“Hey Park,” Eden said as he slowly approached the counter. “Cappuccino today? Or you wanna do the flat white again?” She began to take a fresh cup off the stack next to the register, her pen ready to scribble down his order.

“Oh, cappuccino is fine,” he said. He always seemed timid when they spoke, not at all the same demeanor he had with Meg. He looked over his shoulder, watching the door.

“Looking for your wife?” Eden asked, as she rung in his order to the computer.

“My wife?” he asked, his cheeks coloring. “No, Meg’s not my wife.”

“Oh!” Eden said, acting surprised. She had never really thought the two of them were married. “I’m sorry, I just assumed…”

“It’s okay,” he said. “We are just…close. You know?” He smiled, but he looked so uncomfortable that Eden almost felt bad about her plan to pry information out of him.

“I have friends like that too,” she said, an attempt to ease his nerves. The man was practically bouncing on his toes from anxiety. “How long have you known each other?” she asked.

“We worked together some years ago,” he said. “And, we recently just…ran into each other in the grocery store.” He laughed. A nervous laugh. The kind of laugh you do when you’re hiding something that you’d rather not say.

Eden didn’t press anymore. She handed the cup off to Annie as she took Park’s payment. “That was fortuitous!” she said. “It’s like a movie.”

Park just smiled, but he also bit his bottom lip. He glanced away from her, towards the door, just as Meg walked in. She was wearing the black heels today, black blazer with bright pink pants. Her hair was styled into soft curls around her face. She took off her sunglasses as she came towards the counter, reaching for him with one arm. They hugged, greeting one another as if they hadn’t seen each other in years, completely ignoring the fact that Eden was standing not two feet from them.

When Park pulled away from her, he said, “Eden thought we were married.” Then he and Meg both laughed as if it was the funniest thing they had ever heard.

Eden waiting politely and patiently at the counter, knowing what Meg was going to order, but not ringing it in until she was ready.

When Meg finally stopped laughing, she took a long step to the register and said under her breath to Eden, “I mean, if he’d have asked me ten years ago, we would be married.” She laughed at herself some more, and that’s when Eden saw that she was wearing a wedding ring. She tried not to smile too broadly at this bit of information. She couldn’t wait to pick this apart with Annie.

“Iced coffee, room for cream?” Eden asked, not commenting on the information or the scandal that she was imagining.

“You know… today, let me get whatever he got,” Meg said.

Eden froze. This had never happened before. “Sure,” she said, ringing in a second cappuccino and handing the cup off to Annie before she began pushing buttons on the monitor in front of her.

Park and Meg quickly ignored everyone and everything that wasn’t each other. Just like always. Eden watched them from behind the counter intermittently, between serving other customers and keeping the counter tidy. When Annie strolled in, she nearly ran to the backroom to intercept her.

“Meg is married, but Park isn’t. They used to work together but lost touch for a long time, and then ran into each other at the grocery store.”

Annie was tying her around her waist. She didn’t say anything as she retied her ponytail and put on her visor. Eden watched her slow movements, tapping a finger against her arm as she waited. Finally, Annie took a long drink out of her water bottle, screwing the cap back on, and then placing it in the cubby next to her bag and her keys. “So,” Annie began, “it’s not a possibility, but he still wants her.”

Eden grasped onto those words with glee, the secret burning her lips even as she spoke it. “But that’s the thing! I think she wants him too!”

“Did she say something to make you think that?” Annie asked. They both began moving back towards the counter, the door to the back room continuing to swing as they exited the store room.

Eden dropped her voice. “She said, kinda under her breath, that if he’d asked ten years ago, they would be married.”

Annie’s eyes widened for just a moment before a slow smile crept across her face. “Oh, I see,” she said. “So there’s trouble in paradise.”

“She didn’t say anything about her husband to me,” Eden said. Her eyes trailed across the coffee house, resting on the friends as they talked, leaning forward into each other, all smiles. Meg’s face was particularly glorious today, and her black curls were shining just like her expression. She was wearing golden earrings that flashed in the light every time she laughed. She was beautiful.

There was a customer at the counter. Annie moved around her to greet the man and take the order. Eden moved towards the espresso machine to get started making his drink. A line formed behind him, and Eden and Annie didn’t get a chance to talk any more about Meg and Park for a long stretch.

But Eden watched them as they left, hugging one another for a long time (although this time there was no peck on the cheek). They split from one another in the parking lot, each going their own way. Eden wondered if Meg’s husband knew about these meetings with Park. She wondered if Meg was as happy with him as she was when she was here in the coffee house. It didn’t seem like she could look at anyone else with the same intensity as she looked at Park.

“Maybe she’s that way with everyone,” Annie said later, when there was a lull, and they stood behind the counter with their arms crossed, feeling tired and ready for shift end.

Eden looked at her watch. They only had twenty minutes left. “She’s never that way with me,” Eden said. She picked as a thread coming loose on her apron, wondering what the end goal was for either of them. Why would a married woman meet up with a man, especially if she felt such joy like that around him, if she was already happy with another man? Why would a man continually meet a married woman—and kiss her!—if he wasn’t trying to start a relationship with her? It was clear now that the two were not simply friends. But they weren’t quite at the beginning of a romance either. Or were they?

“You know, we don’t know if these are their only meet ups,” Eden offered.

Annie nodded. “So you think they are having affair?”

“It’s the only thing that makes sense,” Eden said.

Annie grimaced as if she didn’t agree. “I don’t know. They see too nervous around each other for that.”

Maybe that was true. Eden didn’t know. And really, it wasn’t her business anyway. But they were right there in front of her face at least once a week, and she just wanted to know what was going on.