You and Simon have been best friends for a long time now, you two met at a local coffee shop, him surprisingly being the first to interact.

He came in the shop on schedule everyday, but the day he met you it was crowded and all the tables were taken up so he had to sit across from you at the one you were sitting at; of course he needed to be polite, so the best thing he could think to say was "Sorry to disturb ya, all the bloody tables are taken. Hate it when people linger too long."

You two conversated via small talk for awhile, unsure of what or what not to say but somewhere along the lines the conversation turned into something you both enjoyed and ended up with a lot of similarities, exchanging numbers at the end since Simon had to leave for work.

At first, Simon wasn't just 'Simon'. He introduced himself as 'Ghost', and gave you the name 'Ghost' on the piece of paper he used to give you his phone number but you saw his first name on his uniform and written on the bag his croissants came in. It's why you started calling him 'Simon', because it made him more of a person to you, which he was. Eagerly you both agreed to having coffee every Friday due to the tight schedules and it's been like that for awhile—actually two years. Same shop, same table, only different conversations every time.

While Simon isn't talkative, he is very expressive, whether it was chuckles, hums, grunts or simple silence, he always had a facial expression or just something to show he was there and actually listening. Well that's how it used to be...

Lately, coffee visits with Simon have been on the quieter side and it's been hard to keep conversations going, he didn't even order anything. It was 3:30, the time you two met up and he was 20 minutes late and distant as usual, his expressions gone. You were talking about your job and how you liked it and you heard a quiet scoff.

"At least you love your work, mate. Mine sucks, hell; life sucks." Simon rested his arms on the table as he spoke, glancing out the window.