Order, chaos, and The Girl With The Butterfly Tattoo...

We fight so hard to bring some kind of order into our lives. Some sort of safety. Some semblance of knowledge. So that, on a good day, one plus one really does equal two.

We forget that chaos is the natural state of affairs. Not the chaos of romantic violence. Not the chaos of fear and despair. But the chaos of beautiful unpredictability. Of wild nonconformity and emotional roller coaster rides.

Today is an order and chaos day. In the coffee shop, The Girl With The Butterfly Tattoo has come to drink and be quietly obsessive. Compulsively neat. Disorderly ordered.

Her chair is just so. Her coffee cup even more so. The contents especially so. Nothing is out of place. Nothing that disrupts the harmony. Except her ankle ink. The Papilio Antimachus. The most poisonous butterfly in the world.

I asked her about it once when were next door neighbours on the back wall. He’s called Hector, she said. He’s my protector, she said. I got him so nobody would mess with me, she said. But every guy you’ve gone out with you messes with you, I said.

I know, she said. Hector’s too nice, she said. I think he needs toughening up.

On the other side of the room sits the physical and emotional opposite of The Girl With The Butterfly Tattoo. Smiling in a pile of disarray. Mister Disorderly Conduct. Mister Pierced Everything.

He’s enjoying his spilled latte and he finds comfort in knowing that his life doesn't conform to the laws of the neat and the tidy.

And yet occasionally he looks at her. And occasionally she looks at him. These are not the looks of repulsion or failure to comprehend. They're something entirely different. A cross-contamination of North and South. Without the interruption of East and West.

No blending of similarities here. This is the rule of precision versus the law of the jungle. Step back folks…this could get messy.

There could be pain involved. But there could also be pleasure.

No polite conversation. No getting to know you chats. No small talk. This is getting down to business stuff. This is getting your kit off as fast as you can at the earliest possible convenience stuff.

This is don’t be gentle. Don’t be slow. Don’t be considerate. This is the fast and the furious. The hot and the sweaty. This is car crash lust.

But only from a distance. Only in the mind. Without the merging of bodily fluids. Because nobody’s making a move. Nobody’s flicking the on switch. They’re too busy being cerebral. Too busy getting laid between their ears.

Behind the bar Little Italy can see this. Plain as day. She knows that unless somebody moves their ass, no sweaty business will get done with these two.

So she looks up at the box on the wall and nods. The box has seen this all before. This prelude to a meeting of two different species. It knows the end result. Life finds a way. But time is wasting. So it reaches down and plucks up number 91. Watches as it slides vigorously into place.

The curtains open. Iggy Pop, godfather of punk, is on stage. Bare chest. Raw. Taught as a wire. Stooges at the back.

Halfway through a track. Looks a hundred years old. Still has a six pack. Still has a Lust For Life.

Mister Disorderly Conduct looks down at the feet of The Girl With The Butterfly Tattoo.

Hector is fast asleep.

Time to make a move...

**************************************

The above is an extract from my book Love & Coffee (available from all good Amazons).

It's about the lives and loves of the customers in a city centre coffee shop.

And it's about the woman who takes care of them.

You'll find Love & Coffee (along with all my other books, Ad Lib, Ad Hoc, Ad Infinitum, and Heaven Help Us) waiting for you to fall in love with, on Amazon. Any time of the day or night. Right here...

Love & Coffee: https://amzn.to/28IWaHq

Ad Interruptus (NEW): https://amzn.to/3AmkfjQ

Ad Lib: https://amzn.to/2kd4LKf .

Ad Hoc: https://amzn.to/2Nx8GL8

Ad Infinitum: https://amzn.to/3pof7Uq

Heaven Help Us: https://amzn.to/2nkQ1Jk

Grab a coffee, grab a chair, and grab a sneaky peek.

Then grab a copy...

OH....AND DON'T FORGET...

you can find all my books on my NEWLY LAUNCHED WEBSITE at brycemain.co.uk

It's known casually as The Various Bleedings of Bryce Main.

Some folk think it's the dog's bollocks.

Who am I to disagree...