Coffee Buds

12. Iced Coffee

☕☕☕

Clark packed the last of his stuff in the track, pulled down the lever and turned to look at the building. This place had been his home for the past two years. Leaving Brooklyn was had enough for him, but he made due when he found this place and fell in love with it.

Clark had a pendant for falling in love with odd things. Things that seemed misplaced and out of the ordinary, that always had his heart racing and holding on even though it seemed impossible that he would keep it.

This building, like Amanda, had taken a piece of his heart. He knew that he wasn’t ever going to get that back. They both will disappear and never be seen again.

He should have known better than to dream for much more than he could handle, now he could see that dream crumbling, like his coffee shop, like his heart when he saw her face.

He was her father.

He wondered if she already knew what would become of his beloved Coffee Shop when she walked in that day. He could still remember the tight jeans, blue sweater, those damn looking Dr Martens, and her braids falling down her back. He could still see her wide eyes as she looked around the shop, which back then he thought she was admiring, maybe she was just sizing up the property they were about to destroy.

He shook his head, looked away from the shop, and walked to the driver side of the hired truck.

He could still remember her words the other day. She didn’t set out to destroy his coffee shop. She was trying to save it.

But then her father’s words slapped him in the face and he had no idea what to think.

Maybe it was a good thing this happened. He was getting way in over his head with Amanda and he needed the drench of cold water. He should have known a girl like that just wasn’t meant for him.

But that look she gave him though.

He shook his head again and got into the car. The farther he drove away, the more he won’t remember everything that happened in that coffee shop. It was for the best.

☕☕☕

Amanda felt useless laying in her bed. She needed to do something but there was nothing else that she could do. Her father refused to listen to her, and Clark wasn’t picking up any of her calls. How can a person lose so much in just one day?

She thought being called uptight by her ex was the worst, but now she was experiencing a true heartbreak. The coffee shop was probably just bricks now, on the side of the road. And soon every remnant of it would be erased from existence. And it was all her fault.

Clark had lost his dream because of her. A dream she has never had since childhood. Though she wanted to save that place for him, she should have known it would be impossible to talk her father out of demolishing.

“are you ever going to get out of bed?” Analisse asked, standing a few feet away from Amanda’s queen size. Amanda wrapped her sheets even closer around herself. She didn’t respond.

Analisse sighed and moved closer to her bed, then laid down to face her. They were silent as they looked at each other.

“He hates me,” Amanda hiccuped.

Analisse shook her head and rubbed Amanda’s arm. “No, he doesn’t. He is just processing things right now. When he gets his head right, he will be knocking on your door and begging you back.”

“He doesn’t know where I live,” Amanda murmured.

“He will find a way to find you, Amanda. That guy is crazy about you,” Analisse reassured.