's bag for her hand sanitizer as she went to buy the coffee. She was aware that the hot boy with the tattoo was still looking in her direction, but whether he was looking at her or just looking out the window she couldn't be sure without looking at him.

"Hey, I'm getting a muffin, you want one?" Delilah called out at her then. The line wasn't that far away but it required her raising her voice from its usual volume, and inevitably attracted some attention. Her eyes were sparkling with mischief, and Jordan only had to glance over at the table where the sporty boys were to know she wanted that attention.

"No, I'll just eat yours," Jordan replied, leaning her arm over the back of her chair as she stretched her legs out and hooked her ankles together.

Delilah looked scandalized. "Jordan, you are not eating my muffin."

Jesus, she thought, smirking at her roommate despite herself. "Buy me my goddamn coffee already." Now that they had established the sexual innuendo part of their conversation, Jordan wondered how long it would take those two guys to wander over to their table and introduce themselves. She was betting they would wait at least ten minutes after Delilah returned with their drinks, and then they would stroll over in their washed jeans and polos and strike up a conversation. Delilah would smile at them and flirt just enough to make sure they remembered her, and would end the whole thing before either one could ask for her phone number, promising instead to see them around. Jordan, meanwhile, would play the wit and the quirky best friend, and if Dee decided she like one more than the other, she would engage the other by asking him questions about whatever sport he inevitably played.

After three years, she was very good at being the wing-man. Woman. Whatever.

She took out her little moleskine notebook and wrote down the titles of the books Dr. Barb had referred her to before she forgot them, and made a couple notes beside them so she would remember why it was she wanted to look them up in the first place.

Delilah dropped off the slice of chocolate cake she'd bought before returning to the other end of the coffee bar to wait for their drinks. She purposefully didn't bring over the forks because she didn't want Jordan to start eating without her; she also knew, however, that such things as a lack of silverwear never stopped Jordan. She swiped some of the frosting off the top with her finger before going back to her book list.

"Don't even bother looking for that one, I already checked it out," a voice said behind her, and she glanced up to see Rob's grinning face.

"Bastard!" She replied cheerfully. "Been talking to Barb, have you?"

"Every night, baby," Rob returned, winking at her. He leaned down and kissed her cheek and then asked, "How'd your brother's wedding go? That was last weekend, wasn't it?"

"Yeah. It was fantastic. Had way too much champagne, but so did the rest of my family, so it really worked out for the best," she said. "I think he and his lady-friend are back-packing in Germany right now."

Delilah came back then, and upon sighting Rob groaned. "No, go away, Rob! You're stealing my private time with Jordan!"

He held his hands up defensively, still grinning. "You know I would never do that, Dee. Drink your coffee, you'll feel better. In the meantime, I'll be over here, talking to my good friend Aaron and pretending that I'm not thinking about what color underwear you're both wearing." His good friend Aaron turned out to be the hot boy with the tattoo, which didn't really surprise Jordan at all - Rob had a few tattoos of his own, and dressed similarly to the other boy.

Since the opening was right, she glanced back over at Aaron and wondered briefly, as she let her eyes linger, why she hadn't seen him before. Granted, she and Rob didn't hang out all the time, but they both frequented similar circles. College, she thought, and dismissed it, turning eagerly to her chai.

"You touched the cake!" Delilah accused then, and Jordan blinked at her from over the rim of her mug.

"Maybe."

Fifteen minutes later the two guys in polos came over. It took a significant amount of will power to keep the laughter from bubbling over, and even then she had to cough one off and pretend she'd swallowed the chai wrong. Delilah knew exactly what was up, but pretended concern anyway and then told her to "Eat more cake."

About ten minutes into that, Rob glanced over his shoulder and waved her over. Jordan thankfully took the escape offered, and blew Delilah a little kiss as she switched tables. Settling down in a chair in between the two boys, positioned so she could keep an eye on her friend, she muttered, "Thank you for saving me. All I could think about was how much I wanted to fix his damn collar." She was referring to the one in the pink polo who'd 'popped' his; it was one of those fashion trends she just couldn't understand. But hell, to each their own, right?

"I know, pumpkin, I know." He stole her chai and took a sip. "By the way, Jordan, Aaron; Aaron, Jordan. Sorry for my shitty introduction earlier."

Jordan shook his hand, smiling. "Pleasure," she said, and tried not to take too much said pleasure from the way his hand dwarfed hers. He returned the smile, though it was really more of a slight up-turn on the one side, and sexy as hell.

Rob brought her attention to a paper on the table. "Okay, second opinion, since I don't like Aaron's," he glared at the man in question before glancing at Jordan, "Which one of these do you like better? Tom's been drawing the design over and over for me and these are the two I like best."

Jordan pulled the paper towards her and eyed them for a few seconds. Both designs vaguely resembled the tree of life, but one was a little more loopy and symmetrical and the other had a very art deco edge to it. Tom, she knew, was his tattoo artist - she'd actually requested him for hers, just because of Rob's praise for the guy. Hers were nothing like the colorful designs on the paper, but she'd really only wanted to meet the guy and give him a good tip. His drawings were great, and if they turned out anything like the ones Rob already had, would look fantastic on the skin. Jordan especially like the color on the art deco one, so she pointed towards it and declared, "That one."

Aaron grinned smugly, but Rob ignored him as he asked, "Why?"

"The other one is more traditional, and you, Rob, are not traditional. Plus, the color on this is fantastic and it would look better with your other tattoos." She took her chai back from him.

"She's nicer than you are," Rob said to Aaron then.

Aaron shrugged, and said to Jordan by way of explanation, "I called the other one girly."

She smiled, and then inquired, "Have you asked Tom?"

"Yeah, but you know Tom - he doesn't like to influence people's decisions like that, so he always hedges when I bring it up." Rob was practically pouting. The one thing she'd really liked about Rob in that brief month that they dated was that he had really fantastic lips - great for kissing. She found herself wondering how good of a kisser Aaron was and took a sip of her chai to distract herself. Down, girl.

"Do you have tattoos?" Aaron asked her then.

She nodded. "Two. A heart on my leg and this one on my wrist," she answered, turning said wrist over so he could see the writing on the inside. It was the date 5-20-88 in simple black print. Her older brother - the one just recently married - had one just like it. When he repeated the numbers and glanced inquiringly at her, she answered easily, "It was my brother's birthday. He died a couple years ago."

Aaron studied her for a second and then offered, "Sorry to hear."

"It's fine," she shrugged. "He was born sick, and wasn't supposed to live past five. Anyway, I've been working on another design for a while but it isn't what I want yet, so number three is probably going to be a while still."

"Take it to Tom," Rob said, putting the sheet with his own designs away. "Even if you want to draw it yourself, he might be able to suggest something to get you going in the right direction."

"I probably should," Jordan agreed. She noticed that Delilah was starting to look a little strained, and couldn't help but grin. "Okay, I think I have to go save my roommate now. I'm calling you later about a party," she warned Rob as she stood, letting him have one last sip of her chai.

"In my pants," he returned happily.

Jordan just sighed, took back her chai, and tossed Aaron one last smile before heading back to her table. Delilah quickly pulled her back into that conversation, slowly favoring her over the guys, and they eventually got the hint and went back to where they were before. She and Dee left soon after, but not before saying another quick goodbye to Rob and Aaron.

As they left, Delilah cut her to the chase with a smirk. "Let me guess. You like?"

"So cute," Jordan agreed. With any luck, she'd start seeing Aaron around more often.