The Coffee Shop

When she'd left home in Maryland, she was nearly as curious about this coffee shop as she was about Nate. As inhospitable as he was being now he was a moderately capable writer, and he did so much of his writing at this coffee shop that by now, she imagined this magical place, crowded with unseen muses, waiting to bestow nuggets of ideas on anyone who they deemed worthy of their inspiration.

The bright yellow of the window frames and the purple awning helped the place stand out from the other interconnected brick buildings on the street. The three small table and chair sets out front, on the cobblestone sidewalk gave the place the feel of a Parisian cafe even before they walked inside. When she stepped inside, ahead of him, she was seized with atmosphere and immediately, she understood why he came here to write. She thought that if she could come here to write every day, she might not have given up on her efforts so easily. The aroma of coffee was strong and wonderful. Surely it was no accident that the pastry case was the first thing that one saw when coming in and she was so fixated on it's contents, that she did not notice that all eyes were on her, well on them. They didn't match, young and beautiful, old and not so much.

“Hi Nate,” came a greeting from the mousy sounding young barrista who was serving coffee while working on a graduate degree, “how are you today?”

“I'm good Jess,” he said as he got his cup from the group of cups hanging from the pegboard on the wall.

The coffee shop, about twenty five feet wide and four times as deep, was broken into two main rooms with brick walls. The front room was a bit brighter because of the big windows on the building face. As you came in, the counter, probably once host to alcoholic trade, was set up parallel to the right wall. The pastry case was set up in line with the bar and was filled with all manner of cupcakes, muffins, cookies and the like. About half of the six tables in the front room were occupied by eccentric, artsy looking people who were used to seeing Nate, but not his companion. They were curious, to say the least. Jess offered friendly banter as the unfamiliar woman looked at the pastry case and Nate stood at the condiment station in the back, left corner of the room, tearing open packets of Equal and dumping them into his yet to be filled cup.

“Doesn't it all look so yummy?”

“It does. It almost makes me dizzy trying to pick something out.”

“Oh I know. I can never make up my mind when I get hungry and decide to pick something out of there.”

“Well I know what I want,” Nate said, now up at the counter, “a cup of City Roast.”

“Sure Nate,” Jess said in almost nauseatingly cheerful fashion.

She took his cup, filled it and brought it back to the counter.

“Anything else?”

“Yeah,” he said, nodding his head to his right, “whatever she's getting.”

She picked up something in his tone and was a little perplexed. Despite his introverted nature, he was normally one of her cheeriest customers.

“What's a matter? Don't feel so good today?”

“Meh, you know how us fussy old men can be.”

“Don't listen to him,” she said to the woman, still browsing at the pastries, “he's a sweet old man. Have you made up your mind yet?”

“Not quite. I'm down to two choices. It's either a Smores Cupcake or a Boston Cream cupcake.”

“Oh you can't go wrong either way. How about to drink? Do you know what you're gonna have to drink?”

“Oh yeah, that I know. I would like a Grande Mocha Latte.”

“Okay, I'll make that while you agonize some more.”

She chuckled at Jess and went back to staring at pastries for a bit. Nate left his coffeehouse gift card on the counter and picked up his cup.

“I'll be in my spot when she makes up her mind. Take it all out of my card and have her bring it back with her when she makes up her mind.”

Jess noticed that, rudely, he didn't seem to be addressing the lady he'd come in with. When he was out of ear shot, Jess leaned closer to her and spoke in a low voice.

“I don't know what's wrong with him, he's usually really nice.”

“Oh I think he'll get over it. He probably just woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Oh and I think I'll have a Smores cupcake.”

The back room was a different world from the front. Despite a wide entryway , the music from the front was barely audible back there. The room was darker than the front as the only natural light came from a smallish skylight in the center of the ceiling. The back, right corner had a square coffee table, surrounded by a big, soft looking sofa and three easy chairs. There were a total of five wrought iron tables, three on the right and two on the left, with round, glass tops of about three feet in diameter. In the two near corners, there were matching, highly varnished wooden tables about four feet by four feet square. Each had four chairs. Nate sat at the wooden table to her right. He had his laptop set up and appeared to be working, he didn't look up when she sat across from him with her coffee and cupcake and tossed his card on the table next to his computer.

“Nice office you have here.”

“I like it,” he said, still not looking up, “it's quiet and nobody bothers me … usually.”

She ignored the little jab, just took a sip of her coffee. Her head tilted back a bit and she closed her eyes.

“Oh God that's good,” she sighed.

Then came the silence, a bit uncomfortable for her at first, but after a few minutes she got annoyed with his silence, took it as a challenge and she dug in. She went up to the counter to get a fork and Jess leaned in for more surreptitious talk.

“Just so you know, it's not just you, he was pretty gruff with everybody when he first started coming in here. He got over it.

“Oh I know. He'll take a while to get over himself, but that's okay, I have time.”

“Where do you know him from?”

“We've been trading messages on Facebook for years. I was passing close to here on the way to see a friend, so I thought I'd stop to say hello. I guess I just caught him on a crabby day.”

“Hey, you know what might perk him up.”

“A blueberry muffin?”

Jess smiled, “You do know him well.”

She put the biggest muffin on a plate with two forks and rang up the order, two dollars and sixteen cents, which was paid with three dollars. The change and another dollar went into the big, coffee cup shaped tip jar. She returned to the table, put her fork on the plate with her cupcake on it and wordlessly sat the plate with the muffin down by Nate.

“I can't eat this. I already had one at home. This would be way too many calories.”

She smiled. The battle of the silence was won.

"So we'll walk. You need to show me your town anyway."

Reviews

[Riding the Rainbow]

Ok..they talked through FB..
I really like the whole scene with the barrista and how he behaved without aknowledging his unwanted guest..