CASSIE'S COFFEE HOUSE

The late hour has brought a hush over the coffee house. The night's performers have cleared out and so has most of the audience, though they have left empty cups, dirty plates, and crumpled napkins in their wake. The staff is now bustling around to clean up as the few remaining patrons share giant mugs of coffee and quiet conversation.

Molly and Danielle, each holding her mug carefully in its saucer, sit down on an empty sofa in the middle of the room.

"This was a good idea," Molly says. "I was hoping we'd have a chance to sit down and catch up."

"Me, too. I figured it would be done best away from the hospital," Danielle says.

"Yeah, probably a good idea. Gosh, I am so glad to see you! I was hoping you'd come up to see Brent."

"The timing just happened to work out. But I'm glad I could be here for him. When we heard about the fire--God, I just thought the worst ..."

"I know," Molly agrees, her eyes widening as she relives that initial fear.

Danielle touches a hand on her friend's knee. "Brent told me about Tim. I'm so sorry to hear that."

Molly lets the comment soak in for a moment. "Thanks. It's hard ... There are days I can hardly believe he's gone, and some I don't want to believe it. But it gets easier, from what I hear. I hope."

"It does." Danielle sighs and then takes a drink of her coffee, letting it coat her insides with warmth and calm. She didn't realize how frazzled her nerves had gotten. "It is so nice to see all of you again, but it seems like there's so much ..."

Molly completes the thought with a raised eyebrow and half-grin. "Drama?"

"Yeah. And speaking of drama ... I didn't want to get into this back there, but I ran into Andy at the hospital."

"Andy was there?"

"He came to see Brent. But that's the weird part."

"That he came to see Brent?"

"No. I'll get to that in a second." Danielle pauses to pull the story together in her head and realizes that the encounter has been running nonstop through her mind. "I was out in the hallway and he turned the corner all of a sudden, and there we were. There was no getting around it."

"Did it go okay?"

"Yeah. It was fine. We got to catch up a little bit and it was actually very pleasant ... Better than I imagined it would be. I was so worried that he would be full of bitterness about what happened."

"Andy's not like that," Molly pipes in.

"I know. But ... he got hurt pretty badly, Mol. I wasn't sure how he'd react if we saw each other. Though to tell the truth, I was hoping to see him. I needed to have it all resolved."

"So how'd it go? Did you resolve things?"

"I guess so," Danielle says. "I had some things that I needed to say to him and he had some very nice things to say in return. I think the whole thing was a little bit awkward, but I guess it had to be. I'm just glad he's doing well."

"He is, I think. He's having more trouble with his mother--"

"He told me about that. And that's where things got weird, actually. We were talking about that whole situation and then all of a sudden, he just said he had something to take care of and took off."

"Just like that?"

"Yeah." Danielle stops, resting an elbow on her knee and using her hand to support her chin. "I wonder what it was he had to do so suddenly."

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