The café was three minutes from the site and had no juice. I stood at the counter and looked at the menu board and confirmed this twice, then ordered two coffees and stood with my face turned slightly away from the machine while it ran.
Outside, the cold helped.
I carried them back in a paper carrier, one in each hand, held out from my body at a careful angle the way you carry something you don't want to spill on yourself. Lucas had said coffee. Alexander had said coffee. Nobody had said how they wanted them, and I had made a decision about Lucas's because I knew, and about Alexander's, I had made no decision at all except to hand it over and let him deal with it.
They were still standing at the bonnet of the car when I got back, the contractors gone now, the afternoon light doing that
