Guarded Hearts and Broken Wings || S.R.

24 - Poe's Cafe

That afternoon, Amelia's eyes absently drifted in front of her as she paced down the sidewalk on her return to her apartment. She was in deep thought, rummaging over memories and the most recent session with Jules. Ever since Spencer had left and not returned, there had been a horrible weight of responsibility sitting on her chest. She had to reach out soon. She had to reconnect. While she and Jules had labored over every detail of the argument and what had caused her panic, she recognized her errors. She had assumed too much. She knew that much. She knew that when you messed up, you apologized. That was right. That was just. But something about Jule's permission to release that obligation had struck something buried deep in her. The tight squeeze around her to act in the way everyone expected her to act was loosening. She could let it all go if she wanted. She was certain doing so would loosen this hold around her even more.

A fading summer breeze blasted through the streets and made her hair and the leaves forget about gravity for a moment. She reached up to push the strands out of her face and was still as surprised as she had been for weeks to find that so much of her hair was gone. In an impulsive act to make herself feel new, she had rid her head of its long, thick black curls. For a time, her new shaggy bob with bangs to cover new acne breakouts had done the trick. Whatever effects the cut had were fading. It had still been a practical decision though. It was much easier to detangle and made showers a simpler chore. Another blast swirled through the streets and pushed everything up her nose - exhaust fumes, the smell of hot asphalt, burning rubber, perfume of a passing woman, and a blast of brewing coffee.

That sudden rich and overpowering smell stopped her in her tracks. She turned and to her left was a small neutral door tucked between two large boutiques. Has that always been there? An 'Open' sign hung crooked in its glass and was suddenly sent flying about as a man hurried out of the door. The door creaked from old age and allowed a glimpse of a cozy interior far back into the building through a narrow hallway. The open door threw a strong wind of coffee out onto the street.

The door was not closing as it should, and when she escaped the enchantment of the beckoning cafe's interior, she realized that the man who had burst out of the building was still there. He was balanced on one foot as if the wind would blow him away. With the tips of his fingers, he was barely holding the door open and swaying like he would fall if he did not let go soon. It occurred to her that he thought she was planning on entering this establishment. A fair assumption considering she was standing on the street staring wistfully at the door.

"Oh!" She gasped. "Yes, sorry, thank you!" She gave the man a brisk nod and hurried into the door. Walking away after he had fought an unseen storm to hold the door for her would take more energy than she had at the moment.

"Oh yeah, of course," he grinned with an unplaceable midwestern accent. Then his fingers slipped, the wind caught him up and he was out of sight.

She considered waiting a moment until he was long gone and then walking right back out of the door, but then a pleasant voice from further in the store called "Welcome to Poe's Cafe!" She turned and moved down the hallway and gasped in sheer delight at the sight.

Though the room was small, spiral staircases lead up to two other floors that were filled with bookshelves. On the ground level where she was, a logo of an intricate raven holding a mug and a book in either claw hung on the wall with the name 'Poe's Cafe' bent around it. Underneath it was a small barista station and a dark-haired, blue-eyed man smiling at her from behind the counter.

"First time?" He chuckled.

"Yeah um, wow, I don't know how I didn't know about this place. I walk past it all the time."

"That's what everybody always says. I think these big boutiques on either side of us and not having storefront windows really makes peoples' eyes pass right over it. Suppose they should have named it The Leaky Cauldron."