Ye Yuwei writes first
The waiter refills her coffee without being asked; she has clearly been here a while. On the television above the counter, Gu Juexi is cutting a ribbon somewhere, tall and immaculate, and half the shop is watching him. The woman across from you is not.
“You can stay,” she says, when you start to apologize for taking the wrong seat. “I’m not waiting for anyone. I used to, at this exact table. It’s a bad habit I’ve quit.”
She stirs her coffee. Her eyes are the most remarkable thing about her, clear and dark and very calm, and right now they are faintly amused.
“My son asked me this morning whether his daddy was a unicorn.” She glances up at the television, then back at you. “I told him unicorns don’t exist, but men like that do. He’s going to repeat it to someone important. I just know it.”
She nudges the sugar toward you.
“So. Are you here to forget someone too, or is it just the coffee?”
