In the twelve minutes and thirty-seven
seconds that had ticked passed since they’d sat down, the server had walked
past three times.
The
closest bird had chirped nine times.
She
drummed her fingernails on the table twenty-one times.
They’d
each taken three sips of coffee.
No
one had said a word.
Finally,
at the fourteen-minute mark, Tony cleared his throat. “Look, at some point,
during these conversations, I think someone is supposed to say something.”
Darcy
shook herself out of her shell of uncomfortable silence. “Right,” she nodded
and took another sip of her coffee. “Um.” She pressed her lips together in
thought. “Invent anything good lately?”
Tony
frowned. “Lewis—” he stopped and corrected himself. “Darcy.”
She
swallowed with some difficulty and countered him. “Tony.”
“I
know this isn’t…” he stopped again and sighed. “We could have started out
better, right?”
Begrudgingly,
she let him have that one. A freak mix-up in bloodwork in the medical wing of
Stark Industries and suddenly Darcy Lewis was Darcy Stark. She’d been slapped
in the face with the knowledge that the father she’d never had was now also the
boss she’d never met. Not even her boss. Her boss’ boss. Darcy’s first instinct
had been to ignore it. There was nothing in the bylaws that said either of them
owed the other one a relationship.
But
Tony had tracked her down in Jane’s lab and asked her out for a cup of coffee. “One
coffee,” he had promised. “No refills. Just…have a conversation with me.”
And
that hadn’t been the worst cup of coffee she’d ever had, so she had suggested
they try again in a few weeks.
So
here they were.
Only
they were such strangers that every conversation still felt like the very first
one. Awkward. Stilted. Unsure what—if anything—they had in common. She was
afraid to ask about Tony’s relationship with her mother. She didn’t want to
hear him say he didn’t remember the woman who had raised her entirely on her
own. Who’d been both parents for twenty-eight years until her death two years
earlier.
And
then there was Tony himself. Unable to help herself, she’d stayed up nights
scrolling through story after story of the sex scandals, Playboy Mansion
appearances, and red carpet escapades that peppered his brilliant contributions
to technology. It was a lot to take in.
“But
I just found out that you’re my daughter,” he gave her a brief, almost sad
smile. “And I don’t know you at all.”
She
sighed and took another sip of her coffee. “I’m not…y’know, I’m not trying to make this weird. But I just…I
don’t know what you want to know about me.”
“Anything,”
he said simply. “Everything. Whatever you want to tell me.”
She
opened her mouth to respond and closed it again in thought. “I’m a Cancer and I
hate miniature golf.”
Tony
nodded. “Good,” he said briskly and clicked a pen from his pocket into action. “I
too,” he paused and wrote out her words on a café napkin, “hate mini golf.”
“Well,
good,” she said, a smiling coming to the corner of her lips. “We can not go mini-golfing together.” She
raised her eyebrows. “What else do you hate?”
Tony
frowned in thought. “Cauliflower.”
She
nodded. “Noted.”
There
was a pause before his next question. “So…you and Steve—”
She
held up a hand. “Nope.”
He
looked surprised. “We’re not going to talk about Steve?”
“We
are not going to talk about Steve,”
she reiterated. “Nor are we going to talk about anyone you are having sex with. Past, present or future.”
He
nodded again. “Good,” he said, dropping his eyes to write again. “Good.
Boundaries are good.”
She
mirrored his nod and took another sip from her mug. “Any topics that you want
to declare off limits?” she asked, raising her eyebrows over the rim of the
cup.
Tony
laughed. “I’m not sure we’ve got that kind of time.”
These cafes operate on a pay-what-you-can model and depend on your donations and support to ensure our sustainability. Panera Cares cafes provide suggested donation amounts for all menu items to help you understand the cost of “paying it forward” and assisting those who struggle with food insecurity.
The funds collected are used to cover the operating costs of the cafes while also covering the cost of the meals for those who come in and are unable to contribute the suggested donation amount for their meals.
Tasertrickslove 