The Coffee Shop

It had been almost eight years since I started coming to this shop. Eight long years, every morning and approximately four years ago I had been blessed with seeing this beauty standing behind the counter.

Four years.

The lady that stood there was no taller than five foot seven inches and owned what looked to be the softest looking honey skin.

Her eyes were a mixture of light brown and held flecks of green in them. The pair were matched with dark brown hair that was straight for the most part and curled at the end.

She was impeccable.

There was something different about her that made me so attracted to her. She was just out of the ordinary.

Maybe it was the way she looked uncommon from the several other girls I had seen before. She wasn’t shaped like a stick, nor was she curvaceous, she was a slight mixture of the two. Not to say that there was anything wrong with any of the two types mentioned before but she was just new to what I was used to.

Well maybe that wasn’t what made her so different, maybe it was how she served all her customers. Every morning from Monday to Friday almost every week for the past four years she served every customer, I had seen, with a big, beautiful smile on her face.

That was until today.

It was so shocking, seeing her cry for the very first time. Tears were streaming down her face, a little sniffle emitting from her nostrils.

Her hands covered her flushed face as she hunched over and released more horrid sobs.

I hated seeing her like this.

Which was why I decided to talk with her. I wouldn’t ask her about what was wrong or anything of the sort. I would just talk to her about random things and hope that it would cheer her up just enough to stop her crying for now.

“Hey,” I said while sitting down beside her. She was in one of the booths, that was in the corner, inside the coffee shop and of course, she didn’t respond to my greeting. That, however, didn’t deter me from my resolve.

“So I’ve been coming to this shop since I was sixteen and I can’t seem to figure out how they make their coffees before I’d only drink lattes but now I can’t help drinking all the different kinds of coffees; galão, lungo, café au lait, cortado, doppio, the works,” I was being serious about everything I said. These people knew their shit about coffee.

All the lady did was just sniffle in response. It was strange that even after four years I had no idea what her name was.

She was just the lady to me.

“So what’s your name?” I asked, not really expecting an answer. “Mine’s Eliza”

“Quinn,” was the soft sniffle I heard in reply.

To say I was shocked would be an underestimation. I didn’t expect her to respond but the melodious and sweet voice was always welcomed by me.

“Well it’s nice to meet you, Quinn,” I replied smiling at her. She obviously didn’t return the smile but she did try to and that made it worthwhile.

The smile wasn’t the best one I had seen but it was one that reached deep in my soul. It was broken, yes, but the raw emotion was there. It was almost as if she was telling me everything that she was feeling.

“Quinn, Quinn, Quinn; not to sound cliché or cheesy but your name sounds like a great name and I like it,” after saying that I felt so embarrassed. I can’t believe I just said something so crappy.

She began wiping the tears from her eyes, even though more still poured out.

“I really would want to stay here and talk but I have to go to work but you’re obviously not doing so well so might I suggest that you take the day off and if you don’t think you can talk to your boss about it I’d be more than happy to speak to Spencer for you,” I informed Quinn while removing myself from the booth. “Also here’s my number you can call me anytime at all and not just today, anytime, I promise I’ll be there”

I wrote my number on one of the napkins and handed it to her, giving her one last smile, before leaving.

For the rest of the day, I just knew that it would be an excellent one. Of course, I was saddened that she was crying but on the bright side I got to speak to her more than just ordering what kind of coffee I wanted.

Then there was the hope that she would call me, or even text, now that she has my number but I couldn’t help the anxious feeling that came along with it because there was also the possibility that she would just dispose of it.

Maybe I had proved to be a nuisance to her instead of a small diversion to the situation that had been troubling her.

With all these thoughts it was only a wonder how my mood didn’t move from a cheerful and joyful one to a more distressed and perturbed feeling.

I was fifteen minutes late for work and luckily enough for me, my boss wasn’t a little bitch and didn’t complain about it. The only time he found problems with tardiness was if it became a habit and it was obvious that the person wasn’t making any progress to becoming better.

My current job was as the accounting manager at Innovative Technicians. It was a worldwide known company that developed technology, came up with better security systems and invented futuristic things.

I wasn’t full-on tech savvy but I knew quite a bit about technology. Plus the company was just a simple idea between a group of friends that eventually came into being.

All the managers of the different departments plus the boss were all the founders. The idea, however, came from Nasa Kouki, our boss.

We were all a family but every rule and guideline that was set in place we had to follow. There were no exceptions.

Which was one of the many reasons I loved working here.

“Good morning Eliza, I’ve been trying to get through to you for quite a while, Maya just handed in her resignation letter and so we need to start the process for hiring a new person, her role was quite integral to the accounting department since she was the head of the budgeting team. I created an ad hoc committee to start the designing of the advertisement but we need to meet with them and discuss it more,” Abrán, the manager for the Human Resource department said.

“Okay, I’ll be free at exactly one in the afternoon, right after the lunch break, if everyone is free at that time we can meet,” I informed him. We agreed on it and he went to finalize the proceedings.

As soon as I got comfortable in my office I reached for my phone, checking to see if any messages came in.

Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be the last time I’d stop to check my phone for the rest of the day.