“Good morning,” Logan said to Kyle as he opened the door of the coffee shop.

“Good morning,” Kyle answered as he smoked a cigarette.

“No smoking inside,” Logan reminded Kyle, who stayed right outside by the door.

“I know, I know,” Kyle said as he finished the cigarette and threw the cigarette butt to the floor and stepped on it. “I still don’t get why I can’t have my own key,” Kyle complained to Logan as he put on his dark blue apron. 

“You haven’t even been working here for a month,” Logan explained as he put different trays with pastries on the pastry display case. 

Kyle looked in silence to Logan as he organized different things around the shop. “How is your face?” Kyle asked Logan.

“The bruises are completely faded and it doesn’t hurt when I move it but my stomach is still bruised but it doesn’t really hurt,” Logan said with a smile. He was glad that he wasn’t in pain anymore.

“And what about the ring?” Kyle asked.

“It is still stuck on my finger but it hasn’t done anything in this couple of weeks,” Logan said as he looked at the ring in his finger. “I have to say that I haven't felt my finger since then,” Logan said, a bit worried. 

“If it doesn’t hurt you, you shouldn’t worry about it,” Kyle tried to reassure Logan. 

“I guess,” Logan sighed as he continued organizing things.

“Can I ask you something?” Kyle asked as he leaned in the counter.

“Shoot,” Logan said without looking away from what he was doing.

“If we ever find out the person behind all this, what would you do?” Kyle asked Logan, making him stop what he was doing.

“I really don’t know,” Logan started to say as he thought hard about Kyle’s question. “Perhaps death could be a fitting punishment, after all, you can’t leave a sinner unpunished, can you?” Logan said as he looked at Kyle. “Then I’m not a god so I can’t really decide about someone’s fate freely, sinner or not.” Logan finished explaining. “So I really don’t know what I would do,” Logan said, with an unreadable expression on his face, as he looked at the ring on his finger and started to clean dirty dishes. 

Kyle looked astonished to his friend, in the three weeks they’ve known each other he hadn’t once said something like that. As if Logan could feel the uncertainty in his friend’s mind he started to talk again without looking away from the task he had at hand.

“Don’t look so worried, it doesn’t suit you,” Logan said with a faint yet gentle tone as he rinsed the dishes. 

“But-,” Kyle started to say before Logan interrupted him.

“Is not worth worrying about something like that, you even said so,” Logan said with a faint laugh at the end. “If we ever find out,” Logan said, recalling his friend’s words from before. “We could spend our whole lives searching for that person and never find out, then wouldn’t it feel silly to have ever worried about it?” Logan said, looking away from the wet dishes and interlocking eyes with Kyle. 

“I guess you are right,” Kyle said, a bit defeated after hearing his friend’s reasoning.

“Of course I am, after all, I’m older than you I’m bound to be wiser,” Logan said as he laughed gently. 

“Older? By how much? And how do you even know how old I am?” Kyle started asking as his friend couldn’t stop laughing. 

“I may or may not have taken a peak at your personal file,” Logan confessed once he stopped laughing. “By the way, isn't your birthday coming up? We could do something,” Logan said to Kyle who was a bit annoyed with him.

“There are still a couple of weeks left,” Kyle answered. “And we don’t really have to do anything,” Kyle said, looking away from Logan who was still looking at him.

“That’s nonsense,” Logan said as he waved his hand dismissively. “I’m sure that if Ian and Max knew when your birthday is, they'll want to do something with you too,” Logan said with an unsure expression on his face, not sure if he should keep talking. “It would do you some good to open up to people,” Logan said before leaving the counter and going to the door to put the open sign. 

As Kyle watched Logan go towards the door he kept thinking about his words. “Maybe you are right on this too,” Kyle thought to himself as he sadly smiled to himself and looked downwards. 

“Are you ready to work?” Logan said once he was beside Kyle. 

“I’m always ready,” Kyle said as he flashed a cocky smile to Logan before the first client came in.

***

“I’m going outside to smoke,” Kyle said to Logan as he tried to untie the knot of his apron but he couldn’t reach it.

“I thought you wanted to stop smoking,” Logan said with a curious yet worried tone.

“Believe it or not I’m smoking less,” Kyle said almost proudly with a grin on his face, almost as if he was a child showing their mother a drawing they made.

“I guess I’ll believe you,” Logan said as he started to untie Kyle’s apron. “No more than ten minutes,” Logan said with a fake stern tone.

“There’s just five people, you’ll be okay,” Kyle said as he grabbed a lighter from the counter and headed to the backdoor.

“You’ll be okay,” Logan mimicked once Kyle was outside. 

As Logan cleaned one of the tables that was left alone after a client left Max and Ian entered the coffee shop and headed towards the counter without Logan noticing. 

“You two!” Logan exclaimed in surprise once he saw Max and Ian. “I didn’t notice you two coming in,” Logan said as he put the dirty dishes inside the sink. “Sorry if I made you wait,” Logan apologized to his two friends. 

