Love and Coffee

Chapter 3 The build-up

It was a Saturday today and Rohan had been a regular for most of the week. Sometimes with Guddi, sometimes without. He even went to the play area and Mocha took a liking to him; probably because of his well-kept beard. CeCe told me he usually ordered an americano, but on Thursday, he tried something different: an iced vanilla latte. I had not been to the café since Monday, I had my driver take the cats to the café for the week. I was interested to know what Rohan thought of the iced coffee. I probably would bump into him today if he came, and would ask him his thoughts on the iced coffee variety. I was trying to get Amin, my 5-star pastry chef friend, to have that brainstorming meeting with me, but he only got Sundays off and what kind of a friend would I be if I met him in a ruse to make him do more work? A bad one. I had asked him if he could swing by the café after his shift, for we stayed open till 9pm, but it was Saturday today and I heard no word from him yet. It was not like I was making him work to the bone, he would get some snacks and a coffee on the house. But still, I get it, I could only imagine how much harder Amin's job could be. CeCe told me she was thankful that there were far and few customers throughout the day because standing on her feet all day and making blends of coffee and heating food and taking the orders, billing them and serving them, was quite exhausting. I desperately needed wait staff to share the work load.

Apart from hounding my friend to help me, I was busy meeting with our food suppliers and coffee importers to renew stock for the café. Rohan was right, having someone fill the seats everyday did bring in more foot traffic; and with him sitting all week, the sales were doing slightly better. I had a strict no kid under 10 policy in the play area, but the children were allowed to watch the grown-ups play with my cats. Those were my babies and I didn't want children manhandling them and then the cats rebuking and our cat café getting a reputation of spicy cats like the only other cat café in the area. To be fair, those were stray cats adopted from the streets, so they were sheepish and/or violent with humans. The only reason that cat café still stood was because their food and coffee were cheap and delicious. Ours was one of those things. Not cheap but still decently delicious? Auuuuugh! I had to meet with Amin asap.

Rohan and I never discussed the specific time or day for our brainstorming "date" for he assumed I would be at the café every day and I assumed he would be there when I would show up. Classic miscommunication. Today when I was there, he wasn't. We never got to the point of exchanging numbers or socials so I was playing the waiting game. I wasn't waiting on him because of the date! I desperately needed new coffee ideas to reel in recurring customers. Just him being around all day was not enough. I didn't go to renew stock for the café just because he was a regular and attracted like 3 more customers per day than usual, it was because it was the end of the month. And that also meant I needed to fix my balance sheets and find an accountant first. But the only way this could all happen was if I had new coffee ideas. And it was not like I didn't search on the internet to get inspired, but I needed our own signature coffee that defined our café. Cats, yes, defined our café, but to have paying recurring customers, I needed a signature coffee.

I took up on Rohan's idea and decided to work in the café area instead of my tiny claustrophobic with no windows for ventilation back office, and just when I had opened my laptop and was on Pinterest, the door chimed and a new customer walked in. CeCe was already making my large americano, and I was just getting in the groove. It was late afternoon, 4:30pm, perhaps a large americano would not be ideal. Too late.

"Hello there, fellow customer" I heard the voice from behind me. I turned around to look and it was Rohan, in his smart white ribbed chiffon summer shirt with khaki pants and cream loafers. He had not come to work by the looks of it. I on the other hand, was in a cutesy blue and white floral summer dress with tan flats. Wasn't dressed for work either, more like the beach which was bang opposite my cat café.

"Hello to you too fellow customer" I replied back in a sweet sing-song voice. I was happy to see him, I didn't understand why. He looked good, sure, and his aftershave of old spice spread in my direction which made him look even more delicious and masculine. I hadn't noticed his large shoulders before or his big biceps, maybe I was too busy paying attention to his beautiful voice and the conversation we were having. He was also not dressed as nice on the first meet.

"Mind if I join in?" he asked with raised eyebrows and a smile spreading across his face.

I couldn't help but blush back and gestured him to sit opposite me "please, go ahead" I said. I didn't know what it was about him that always made my mood better. And made my cheeks red too. It had to be the classic old spice aftershave. But I didn't remember him wearing it that day. No, it was the "vibes" as CeCe would put it.

"Would you like to place an order?" CeCe asked from over the counter.

"Yes, the iced vanilla latte, please. Regular. Thanks, CeCe."

"No problem, coming right up!" she wrote his name and went on to make the coffee.

"I was meaning to ask you; did you like the iced coffees? Have you tried the classic iced coffee yet?" I asked him, dying to know his thoughts.

"Well, this is my second order for the iced vanilla latte, so yeah, I love it. It not too milky or watery, has a kick of coffee and the vanilla is well flavoured in every sip" he said.

"Wow, thanks for the feedback! I was starting to get worried that it didn't have enough kick of coffee in it" I replied, frowning my forehead in tension.

"Don't worry, I think you're a worrier. Your coffees are good! The ones I've had, have not disappointed me and I do come here every day. Today I came not to work but to hope to see you. You see, my first draft finished really fast because I didn't a beautiful lady sitting opposite me distracting me all day" he said with a smile and a twinkle in his eyes. If I were a popsicle, I would've melted in the seat from the heat of his words. He was gorgeous and was a class A flirt. Wow.

"I don't know what to say. Thank you for the compliment..." I was dumbfounded.

He reached his hand towards my direction and I could see his biceps were popping up due to the shirt being rolled up to his elbow. Damn. His veins were pumped up and his fingers were sturdy and firm as he gently laid them on my bony arm and said: "Really, stop worrying so much. I am here now and so are you and we can discuss your coffee ideas while we sip on the classics."

"The classics. Didn't think of them like that" I said, trying not to feel distracted by his still present touch on my arm.

"Yeah, you may not have a signature coffee yet, or the more artisan types, but you got some good classics and today I have not eaten lunch, so I will try one of your sandwiches too" he said rubbing his fingers on my arm reassuringly one last time before releasing his grip from me.

"Thanks for all the help, Rohan. It really means a lot to me. I don't want to shut this café and I am trying my hardest to keep it afloat." I tried saying without breaking my voice. I was exhausted. And I felt safe with him.

"No problem! Hey, no time to whine. Let's get to it!" he said.

"Let's get to what?" I heard another male voice from behind me. I turned around and it was Amin. I forgot he got half days on Saturday and he would be here today. He did say he would try for the weekend but I assumed it would be a Sunday. I wanted to brainstorm ideas with both Amin and Rohan, but not together! Oh God! This could either be a disaster, or could work efficiently in my way. Either way, the food and drinks for both were on the house. So, it better be.

"Amin! So glad you could make it!" I said enthusiastically. I was happy to see him. He came in for a hug and made his way towards our 6-person table, taking a seat next to me.

"Amin, this is Rohan, Rohan, Amin" I did the quick introductions and got it out of the way.

"Nice to meet you" Rohan said plainly.

"Pleasure meeting you too" Amin said matching his tone. Well, this was going to get awkward.

"So, Rohan and I were going to brainstorm some coffee ideas" I said in a cheerful tone, trying to uplift the "vibes" of the place.

"Let's get to it" Amin said staring at Rohan square in his face.

"Let's" Rohan replied matching his gaze to Amin's.

This was going to be quite a disaster, I thought to myself.