People Watching

By Jay Mally

A story of one man's struggles with his head and heart when it comes to love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Oct 23, 2016
• ISBN: 9781326825324

Book preview

People Watching

People Watching

By Jay Mally

With thanks to Danny and Simone.  Thanks for the inspiration

Chapter One

It was a cold and sunny January day.  All the festivities finally over.  Jason just hated the Christmas period and was waiting with anticipation for normality to be back. 

Jason a middle aged singleton now for the last ten years, enjoyed his almost daily ritual (work permitting), of his early morning coffee at his favourite coffee shop.  It was ideally located in the town’s main square which was a large precinct area flanked by shops and businesses. 

He didn’t have much of an outlook on life, the job he did working in a call centre was far from glamorous and presented Jason with varied shift patterns over the course of the week.  Most times working weekends, which to any normal person would seriously interfere with the weekend social events.  But he didn’t mind the hours, he rarely went out anyway, he wasn’t a very sociable person, he just found it hard to talk to strangers in a bar or even in a club.  He had very few friends outside of work, even Mike, his best friend at work, never saw him outside of work.

He had very few interests outside of work, his youngest son, now seventeen and at college was hardly around even though he lived with Jason. The two had a great relationship, just living separate lives. The only real highlight of Jason’s week was his regular visits to his favourite coffee shop.  All the staff knew him and considered him part of the family.  Paul was one of the assistant managers there and always had his coffee ready for him as soon as he walked in the shop, even if there was a queue his drink would be ready and waiting by the time he got to the counter.

The shop was lucky to have a covered veranda outside that accommodated a dozen tables for customers to sit outside.  He always sat outside listening to his music, watching the multitude of people walking by busy going on their way.  He had a favourite time of day for his coffee, 8.30 in the morning.  This time was ideal for people watching (which he enjoyed doing), there was the mix of the regular crowd, going off to work and then the shoppers starting to fill up the square.

Jason had been doing this ritual for the last three years, ever since he moved into his flat that was literally a five minute walk from the town centre.

He was a very private man, not easy to get any information from.  At work he was known as the charmer, he had a great knack of calming down angry customers quickly, as well as having banter with some of the female staff, but always in a fun way nothing serious.  He enjoyed chatting to the female staff, mainly because Jason didn’t really enjoy the ‘man’ stuff that much.  Not a big sports fan or going out with the lads for a drink.  It just wasn’t in his nature.  Mike on the other hand was a quiet, intelligent family man, happy for the most part and somehow knew what kind of topics to talk to Jason about.  Mike was probably the only person in his life who he felt he could confide in if needed.  Even Mike didn’t really know that much about who Jason was.

Chapter Two

The one constant in his life was music.  He had a wide taste in