“Don’t worry we just came in,” Max said to Logan.

“Black coffee to go?” Logan asked Ian, who just nodded in affirmation. “And for you?” Logan asked Max. 

“Hot chocolate,” Max answered with a smile.

Once Logan had the black coffee and hot chocolate he left them on the counter at the same time as Ian was leaving the money. 

“You are not stopping me?” Ian asked teasingly to Logan.

“No, I may or may not have been busted giving you freebies so now you have to pay,” Logan said with a long sigh at the end. “I personally don’t think that a free coffee every once in a while is going to drive us to bankruptcy,” Logan said as he started to pull out the change from the cash register for Ian.

“Keep the change,” Ian said to Logan before he could give him the change.

“A tip? Are we feeling generous Mr. Grant?” Logan said teasingly as he laughed. 

“I can still change my mind,” Ian said seriously to Logan.

“Thank you so much for your patronage,” Logan quickly said with a professional tone. “Now that Kyle is not here,” Logan started to say. “His birthday is in a couple of weeks, would you two want to celebrate it?” 

“I didn’t know that his birthday was in a couple of weeks,” Ian commented to Max and Logan.

“Me neither,” Max said as he sipped on his hot chocolate.

“Well now you know, so what do you say?” Logan asked expectantly.

“I guess we could celebrate it together,” Ian said as he looked to Max for his approval, to which Max only nodded as he continued to sip on his hot chocolate. 

“Okay,” Logan said excitedly. “We can talk about it another day, now leave you are forming a line,” Logan said as he gestured to a couple of clients behind Ian and Max.

“Goodbye,” Max said as he and Ian headed to the door. Logan only smiled and waved goodbye as he attended to the next customer.

***

“Thanks for bringing me home,” Logan said as he gave Kyle his helmet back. 

“You don’t have to thank me,” Kyle said gently as he put away the helmet.

“I know, I know,” Logan said with a dismissive yet affectionate tone of voice as he walked towards his door. “Ah! Before I forget,” Logan said quickly before Kyle could leave.

“What?” Kyle asked as he stepped down from his motorbike.

“Max and Ian came to the coffee shop,” Logan started to say.

“When?” Kyle interrupted Logan, earning a glare from him.

“When you were out smoking,” Logan answered. “Anyway, I told them that your birthday is approaching and they are down to celebrating it with you so it looks like you’ll be celebrating it,” Logan finished saying.

“And what if I don’t w-,” Kyle started to complain before Logan put his finger on his mouth to shut him up. Kyle could smell the lingering smell of coffee that was on Logan’s finger from working all day.

“There’s no use in you complaining, it's going to happen,” Logan said with a laugh. “Now put on your helmet and go home,” Logan said with a faint laugh at the end as he walked away from Kyle without giving him the opportunity to say something back. 

Kyle watched how the breeze moved Logan’s long hair gently, he saw how the golden hairpin in the form of a cross that held down a part of his hair glistened under the last few rays of the sun, he kept watching as Logan took the keys out of his bag and opened the door to go in. Once Logan was inside and in the street there was no one else but him, Kyle put on his helmet as Logan told him and drove away. As he drove down the streets he still could feel the faint and warm touch of Logan’s finger over his lips.

“Whatever you say,” Kyle said in a faint tone of voice with a smile on his face as he remembered the last thing that his friend told him.

When Kyle arrived home he found that his father was nowhere to be found. “At least the house doesn’t smell of cigarette,” Kyle thought to himself as he closed the open windows to stop the house from getting colder. Once inside his room, he laid down on his bed and grabbed the box of cigarettes that was on his bedside table. When he looked at the almost empty box he couldn’t think of anything but Logan telling him to stop smoking. The worried tone of his friend in his mind made him throw the box of cigarettes to the other side of the room. After being on his bed laying down for a while he went to the bathroom to take a shower, when he took off his t-shirt he could smell the lingering scent of Logan’s cologne from grabbing him from behind when they ride together on his motorbike. 

Under the cold water from the shower, Kyle felt the last remnants of the coffee smell that still lingered on his body wash away. 

Once Kyle was finished with his shower he put on comfier clothes and went to the kitchen to make some dinner for himself. Once he was in the kitchen he was greeted by countless bottles and cans of beer, Kyle sighed with a pained expression across his face and started to clean the kitchen. Once he was done he opened the fridge only to be met with an almost empty fridge, without counting the cans of beer. Kyle settled for a sandwich and sat down to eat at the kitchen table. As he ate he remembered the nice smell of home-cooked food at Logan’s house, he was sure that if he asked he could stay for dinner at his house but he also didn’t want to trouble his friend with such a trivial matter. What if he couldn’t enjoy a warm plate of food? Or a nice and clean house or a loving family? Those were his problems, not Logan’s. 

Once he was finished he went back to his room and laid down on his bed, the tiredness of the day started to wash over him and after a few minutes, he fell asleep with a smile on his face as he remembered Logan’s eagerness at celebrating his birthday.

***

"Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up."

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10