Once upon a Café

I was wiping down the floor-to-ceiling windows of the café when he walked in. He was a young man in his twenties. He wore a white t-shirt tucked into distressed black jeans and a yellow unzipped hoodie over it. In the dull rainy day where it looked like the world had a grey filter over it, he stood as a contrast.

The hoodie boy went over to the cash counter and ordered an iced coffee. He handed over the money. After one minute's worth of sounds of ice cubes clanking within a tumbler, he walked over with his coffee to the table next to the window. He was gazing out at the rain, and so I looked at the trees too. As I wiped down the glass idly, I saw the water droplets springing off dark green leaves and disappearing into the crowd of more raindrops.

Soon a girl who was around the age of eighteen entered our shop. The hoodie boy waved her down. She smiled brightly, her bob-cut hair bouncing and her skirt swishing around her thighs as she walked over to him. I had moved on to wiping down the main bar by now. The main bar held a variety of cakes covered with glass domes. Today baked strawberry shortcake, éclair, banana and walnut cake, and plum cake lay on it.

The hoodie boy smiled at her, his fair skin showing dimples. He was happily slurping through the straw when she sat down and grabbed his drink, drinking some of it. His cheeks tinted pink as she winked at him while handing his tumbler back. Both of them took out books from their bags and started studying. I noticed that when she was writing down in her notebook, the boy was looking at her lips. She seemed to have a strawberry-coloured lip tint on. He extended his hand and held hers which was lying on top of an open textbook. She looked at their intertwined hands and back into his eyes.

When I went on to spray some more soap water on the glass, I noticed a girl who looked to be around twenty-two years old who was standing across the street. She seemed to be staring at the couple. Through the window, I saw her fists had balled up, and her long black hair flew around her as she speedily walked across the street and into the café. She had a furious expression on her face, her brows knitted together as she stormed towards the couple. She went up to them and made angry gestures at the boy with her hands. His eyes enlarged in something that looked like fear. The younger girl looked at the boy in disappointment while packing up her books. I walked up to the long-haired lady and placed a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to pacify her, but it was too late. She shook my hand off, grabbed the iced coffee off the table, turning it upside down over the boy’s head. The ice coffee sloshed down over the boy’s hair, dripping onto the table and the floor below. The long-haired lady stormed off and out of the café, followed by the younger girl. The boy looked blankly at his coffee-stained notes, grabbed them in one hand, and left, leaving a trail of coffee raindrops over the marble flooring.

I frowned at the mess and started cleaning up the table and floor.

The sky was dark now, and the stars had appeared too. When I was cleaning up a vacated table, the long-haired lady came into the café. She sat on the chair beside the table that I was cleaning. She smiled apologetically at me, and I returned a reassuring smile. She was wearing a white lace dress now with her hair in a high ponytail, it showed off her face. Her tan skin gleamed under the track lights. She placed her jean bag on the table and walked over to the main counter. She came back to the table soon with a long black and strawberry shortcake.

The café started to empty, but the long-haired lady kept sipping her drink slowly. She had finished eating the strawberry shortcake by now. It was when I turned around after stacking the washed cups on the shelves that I saw the long-haired lady dabbing at her eyes. She seemed to be crying. I turned around again, giving her privacy. I went over to the cakes, cut a generous serving of the plum cake, and placed it on a plate along with an éclair. I paid for the sweets and brought them over to the lady. She looked at me with her swollen and now embarrassed eyes, but I pushed the plate to her with a smile. That night I stayed in the shop until she left. I had noticed how she cleaned up the few teardrops that had not been absorbed by her skin but had fallen onto the table before she went off.

The next day when I was cleaning up the wall clock of the café, it was noon as indicated by the clock. At that time the hoodie boy came in, but this time he was not wearing a hoodie. Today he was wearing a black biker jacket over a white t-shirt. He came along with a girl. She was neither the girl with a bob cut nor the long-haired girl from yesterday. She was a girl with brown highlights in her hair. She too looked to be eighteen years old. They were holding hands as they came in. Today the boy ordered an expresso and the girl a cappuccino. They sat down on the same table the boy had sat yesterday. They were slowly sipping their drinks when the boy reached over and tucked a stray strand of hair for the girl. Her cheeks tinged red as his fingers grazed her skin in the process of setting her hair. He smiled at her, and she shyly smiled back while picking at the non-existent lint on her skirt. The girl gasped and reached into her handbag, drawing out a comic. Both of them scooted towards each other so that they were seated side by side to read. It was like déjà vu when he reached over to hold her hand that was resting on the table. I felt a worried expression taking over my face because the boy must have not noticed the long-haired girl sitting on the other side of the café. I looked at her, and she looked back at me. She slowly strode to me, the click-clack of her heels audible. She was wearing a teal blue rib cami dress today. As if alerted by the sound of her heels the boy looked up and at the long-haired girl when she came over to me. She made direct eye contact with him when she grabbed me by my neck and pulled me into a kiss. Surprise took over my face, but soon I closed my eyes. As soon as we broke the kiss, the long-haired girl smirked at the couple and strutted out of the café. The hoodie boy’s eyes were wide, unlike yesterday and I was left touching my lips with my fingers.