glass & patron

[Judith Haddock]

Another customer comes in and she steps ahead of Lucas to take his order. Her parents had been begging her for years to reach out, citing their break in friendship as a reason why they couldn't get together with the Petersons as often (because wine club every two weeks wasn't often enough). Judith had managed to avoid Peterson parties since high school and had buried Lucas in the past. Until Huey meddled. "Luke," she hands the customer the worst latte on earth, "you're talking too much." She leans against the counter and looks at him blankly, "I really mean congratulations about the poem, but obviously this is a trap and I'm not interested."

[Deleted]

"Anna used to say the same," he says, for the first time today remembering his former colleague. But he drops the cool act, knowing deep down that she could see right through him anyway. She'd always had that gift. "I'm just excited to see you." She stops what she's doing to look at him when she speaks, obviously wanting these words to land and they do, though he pretends otherwise. "You think a poem I wrote three years ago and never mentioned to you is a trap?" He asks, wilfully obtuse. Before she can answer a group of moms come in, wrestling strollers through the narrow door, leaving a trail of pacifiers and plastic toys in their wake. They order baby cappuccinos and an array of coffees with every milk alternative imaginable, keeping them both busy for the next fifteen minutes. Once the order is cleared and the women are attended to, Lucas brushes his hands against his apron, leaning on the counter from the customer side to speak to Judith. "I know what you mean. I didn't put him up to this, though I'm glad he did it. I'm sorry that you're not. I'm gonna go out back and sort the stock cupboard, I'll give you some space. Call if it gets busy."

[Judith Haddock]

"What an odd thing to be excited about," she speaks in a monotone. Judith watches as moms pile in and shoots Lucas a final look, "not the poem. Huey is a trap." She doesn't even try to fake a smile as she takes the moms' orders. This is her worst nightmare. All these moms with their ombre hair, oat milk lattes and iPhone Instagrams. Jesus Christ. What a frickin life. "I just don't know what you're so glad about??" she replies once they've left, the smell of their sugar sweet perfume lingering in the air.

[Deleted]

Lucas taps his fingers on the counter, leaning back and returning to full height, planning on leaving her to it and busying himself in the back. Before he can she responds, making him pause. He thinks about it, wondering what he can say that won't be trite, or come on too strong. Looking at her, he gives a little shrug. "You know I missed you Judy, you know I regretted what I did. It's just nice to see your face, to hear your voice again, speaking to me. It's nice to see you looking well."

[Judith Haddock]

For the first time that morning, Judith takes a good look at him. The baby fat has disappeared and his hair whisps around his forehead. He looks the same as always, but more refined than the preppy teenager she never knew. She frowns, her lips pressing together and she tries to resist, but ends up cutting him off anyway, "am I clicking my heels and chanting 'there's no place like home?' Please don't. There's literally no worse name than Judy. " She rolls her eyes and steps back, "Adele said people treat you differently when you glow up. I didn't really think much of it until I got home and you guys started taking note."

[Deleted]

He's done it, he's finally said something provocative enough to get under her skin. "Sorry, Judy." Barely seconds later, she too says something provocative enough to bother him. It takes him a moment to process what she's said. She's implied that other people from their town hit on her, which bothers him slightly though he disregards that. What truly gets under his skin, making his brow furrow and the smile slip from his face, is that she's implied that he's shallow. It casts their former friendship in a different light, and he's deeply bothered by it, notoriously sensitive to that one accusation. "I meant looking well as in to see you alive and following your passion," he says, monotone, trying to restrain himself. "I've actually always thought you were pretty, so don't project your insecurities onto me."

[Judith Haddock]

She's struck a nerve and it doesn't feel as good as she thought. Her cheeks colour pink as embarrassment seeps through her. "Just don't call me Judy," she pushes a fallen piece of hair behind her ear, "it's insanely uncool." She's saved from further confrontation when a couple walks in. Judith is thankful to make their overly fussy coffee orders and send them off with a couple of baked goods. Although she worked here on and off, she was notoriously terrible at her job. Every bad review belonged to her, she didn't care enough to please the person behind the counter. Huey just wanted her out of the house, he'd said as much. "I'm really bad at coffee," she says as she dumps sugar into a fresh cup, "Huey keeps sending me here and I think it just gets worse?"

