Her Dark Side

Epilogue

About five years later...

I don't think I will ever get sick of that certain smell that's always here. The strong scent of hot coffee and sweet spices somehow gives my work that little edge and it's the small perks like that, that help the day go by a little faster. All I'm really thinking about is I need to get home to my sweet daughter who will instantly brighten the rest of the day.

A customer steps up to the front of the very busy line that's forming in the shop. It's only nine thirty in the morning but here all the adults are, desperately craving their morning caffeine so that their day can really begin. I understand on a whole other level the struggle but the strong coffee I had an hour ago has already kicked in so now I feel like I could rule the world.

"Hello and welcome to sweet & savoury tea room. What can I get you?" I say with a beaming smile, possibly too bright and blinding for a run down business woman just looking for a caffeine kick. It's a sentence that has long been imprinted in my mind from when I first began working here. The smile comes easy and as blinding as it is, it also comes naturally as I have learnt to love the little things.

Like the two brief beeps that the coffee machine makes when a cup has finished filling or the ecstatic face of the customer when they get that steaming cup of coffee they have been so anxiously waiting for.

"A skinny latte with almond syrup." The brunette lady in front of me replies, her voice a little raspy and tired. I pick up a small cup and write her order on to it.

"Name?" I ask as I write. 

"Amy." She answers, looking up from her phone for just a few seconds. I quickly jot that down too before passing the cup onto my colleague David, an elderly man who usually makes the drinks.

I get the payment for the drink and the lady named Amy moves on.

Right, next person.

Normally I take a brief note of the person I serve, possibly a trait from my previous occupation as an agent but now I do it just to make the day go a little faster. Seeing so much variety in the way a life is lived can be fascinating when you focus on the most little of details.

For this customer I don't look up and greet them eye to eye like I usually do because the till has frozen up slightly and so while I chime the words, "Hello, welcome to sweet & savoury tea room. What can I get you?" I'm also jabbing at a few of the buttons that reset it and it suddenly whirrs back into action, making a noise over his order. I ask him to repeat it, while pressing the last few buttons needed for it to function again.

"A very large, very strong black coffee, please. I really need it." A man's deep voice repeats and I memorise the order, grabbing one of the cups to make a note of it. His voice gives me a strange feeling I can't put my finger on but I chose to ignore it as I hurriedly search for my pen that's decided to hide.

"Name?" I ask routinely just trying to fill the silence of me faffing up as the pen comes into view and I breathe a sigh of relief. I take notice in the corner of my eye that just a moment ago he had leaned closer to me to check my name tag but I also chose to ignore that too. As he leaned back, his expression softened.

The man laughs and then hesitates before saying, "You don't remember?"

I look closely at the customer. "I serve a lot of people sir." I curtly reply. He does look familiar now that he mentions it but the dark hair that's sweeping across his forehead is distracting me from the rest of is face.

"Oh." He says, looking disappointed all of a sudden. "Well after such a long time this is too be expected, I suppose."

A customer behind him then clears their throat loudly in an annoyed manner. He shoots an apologetic look to the lady before looking back to me and I notice she now trying not to swoon. Now that I think about it, he is rather handsome.