The coffee shop smelled like Christmas when I walked in\u2014rotten eggnog, burnt pie, and BO. I pinched the bridge of my nose, of all the days he chose to stop living up to my expectations, it was on the day that more than anything I needed to guzzle the world\u2019s largest coffee\u2014as advertised on the chalk signboard\u2014in peace.<\/p>\n
I drew in a deep breath\u2014through my mouth, because there are some smells you\u2019d rather not be in your nose\u2014and winded my way through the overcrowded tables to one in the back corner populated by a man in a stained crimson hoodie with the hood pulled up over a baseball cap.<\/p>\n
He grunted and pushed one of the cups of coffee closer to me. I watched as it sloshed over the sides of the cup and dribbled onto the table. I clasped my hands in front of me on the table and leaned forward. \u201cWhat\u2019s this all about?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good to see you, Sam,\u201d he grunted. \u201cThanks for coming out on such short notice.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSure. Whatever. Are you in trouble?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy would you think that?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause the only reasons you\u2019ve ever called me in the past decade is because you needed something.\u201d I tried not to breathe in too deeply in his presence.<\/p>\n
\u201cFine. I was trying to be\u2026 nevermind. I finally found it.\u201d He hauled a box out of his rank backpack and dropped it on the table. He\u2019d wrapped it in dark green paper with snowmen and Santa hats all over it. Plaid ribbon wrapped about it several times and finished in an oversized, lopsided bow.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFound what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt<\/em>.\u201d He gestured at the box. \u201cIt\u2019s in there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA Christmas present? You really shouldn\u2019t have. I didn\u2019t get you anything.\u201d I reached for the end of a ribbon.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t open it in here!\u201d He hissed, grabbing the box and jerking it toward him.<\/p>\n \u201cIs there something alive<\/em> in there?\u201d I demanded, watching as the box shook.<\/p>\n Hey pressed a finger to his lips, \u201cKeep it down, don\u2019t want to draw attention to us, do you?\u201d<\/p>\n Ten\u2026 nine\u2026 I made it to four before I had to release the giant breath I\u2019d been holding. \u201cEverything about you draws attention.\u201d I pitched my voice low so as not to carry. \u201cIf this is such a sensitive matter, why did you want to meet in a public location?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cToo many smells. It\u2019ll make it harder for them to find us.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re rather easy to pick out in a crowd,\u201d I objected. I dug my thumb into the throbbing ache in my left temple. \u201cI knew you were here the moment I walked in.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut you didn\u2019t know which person I was.\u201d I raised my brow and stared at him until he slumped forward. \u201cYeah, but you know what I look like. What to expect.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou think whatever\u2014whoever\u2014is looking for you won\u2019t?\u201d<\/p>\n He pushed the battered box across the table again. \u201cI\u2019m hoping they\u2019ll be too busy looking for me to notice you.\u201d<\/p>\n I slowly pulled the box toward me. \u201cWhat do you want me to do with this?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUse it to open the portal. Send me home again.\u201d He stood up. \u201cBlend in. Don\u2019t get caught.\u201d He leaned over the table and breathed into my face. I gagged. \u201cYou have a quarter of an hour until the cloaking wears off. Use it wisely.\u201d<\/p>\n I wrapped my hand about his wrist. \u201cCall me when\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll be in touch.\u201d<\/p>\n Knowing my luck he would show up at my work. Or worse, at my dad\u2019s house on Christmas morning. Again.<\/p>\n I waited a few minutes for him to leave them brought the cup of lukewarm coffee to my lips. If I choked in down fast enough I might be able to finish it before the permeating stench overpowered me.<\/p>\n I set the mostly empty cup down on a couple of crumpled ones I found at the bottom of my purse. I balanced the package on my hip and picked my way through the thinning caf\u00e9. Nothing caused as big a stir as bumping into somebody while invisible.<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n The package stared me down from my battered kitchen table. I had a fresh cup of coffee clasped between my palms and sat crisscross in one of my rickety wooden chairs. The box jerked and hopped an inch.<\/p>\n Definitely something alive in there.<\/p>\n I took a long sip of coffee. Did I really want to open the package? No. But I\u2019d made a promise. More than that, I owed him.<\/p>\n I unfolded from the chair and swigged back the last dregs. Time to see what was the key to opening a portal to a demon dimension.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The coffee shop smelled like Christmas when I walked in\u2014rotten eggnog, burnt pie, and BO. I pinched the bridge of my nose, of all the days he chose to stop living up to my expectations, it was on the day that more than anything I needed to guzzle the world\u2019s largest coffee\u2014as advertised on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[422,1004,1200],"class_list":["post-9607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","tag-flash-fiction","tag-short-story","tag-unexpected-gift"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9607\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}