The Cage
Atlanta, GA
United States of America
December 2016
“Was he that bad?”
“What?”
“You’re looking awfully chipper today,”
Elsie snarked, tying her brown her up in a ponytail. Jian gave her a pointed
look but said nothing, not wanting her words to aggravate him as much as the
prior weekend did. “Was it because of what happened during the weekend? You owe
me a few stories, by the way.”
“Stories?”
“Mhm. You never really take Saturdays off
unless you’re really, really sick or unless you need to go back to Taiwan.” The
other said nothing, though sighed internally. Elsie was, if anything,
observant—but maybe too observant for her own good. Jian inhaled and counted to
ten before looking at her. Elsie kept looking at him, waiting for him to
answer. He knew that she wouldn’t exactly back down without an answer she
thought was satisfactory enough.
“I didn’t have a good weekend,” he answered
shortly. Jian glanced at the mirror in the staff room and straightened his
collar, “That’s all there is to it. Nothing more, nothing less.”
“But you’ve gotta admit that you might have
spent some time with someone during the weekend,” she sang. Jian gave her a
look.
“What made you assume that?”
“You’ve got a tiny bit of something here,”
she poked his neck lightly, making him curse. There was a hint of bruised skin
there, and Jian knew that it came from the curly-haired male he had spent
Friday night with. “Spill it, J. What happened?”
“It was just one night.”
“And?”
“It—” It
went extremely well. We consented to everything that happened. We had fun. We
were happy. We enjoyed. “I don’t think we matched that well.”
“And the hickey totally tells me that you
didn’t enjoy it,” Elsie said, smiling just a little bit. But Jian shook his
head and turned away from the mirror.
“It didn’t work out between us, Elsie.
Incompatibility and everything.”
“Why not give it another try, then?”
“I just don’t think it’s going to work,
unlike you and the girl you’ve been seeing lately.” Elsie’s cheeks turned pink
and she slapped his arm.
“She—we—that’s different. And you’re
deflecting,” she accused. “He’s the guy you’ve been serving more and more
lately. You two looked way into each
other throughout the past few weeks, why stop and cut everything off now?”
“It’s complicated.” Elsie looked like she
was going to snap back, but her phone rang and she saw a familiar name on the
screen. She looked conflicted between answering the call and questioning him
further. “Take the call, Elsie. I’ll handle the front for a while; I don’t
think there’s much anyway. It’s only early morning.”
“…fine. But you owe me a story,” she gave,
answering her phone and immediately smiling upon hearing the person on the
other end. Jian took the chance to leave the staff room, taking the front where
luckily no one had come in yet.
He exhaled and ran his fingers through his
hair, unable to speak or do much. Jian couldn’t doubt that what Elsie had said
hit a nerve; he knew perfectly well that he and Mack worked together. They
worked well, blended well—better than how he did with people from his past.
But he couldn’t deal with that.
His phone vibrated yet again in his pocket
and he took it out momentarily to see who had sent the message. Maybe it would
be the Korean from Kang Ent., maybe it would be the manager, maybe it would be
his sister all the way in Taipei—
But it wasn’t.
From: Mack Thomas
Hey! Want to have lunch later?
My team’s busy. Maybe you’re
interested?
He wasn’t sure whether to admire the
other’s tenaciousness or to be annoyed. Either way, he kept himself from
replying.
“You should stop being moping and just
agree to go out with him,” Elsie suddenly said. Jian jumped a little bit and
cursed, earning an amused look from her. “Seriously, J. Before you know it,
he’ll have moved on to someone else and you’ll just be here, polishing glasses
and kicking yourself in the ass for not pursuing him any sooner.”
“You should stop reading from behind my
shoulder.” She shrugged.
“Not my fault you didn’t hear me come into
the room.”
--
The day went on as usual.
It was slow, but not too slow that they’d
have to worry about closing later than usual just to get more customers. It was
just the right amount of work that Jian could get lost in; robotically going
through the motions as if it was nothing while at the same time comfortable
enough to ease into his thoughts.
He found himself worrying that Mack would
come—with his squad mates or by himself. But as the hours passed, Mack didn’t
arrive at all. Jian found himself slightly thankful but also disappointed at
the same time.
“Upset?”
“Don’t,” Jian warned. Elsie could only
smile, shaking her head before tending to another customer. Before Jian could
get back to work, she suggested that he take a break for at least a few
minutes. “Elsie, I’ve got this.”
“No, you don’t. Go to the back and have a
few minutes before you confuse the vodka with tequila.” Unable to do anything
else and knowing that arguing with her would result in failure, Jian ended up
going back to the staff room to rest and regain his thoughts, even for just a
couple of minutes.
It was like she knew. A couple of moments
after she heard the door click, a messy-haired male entered The Cage as if
looking for someone. Elsie’s eyes spotted him immediately, and after serving
her most recent customer, she waved him over with a gentle smile. “Looking for
someone, sir?”
“I am, actually,” he admitted. The fellow
had brown curls, light eyes, and wore rounded glasses. “This might be weird,
but you guys have an employee named Jian Lee, right? I—I’ve been meaning to
talk to him.” At that, Elsie raised her brows ever so slightly. “I last saw him
Friday.”
“I know him. But he’s been out of town
lately,” she replied, lying through her teeth with a sympathetic look pasted on
her face. The other’s face fell. “I think he had to see family. That might be
why he hasn’t been answering you.”
“That makes sense,” he sighed. “Thank you.”
He turned to leave, Elsie asking if he wanted a smoke or a drink. The male
shook his head before leaving, and she gave a small huh before tapping her other co-worker and asking for him to take
charge. She darted to the staffroom soon after, seeing Jian with his eyes
closed and leaning against one of the seats.
“Some guy came in just now, you know that?”
The Taiwanese jolted, looking mildly
panicked. “What?!”
“He was looking for you. I told him you
weren’t here.” Jian’s face relaxed slightly, but he still looked dubious.
“What, you thought I was going to rat you out? You think really lowly of me,
J,” she joked.
“What did he look like?”
“Tall, a little lanky? Curly brown hair and
glasses. He was wearing a hoodie, some university one I can’t remember.” She
paused. “That was him, wasn’t it?”
“I—yes. It was.” Jian exhaled and sank back
against his chair, “Jesus.”
She frowned and watched him for a few more
minutes. “You aren’t saying much about what happened. And you probably won’t,
will you?”
“Not yet.”
Elsie sighed. “Fine by me. Take a few more
minutes and then come back out, okay? I don’t think we’ll be over-timing tonight,
but you should still finish your shift before we close up.” Jian nodded and she
left, the male exhaling into his hands and closing his eyes yet again.
Mack had come by, checked if he was there,
and left.
Jian realized that Mack wasn’t set on
giving up. There were feelings. There were so many feelings that Jian wasn’t
sure where to start—
And he didn’t know if he wanted anything to
do with those kinds of feelings.
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