I was hating retirement. Everyone dreams about it their whole lives, like it’s some great reward you get for spending so much of your time working. It bored me. Not having a reason to wake up or a set schedule was driving me crazy. I spent 21 years waking up early and following routines between the Army and working classified government contract jobs.

        I don’t think I could sleep past 5 AM now if I wanted to. It only took me a couple of weeks of retirement to naturally fall into a routine despite not being forced to have one. I woke up, cleaned the house, went to the gym then showered. After that I would grab Lillian, my four-year-old slightly overweight beagle, and walk her down to the local coffee shop. I sat at a table outside for an hour or so every morning and watched the people coming in and out while I read the morning paper. I had been doing this exact thing, every day, for over a year now.

Watching people at a coffee shop between the hours of 7-8 AM is an entertaining thing. It always reminds me of the show “The Walking Dead,” just zombies walking around half asleep until they get their daily fix of caffeine. Most people didn’t make eye contact and very few offered more conversation than grunting their order at the barista.

There was one person I always looked forward to seeing, though, and she was always right on time at 7:30. “There’s my girl! How’s she doing today, Bill?” Susan was her name and she drove a shiny new silver Lexus IS. Those are the only personal details I knew about her and that’s the way I wanted to keep it. I spent most of my life keeping my personal life hidden from everyone I knew. There were many years even where I had multiple identities I was living behind in all different parts of the world.  

“Oh she’s great. She was actually just telling me how thirsty she is.” I gave Susan a genuine smile as she headed inside the shop. I think Susan could tell I wasn’t much for talking and I appreciated that she never asked anything about me. We had been seeing each other here for over a year now and after a few months of her walking past me, she asked if she could pet Lillian. Lillian loved the extra attention and it became part of our daily morning.

“Here you go, girl!” Susan returned from inside holding two cups, one for her and the other for Lillian. The coffee shop offered a “dogguccino,” which was just a small cup filled with whipped cream they gave away for dogs. Susan had started getting Lillian one every morning about two months ago and Lillian couldn’t get enough of the stuff. Susan kneeled to pet Lillian and let her enjoy her whipped cream.

“You know Susan, I don’t think Lillian ever had weight problems before she met you,” I joked with her. “Oh stop it, she doesn’t have a weight problem. She’s just a beautiful happy girl!” Susan laughed back as she stroked Lillian behind her ears. Susan was always so energetic and happy. Usually that drove me crazy about people but something about her personality was infectious. The happy beagle finished her cup and nuzzled her face into Susan to show her appreciation. “That’s a good girl. Well you two have a good day! I’ll see you tomorrow, Bill!” Susan stood and held out her hand. I took it in mine and we exchanged a firm handshake. “You take it easy today, Ma’am,” I told her as she walked back to her car.

That was it, my human interaction for the day (if I was lucky) was over and it wasn’t even eight in the morning yet. Lillian and I went home and I tried to find projects around the house to consume the time. I had already cleaned my guns twice this week and hadn’t shot them since last month. The ‘74 Dodge Power Wagon I had in the garage had a new catalytic converter installed and I had to hold off on more work until parts came in. I sat down with a book on close quarter marksmanship tactics and decided I’d enjoy that for part of the evening.

I needed to find more hobbies. I had the morning routine down perfectly, but my evenings seemed to always be filled with boredom. I worked down at a local gun range sometimes to instruct classes. I also spent some of my time working with the police department’s SWAT team and coached them whenever they requested some extra help. But if I wasn’t doing those things, I really had nothing else to do. I was starting to see the value in the whole family and spouse thing. Retired life on your own was not as satisfying as I had hoped.

The next morning, I resumed with my normal routine, as usual. Lillian was lying beside my chair panting, waiting for her own morning fix. I was reading some political article in the morning paper about how terrible everyone who didn’t share this particular authors point of views were. Lillian jumped up on my chair and started to whimper. I looked down at my watch and realized it was 7:42. Susan was late. I found it a bit odd as she was one of the most consistent people I had ever met. She had never been more than five minutes late or early.

