Friday Morning, and Jack’s on the Front Cover of the Stonewall Grey

Breakfast is a quiet affair until Jack stomps by, slamming the cover page of the Stonewall Grey down on your table.

“Would you take a look at this,” he crows.

You, in the middle of biting down on a piece of toast, chew for a couple of seconds, put the toast back down on your plate, take a drink of water, check your phone, and then you take a look at whatever it is that Jack decided was so important for you to see.

Jack King: part model, part start-up King reads the headline on the front page, next to a flattering photo of Jack as an underwear model. Then, you read the byline, Jeanne Myers, and it starts to make sense.

“Nice going,” you shrug, glancing up at him. “You want a cookie? I think they put some out during breakfast.”

“I’ve been getting looks from girls all morning,” he grins, unfazed. “Just take a gander around. Almost everyone’s staring at us.”

“Uh… yeah, that’s because you’re blocking the way for people to get through,” you say, pointing to the line of people waiting behind Jack to get to the rest of the tables.

The prick at least has the sense to pull up a chair and plop down next to you, sipping from his mug of coffee, though why he chooses to continue to antagonise you is beyond you.

“His stunning physique first caught the attention of Hamilton and Hare when he was sixteen, only a month after he founded his company,” Jack says, reading aloud from the article.

“Don’t you have a business to run?” you ask, continuing to work through your breakfast. “Some fancy start-up or something?”

“Everybody’s got to practice a bit of self-care every once in a while,” Jack smiles. “Kicking back and reading this article is my way of doing that.”

“Well, I’ve got a quiz in my calculus class coming up, so don’t mind me,” you say, as you pull out your notes from the class.

“One wonders, with all that he’s accomplished already, what he might do now that he’s here at Stonewall,” Jack continues reading.

You ignore him, reviewing your notes further.

Jack finally seems to take the hint as he smacks his lips after finishing off his coffee.

“It was nice talking, Knight,” he laughs as he gets up from the table.

You notice that he leaves the newspaper behind. You leave the table a couple minutes later, having finished breakfast, and toss the paper in the trash.