Cafe Noir - Worcestershire, England. 2023
The smell of rich coffee floated around the busy cafe, and even though it was stuffed with men in three-piece suits, it was uncomfortably quiet. No one spoke asides the irritated customer and the pale overworked waitress. Even the coffee machine tried desperately to be quiet but groaned as it made yet another cappuccino.
Alix Withers sat uncomfortably in the window seat; he had always disliked the hard chairs and the poorly insulated windows. It seemed so low end for such high-end prices, yet once a month he sat there, awaiting his long-term friend for their regular catch-ups.
It wasn’t long before Alix spotted Barry lumbering through the sea of people. He was a large man with a barrel-like belly that had apparently never been neglected. His face framed with a bushy bronze beard and messy hair that had been slicked back under a baseball cap. That day's newspaper being held loosely in one of his bear-like hands.
Barry looked very out of place among these businessmen, Along with Alix. Alix was shorter, firmly built and stylishly wore his silvery blonde hair, and his aviator sunglasses covered at least half of his face. The two of them certainly did turn heads, not that they cared. Two things on the newspaper's front page stood out, but Alix only cared about the one. He snatched the paper and flicked it open and scanned intently over the words, his unusual mahogany eyes flicking from left to right as he read.
"They still haven't found her. Barry, I’m getting tired of waiting,” Alix muttered to himself and let out an irritated sigh. He laid the paper on the table and leaned himself back into the chair with a heavy sigh.
“10 months and counting, they’re still searching. But look at this, illness is floating around by London. 16 dead already. Symptoms are welting rashes, vomiting…” Barry read the article out loud, ignoring the disgusted looks he was getting from people.
“Baz, that’s enough… People are trying to eat.” Alix leaned forward and propped himself up on his elbows, he slipped off his sunglasses and folded them, before letting them rest in his pocket.
“I’m going to look for her myself.” Alix looked directly into Barry's curious green eyes that hooded with a heavy frown at his comment. Alix was deadly serious, and that’s what bothered Barry the most.
“You’re no detective, Alix. You can’t.” Barry raised his voice a little, but his body was still relaxed, asides that heavy frown.
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“No, But you are.’ Alix stared so intently into Barry’s eyes. It felt like he was searching his very soul, plucking out the most tender information.
“No, I have police training.” Barry looked away uncomfortably, noticing how the cafe had been much emptier than before. Possibly the end of the business men's lunch.
“21 years special forces training, 12 years of that was in criminology, come on Baz. I miss her, you know I do,” Alix asked desperately.
Barry let out a bear-like growl and began to rummage through his trouser pockets to pull out a packet of cigarettes, much to the disgust of Alix.
"Thought you were giving up the fags.’ Alix rolls his eyes with irritation. He had known Barry long enough to realize he had crap self-control, especially with smoking. Barry ignored his comment and lifted himself up, almost tipping the table over in the process. Alix groaned and followed suit, putting down a fiver onto the waiters counter as he hurried past to keep up with the angry oaf. Barry was already sucking on the end of his fag. His enormous lungs drained the entire thing in under a minute. Alix had only just pulled out his vape by the time Barry was done, which earned a bothered look from Alix.
“So, are you in?” Help me out here dude.’ Alix fired up his custom-made box mod and took back a lungful of sweet tasting lemon tart vapour. The nicotine thankfully took an immediate effect on his brain.
“No,” Barry retorted firmly and watched Alix blow a fluffy white cloud into the faces of a poor elderly couple, briefly engulfing them before the wind whipped up the vapour for itself.
“What? Why? You always wanted to do this. To….to be a hero and help people. It was all you wanted to do at one stage.” Alix pleaded and stuffed his vape back into the back pocket of his dark jeans, and slipped his large aviators back on.
“I’m not a hero. Look, Al, I just don’t want to be the one to find the beaten remains of her body. I don’t want to be the one to tell you she’s dead, or tell you she’s disappeared off the face of the earth.” Barry hooked off his cap to rake his fingers through his wild brown hair.
“I’ve prepared myself for the worst. Ten months is a long time to be missing, Baz. I don’t care if we find her body, at least then we can give her a proper funeral and bury her next to her dad. I’d feel worse if we didn’t find her. This is your chance, Barry! A chance to finally prove yourself!” Alix was starting to get desperate now.
“And what with this illness going around? What if-” Barry mutters to himself, deep in thought.
“I don’t care about this bloody illness. We will wear respirators, and take hand sanitizer if we have to.” Alix’s frustration was starting to show by now.
“If anything goes wrong...Anything...You’re in deep shit, Al.” Barry thrusts a hand out in front of himself, which was soon thankfully shook by Alix’s much smaller hand.
"Thank you, Bro, This means the world to me.” Alix smiled and tugged his friend close for a quick brotherly hug, patting one another on the back firmly.