I was more impressed than anything that Lillian was able to realize what time it was. I rubbed her head and told her it was going to be okay, Susan was probably just sick or running late. I tried to go back to the paper, but Lillian kept whining. I looked around and realized that Susan’s car was in the parking lot. I tried to see inside but the windows were tinted too dark. I was looking at the car for all of 30 seconds before it pulled out of its spot and drove away. It almost looked like there was a man driving the vehicle.   

That afternoon went by slowly. I couldn’t help but think about Susan and if something was wrong. I wasn’t exactly her friend so it’s not like she would need to tell me if she went out of town or anything. The part that I found strange was that someone besides her showed up at the same place, at the same time that she would have, and that they did it while using her vehicle. Susan didn’t have a wedding ring and she never ordered a second drink to take for anyone. I also never heard of her speak of a boyfriend during the small conversations that we have had.

The next morning I was a bit anxious. Maybe I had just grown bored with retirement and wanted some action, but I couldn’t help but feeling that something was going on. I ordered my venti black coffee with a shot of espresso and waited at my usual table. I was trying to read the paper but it was too hard to keep my eyes from scanning the parking lot. Then I saw it; Susan’s car pulled into the lot and parked right at 7:30. But Susan didn’t get out of the vehicle.

Instead, a large man wearing a flashy black Gucci suit stepped out of the vehicle. He had a neatly trimmed beard and dark aviator sunglasses on. The sides of his head were shaved, and he had a long comb over on top of his head. His hair was all dark and he was pretty tan himself. The suit was definitely tailored to him and it was obvious through the fit that he was a pretty muscular guy. He appeared to be in his earlier 30s, if that. Susan was a beautiful woman who appeared to have a good job judging from her Lexus and the nice clothes she was wearing every morning. I supposed that if she did have a boyfriend, he would probably be someone who looked like this guy. Still, something didn’t seem right about the situation.

The guy walked past me and never looked anywhere in my direction. He kept his head focused towards the door and walked straight in. His left hand stayed tucked into his pants pocket but I couldn’t see any bulges to make me think he was carrying anything inside the pocket.

I was wearing my military issued Oakley M-Frame sunglasses, so I know he wasn’t able to see that I was watching him on his approach. But for some reason I felt like he knew that I was. Something about this guy made him appear to be more than a regular morning coffee shop visitor.

I heard the door open and looked over to see the Gucci suit man stepping back outside. He was holding two cups and he had them turned towards me so that I could clearly read “Susan,” written on the side. Then he did exactly what I didn’t want him to to do. He quickly bent over and placed the second cup in front of Lillian. It was her dogguccino. The man looked directly at me and said, “Susan sends her regards,” all of this happened with him barely breaking his stride. He got in the Lexus and quickly pulled out of the parking lot.

Lillian seemed hesitant at first, she was smarter than to just eat anything that some stranger put in front of her I guess. But after some thought, the temptation won her over and she began enjoying the treat. I felt bad, but I quickly took it from her and threw it away. I didn’t want to risk that guy putting anything in it that could harm her. It seemed cheesy but I couldn’t help but think about the movie “John Wick”. Lillian was pretty much all I had in life. I still had a lot of friends who I was close with, but most of them were still in places even I couldn’t know about. I went inside to get a fresh dogguccino for Lillian, she didn’t understand why I took it away and I felt a bit guilty. These damn animals can turn the hardest of humans into emotional little wrecks.

“Hey there Bill, back for round two?” Jordan was at the register waiting to take orders. Jordan had been working at the coffee shop ever since I moved to the area and started coming here over a year ago. He knew all about my morning routine and how Susan always stopped to chat with me. “Oh no, it’s not for me. I just need to get a dogguccino for Lillian. Susan hasn’t come around yet to give her one and she’s giving me those puppy eyes,” I said to him with a friendly smile.

“Yeah I thought that was pretty weird that guy that just came in. I’ve never seen him with Susan or anything, but he asked for her regular order and said to write her name on the cup. I guess maybe he’s her boyfriend or something and going to take it to her?” Jordan seemed to be trying to explain it to himself more than ask me. He obviously didn’t see anything too weird about the situation.

“I couldn’t tell you, Man. I haven’t seen him around either. Seems a bit odd that he was driving her car.” I made it seem like small talk. That guy wanted to get my attention, and he had succeeded. I didn’t know who he was, but I was going to find out.  

Next Chapter: Action