[Deleted]

Lucas is sulking now, leaving her to serve customers whilst he slopes from table to table, wiping already immaculately clean surfaces. He's really riled by that one minor comment, much more so than he ever would have anticipated being. How could she lump him in with those guys? Sure, he'd cosplayed as one for years, but never all that convincingly. He had started dating Emmy because she was hot, sure, but they'd lasted three years... he's deep into this mental monologue, defending himself against accusations that weren't even levied at him, when she speaks and he's forced to look up. "I asked if you wanted any help," he says, still tetchy. Hearing it in his voice makes him realize how dramatic he's being and he softens, coming back around the counter to stand beside her. "Listen, I've been working as a barista since college. We can do a crash course."

[Judith Haddock]

Judith had looked at Lucas as her equal. They shared their childhood and were tied to each other by their parents, but it was also a friendship that she had come to rely on. She'd never thought him gullible, until Emmy had chosen him. And then he was just different. He transformed into a stranger overnight and now she felt he was bullshitting. "I said I didn't," she takes a sweet sip and rolls her eyes when he offers a crash course. "I like being bad at it, it's my Haddock claim to fame." Judith drums her fingers against the counter, she feels less spiteful and more awkward. "Huey and mom are still putting money into our wedding fund, I think. I caught saw a board on mom's Pinterest."

[Deleted]

"Damaging your dad's business is your claim to fame?" he says, apparently deciding that being decent was no longer a reasonable option. As if it mattered, in this town of so few options. Lucas was a sensitive boy, always had been, and he can feel awkwardness radiating off of her. He feels the same way but he's better at hiding it, having learnt that survival skill when hanging out with the in crowd and having to spend every day pretending that it wasn't weird as hell to him. He laughs at her comment, nodding. "I was living with a girl in Boston, together for a year or so. We broke up just before I moved back, when I told my mom she literally mentioned you as a much better option. She's never listened when I've tried to tell her you hate me. Justifiably, I'll add."

[Judith Haddock]

"This isn't his business, it's like.. his fancy office," she scoffs, "he complains when there's people in here!" As you would expect from a novelist, Huey Haddock was a character of a man. She loved her parents to pieces, but they sometimes so eccentric that it was confusing how they functioned in society at all. "Yeah, I brought my ex home from Christmas and my mom whipped out the photo album to show him pictures of us," Judith frowns and laughs. "Did you ever notice that our mothers literally put us in wedding attire? Like at least 7/10 parties were spent with me in some form of white dress? Psychotic."

[Deleted]

He grins, her family filling him with such warmth that it almost rivalled his own. He'd never felt that full weight of being an only child, not growing up so entwined with the Haddocks. "How are your brothers?" Lucas laughs, a proper, deep, real laugh at the thought. "Honestly, they were like deranged fangirls, shipping us like their lives depended on it." Another customer comes in and Lucas serves them, a question stewing in his mind as he does so. He feels bold enough to ask it, having nothing left to lose... except maybe a little dignity. "Did you ever see me like that? It was so forced down our throats it never really occurred to me... I guess we were young."

[Judith Haddock]

Judith begins to settle. If she was going to be here for an eight hour shift, she may as well learn to relax. Her face wears the miss the feels for her brothers. They were her best friends and Covid had made seperation from them more difficult. "Evan's at Julliard, kicking orchestra's ass. Ryan's saving whales. They're happy." She laughs a little. She thinks that their moms just wanted to have some sort of family tie and to be more than best friends. 'To share a grand baby!!!' she can hear her mother's voice in her head, half teasing and half wishful. She doesn't expect his next question. She bites her lower lip, "c'mon now, you know I only had eyes for Adam Sandler and ramen." Good save.

[Deleted]

Lucas makes himself another coffee, nodding along as she speaks. "Evan and I still speak sometimes. You must miss them," he says. The three of them had been surrogate siblings to him growing up, and it was only when he messed everything up at fourteen that he finally came to know the true loneliness of being an only child. Somehow, Emmy had never really eased that loneliness, and it's only now that he's here speaking to Judith about her family that he realizes the full extent of what he lost. He was going to have to write another poem. He laughs, shaking his head, "fuck, you and Adam Sandler. There's one thing I didn't miss at least. Did you like Uncut Gems or did you think it failed to live up to his previous masterpieces Big Daddy and Little Nicky?"

[Judith Haddock]

She nods. Evan had told her as much. Her younger brother had always looked up to Lucas, even if not especially when he descended into popularity. Evan still talked of Lucas as though he was a celebrity. Judith watches as he makes another coffee, so much more eloquently than her own. He does it with so much ease and quietness that it's a form of art. "Devastated. It ruined me," she holds a straight face, "first of all, how did he get so old? Are we old? Second of all, how dare they kill him?" The air has changed and she's not trying as hard to be a bitch. Another sip of sweetness hits her tongue. "But really I don't think I reached the maturity to have feelings till recently. Boys were gross - especially you."

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