The Favor Chpt. 9

The city streets were emptier than they had been when he had come from the library yesterday afternoon. People who were out on the street were dressed as if to go to work, hauling along briefcases and oversized purses as they walked the lightly populated sidewalk.
When he thought about it, Miles remembered seeing multiple attorneys go in and out of Joe's Joe. The coffee shop was mere blocks away from the law office, making it easy to pick the regulars out of his coworkers. And weirdly enough, Detective Gumshoe was a frequenter. But then again, Joe's Joe was a place where the detective would fit in. It was surprising that he could afford coffee every morning with such a low salary. Miles would know. He had cut his pay more than twice. But every morning without fail, there was Dick Gumshoe, stepping into the coffee shop.
Miles smoothed out the left sleeve of the white shirt, adjusting his cravat. His vest was smoothly ironed, flat against his chest. In the passenger seats, his cranberry suit was gently folded into a perfect square. He sighed, adjusting his cravat again. Letting himself watch the people outside, he tried to imagine just what Phoenix would be telling him. Phoenix had already told him that he'd be showing him his house, something that Miles would rather not care to see. He would rather not have to go there, ever, but it was better than having a labrador retriever, probably untrained, running rampant around his own house. Just thinking about the dog with his long, rudder-like tail made him shudder. Better Phoenix then him.
He hadn't noticed how far he'd driven when he saw the Joe's Joe sign blinking against the bright morning light. How long had he been thinking about Phoenix and his stupid dog?
Miles sourly scanned the lines of parked cars until he found one, a little ways off, from the unsophisticated coffee joint. Sighing, he gently grabbed his coat from the seat and stepped out of the car, careful to lock the door. He shook his coat out of it's folded shape and carried it along with him, finding it too hot to wear on the street.
White, puffy clouds cast a few light shadows across the sides of a few buildings and the street. Miles watched a cloud move across the sky for a while, thinking over the whole dog sitting thing. Shaking his head, he stepped out from between the cars and onto the sidewalk, steering clear of the obvious tourists and early window shoppers. He watched for someone he may know as he neared the coffee shop.
"Dear God." Miles blinked, standing outside the right window, which was technically the outer wall, of the coffee shop. "It's actually worse when you look at it under a microscope."
Instead of the much quainter, circular dark wood tables that you would find in a more polished cafe, there were stainless steel table and chairs, bright and shiny against the late morning glare. As another cloud passed overhead, shadowing the window tables, Miles could see the scuffs and scrapes of past customers at the empty tables. He couldn't shake the idea that the tables looked like the type they used for autopsies, except round. Behind the tables, there was a counter where two people were ordering coffee. This too was stainless steel. There was a small disc-shaped add on that stuck out from the left corner of the long. A lone person was taking a disposable cup of coffee off of it. He found that the closer he looked at the bottom of the counter, he could just pick out the dark red seat cushions that sat upon thin stainless steel posts.
"Much worse under a microscope." He sighed, shaking his head sadly.
Miles looked up, hesitantly searching for Phoenix among the people seated at the ugly tables with their ugly stools. He didn't like the feeling of dread that made his stomach twist when he saw him, sipping coffee out of a plain white cup, a piece of paper on the table.