The second meeting was at Starbucks a week later on a Saturday morning.

I was sitting at a corner table sipping my Skinny Latte with my open laptop.  I was supposed to be working on designs for some new building projects I had coming up.  Instead, I was playing games on Facebook.   It was a weekend.  The designs could wait.

I didn’t see him come in, but I did notice someone staring at me as I did a little happy dance in my seat after playing a word with a Q on a triple word space in Words with Friends.    I looked up when I felt someone stare at me.  It was him.  Howie D.  He looked away, quickly and I stopped my seat dance, my cheeks blushing red.

I had been a bitch the last time I saw him, I didn’t really want to make contact with him this time.  I’m sure he felt the same.

He was with his kid again.  James.  That’s what he’d called him that night.  James was in a stroller fast asleep.  At least he wasn’t crying this time.  He had a friend with him.   Tall and blonde with several tattoos. 

Other customers seemed to recognize him and his friend.  At least the female customers did.  But one glance at James sleeping in the stroller and the somewhat  haggard looks on both of the adult faces, kept people from approaching them.  The guys ordered drinks and sat down at another corner table on the other side of the room from where I was.

A couple of women sitting at table near me started a conversation about them.  Adult women who were fangirling on them.  It was embarrassing and I hopped the guys couldn’t hear them.

I tried to ignore, but they’re hushed tones weren’t hushed enough.

“Are you sure that’s them?”  The dark haired woman in a red shirt asked.

“It has to be,”  said the slightly lighter haired woman in a purple shirt.

“OMG!”  squealed the red shirt lady.  She pulled out her phone and pointed it at them.  Oh she didn’t just do what I thought she did…

“Let me see…”  the purple shirt lady said and grabbed the phone from her friend.  “James is so cute,” she sighed.  “It’s so sweet how Howie takes him everywhere with him, you know, after what happened.”

The two shared a look agreeing that this was indeed cute.

I was still stuck on the fact that they had just taken a picture of a child without the parent’s permission.   That was just rude and inconsiderate.

I raised my voice so they could hear me, “That’s really creepy you know.”

They turned to look at me.  “What?”   the red shirt lady asked.

“Taking a picture of that man’s child without his permission.”

“Do you know who he is?”  purple shirt lady asked.

“I know he’s a Backstreet Boy, but his son isn’t.  You shouldn’t be taking a picture of him.”

“Paparazzi do it all the time,” purple shirt lady said.

“Are you the Paparazzi?  Does that even make it okay?” I asked.

While the coffee shop hadn’t been all that noisy before, it was definitely quiet now.  People were staring at the three of us.  Including Howie and his friend.

“Why don’t you just go ask him if he wants you taking pictures of his kid.  He is right over there,”  I nodded in Howie’s direction.  His eyes went wide as he realized I was sending these two women to him.  He shook his head at me.

The women were also looking at Howie as he shook his head.  They assumed he was shaking their head at them.  And maybe he was.  Whatever it was, it got through to them and red shirt lady deleted the picture off of her phone.

“It’s gone,” she said and showed me as she clicked ‘yes’ when the phone asked her if she really wanted to delete the picture.  “Are you satisfied?”

I nodded.  “I’m not the one you need to apologize to.”

The two women looked at each other and walked over to Howie.  I watched as they stood there for a few minutes.  Howie was gesturing towards James and shaking his head no, as if he preferred that pictures not be taken of him, but then he gestured that it was okay to a picture of him and his friend.  They agreed to that. 

I rolled my eyes.  Why couldn’t they just leave them alone when it was obvious that they wanted to be left alone?

Well I had stopped one unauthorized picture of a child today, I wasn’t naïve enough to think that I had stopped them all.  That one picture probably wasn’t even the only picture from Starbucks that morning.

My relaxing morning wasn’t going as planned.  I packed up my laptop with the intention of getting my work done at home later.

I waited for the two women to leave as I didn’t want to run into them again.  Once they did, I took my gathered things and started for the door.

“Thank you,”  Howie said as I walked by him.  I stopped and looked at him.  He still had a nice smile that I remembered from the store.  I wasn’t entirely sure he recognized me though.

“You’re welcome,” I said and glanced at James.

“I’m sorry for the other night,” he said, surprising me.  He did remember me.  Probably because I was such a bitch that night.

His friend looked between us like he was trying to figure out what happened.

“Nothing to be sorry for,” I said.  “I was the bitch.  I should apologize to you.  I’m sorry for that night.    Anyway the kid’s asleep and I assume you have diapers now,” he nodded.  “Then everything turned out fine,”  I said and left.

So the second meeting went a little smoother.  I was still a bitch, just not to him.  And I saw a little bit about why he was called “Sweet D.”